ROUND PORCH SEARCH REPORT

There is a tv show titled Salvage Dawgs. They have a lead in that starts "Every day in America.... "  and that is what I think of when looking at beautiful homes that are to be torn down or left to fall down, or become rental property and not really cared for properly.

I had driven past this tiny house numerous times when tree was full of leaves.  It was difficult to tell if there were 2 doors and was the roof behind all the foliage was round as well. After leaves had all fallen, it is clear this house only one outside door and a full porch with 2 round corners.

Ah Ha! Same neighbor house! Reminds me of the Children's books I Spy.

I actually drove past once or twice before I realized what I was seeing.  Helps to have a "driver" when meandering and searching for porches.

I made sure I was looking at the same house. It was a nice surprise to find someone had cleaned up the yard  has been working on it.

The Moon, January 2018

I came across these pictures and cannot decide which to leave out.  I can remember so well, the cold night and worrying that the batteries in the camera would die because of the cold.

click on picture 
to see larger.

Cave Cricket

Nature never hurries. Atom by atom, little by little, she achieves her work. Ralph Waldo Emerso

I was on my knees trying to focus my iphone on the water meter numbers.

And Needless to say, when I flipped the cover these
legs appeared.  Oops?  What the heck?
So, one hand on the cover and the other with my
iphone managed a shot.
The long portion of leg was about 2 inches?

I then flipped the cover over and this huge insect crawled
out of the hole.
Another one handed shot (not easy) and managed to get
a pretty clear picture.

 The color is pretty much what I saw.  It didn't hop off, just
wandered off into the grass.
I went on line and described this critter and the best answer is a Cave Cricket.  It has several other names in other parts of the country.
As long as I have been gardening and working in the yard, I have never seen anything like this.
Much to my distress, these can become house pests???

Wild Onions

Weeds are flowers too, once you get to know them.A.A. Milne

This beautiful flower comes up in the Spring.  The little black buttons are seeds.

Every flower is a soul blossoming in nature.
Gerard De Nerval

These beauties come up in the oddest places.  This year it was on the side of the ditch in front of our house.

I almost didn't notice as there was already a wealth of weeds growing.

                                              Don't forget to click on picture for larger

No matter how chaotic it is, wildflowers will still spring up in the middle of nowhere.

Sheryl Crow

August moon 2019

"The moon is at her full, and riding high, 
Floods the calm fields with light. The airs that hover in the summer sky 
Are all asleep to-night."
-  William C. Bryant

I walked outside at dusk and saw this glorious moon.  It took my breath away.
Run to the house, grab the camera that was fortunately on a tripod.
Then try to capture the magic.
Oops!  Standing in a fire ant bed !!!  Not easy to get a good shot with little devils biting my ankles!!
Moved to the center of the street and managed to capture one more moon.

"Once upon a Lammas Night
When corn rigs are bonny,
Beneath the Moon's unclouded light, 
I held awhile to Annie...
The time went by with careless heed
Between the late and early,
With small persuasion she agreed
To see me through the barley...
Corn rigs and barley rigs,
Corn rigs are bonny!
I'll not forget that happy night
Among the rigs with Annie!"
-  Robert Burns 

Stressed Cardinal

There is nothing in which the birds differ more from man than the way in which they can build and yet leave a landscape as it was before.  ~Robert Lynd, The Blue Lion and Other Essays

I have been watching the female Cardinals change color.
Took these of several looking quite stressed.

We keep fresh water and the feeders filled as much as possible.  Some mornings I look out and the squirrels and doves have emptied them.

To me this bird looks so tired

 God gives every bird its food, but He does not throw it into its nest.  ~J.G. Holland

Don't forget to click on picture for larger view.

I have seen animals that hold their mouths open or tongue hanging out. Never thought birds did it as well.

An explanation for the ragged looking feathers.
Birds have to molt in order to survive, because feathers wear out from physical abrasion and bleaching from the sun. Once a year (in the late summer for temperate species) birds grow an entirely new set of feathers through a complete molt. As birds grow new flight feathers, they are particularly vulnerable.Jul 15, 2013

Butterflies in May

There were still some flowers blooming and the garden was a busy place with tiny butterflies I could not get a picture of.
These two were resting and let me take their picture.



If nothing ever changed, there'd be no butterflies. ~
Author unknown

Red Admiral

Butterflies are self propelled flowers. ~R.H. Heinlein

Hackberry Emperor

The caterpillar does all the work but the butterfly gets all the publicity. ~Attributed to George Carlin

Hackberry Emperor underside of wings

Spring roses

Sometimes Mother Nature has the answers when you do not even know the questions - Keith Wynn

How strange that Nature does not knock and yet does not intrude - Emily Dickinson

I Take issue with Emily; she did not live in Texas with the wild, wild rose vines that swallow up a wild grape grove in one year!!

Warm spring morning.

These wild rose blossoms are only about 2" in full bloom.
They are amazingly photogenic.

2018 August moon in Wyoming

“I never really thought about how when I look at the moon, it's the same moon as Shakespeare and Marie Antoinette and George Washington and Cleopatra looked at.” 
― Susan Beth Pfeffer, Life As We Knew It

late at night standing on the deck of my sister's house

The moon was not as close to the ground as my pictures of the moon in Texas.  

Butterfly rescue

Happiness is a butterfly, which when pursued, is always just beyond your grasp, but which, if you will sit down quietly, may alight upon you.

Painted Lady

Painted Lady Underside

One morning hubby and I were in the living room when I spotted a butterfly on the ceiling.
It was too high to rescue without hurting the wings.
So we waited and waited and got distracted by TV.
Needless to say, I looked up and the butterfly was gone.

The poor thing finally saw the sky (I think) and flew over to the window.  It managed to get under the venetian blind.
It walked up and down the window and finally rested.

It was on the inside of the window so could not take screen off and then raise the windows.  I thought it would beat itself silly if I did.

I grabbed a dish towel and carefully raised the blind and dropped towel over it and very lightly, so as to not damage the wings, and set it free in the back yard.

What a blessing to free this beautiful creature!

MURAL ALBUM

 watching  for murals has become a new past time.  It is easier when someone else is driving.

Wall of cafe in Cleburne, Tx

Remember to click photo to see larger

Child care center Burleson, Tx

Adjacent to parking lot of child care

Boxcar funky place near restaurants, Old Town Burleson, Tx

John Wayne across from Babe's, Old Town Burleson, Tx

Dentist offices on Renfro Street, Burleson Tx

On wall of old City Market, Burleson, Tx

Something I have noticed for years is that walls with murals are not (tagged) defaced with graffiti.

May moon

May 9, 2019 ... The sky is that beautiful old parchment in which the sun and the moon keep their diary. ~Alfred Kreymborg From out yon nimbus cloud, the 

You must not blame me if I do talk to the clouds. ~Henry David Thoreau

No tripod, only resting elbows on a tote; taking fast shots and laughing out loud at what the camera captured!

 How like a queen comes forth the lonely Moon
From the slow opening curtains of the clouds
Walking in beauty to her midnight throne!
~George Croly, Diana

The camera has never captured the blue morning sky before

I am mad with the sight of stars, and frenzied with the beauty of the silver, wanton moon. ~Muriel Strode (1875–1964), "Prayers of a Worldling: V," A Soul's Faring, 1921

Have  no idea what I had chosen on the camera, just enjoyed the outcome.  MAGIC

Under every full moon, there’s light that brings joy to us during night. ~@Lauren Shea, @LaurenSheaa

MAGIC -- THANK YOU GOD!

Cone flower seeds in winter

Who loves a garden still his Eden keeps;
Perennial pleasures plants, and wholesome harvest reaps.
~A. Bronson Alcott, "The Garden," Tablets, 1868

Even at the end of their days, the Cone flower is  photogenic

Before pulling out "finished" flowers, think of letting these seeds blowing around in the garden (if it is not a marshaled, neat, orderly one). The joy of watching  for the new seedlings can make a dreary late winter garden something to take pleasure in.