Continued… As I leaned forward, duct tape at the ready, her botoxed lips reverberated with every exhale, showering me with an extraordinary amount of saliva. She was still fast asleep, or so I thought, but I began to worry…would the adhesive work with such an abundance of moisture? I soldiered on, ever closer. It seemed the whole garden fell silent, it was if every creature in the ESP was completely stationary, waiting to see what would happen next…
The brown-nosers didn’t twitch a nasal hair, the carver bees put down their chisels in the fragrant mist flowers, burying their heads in the pollen filled flowers as if not daring to watch the scene unfold.
This newly hatched dinosaur could not believe what he was witnessing as his first visual scenes fresh out of his egg, an egg sac that was still at this point…
attached onto his hind leg, this poor little anole was having to drag it around with him.
“Huh? What? Oh do not even think about it! Izzard ESP…Izzard“!
The Paper wasps high up in the adjacent amaranth decided to just turn their backs, the suspense was also too much for them it seems.
Just as I was about to strike with the tape, the Botox lady’s large, cat-like eyes opened wide! Uh Oh!
She opened her mouth in retort, and just before she screamed out in her loud Austrian accent, I had an uncustomary moment of pure clarity…yes…it might just work… I leaned in and whispered into her sea-shell ear four words that immediately got her undivided attention…“Shhh, Its bulk collection day,” which coincidentally was the same day as the shoot!
She was so quiet during the CTG film shoot, nobody knew she was even there, not even Linda!
Not a single lip-flapping, saliva spitting, napkin mopping lip-peep!
Silence IS Golden.
Other strange happenings in the Patch this week:
“Captain, it appears we have a Euclea delphinii – Euclea , on the starboard bow”
Spiny Oak-Slug Moth
This is a stinging caterpillar, it looks like it would be! This caterpillar looks like it would be as happy on a coral reef as it would be on a variety of trees. Amazing patterns and shapes, I found this “kling-on” resting on top of my recycling bin, situated under a large Post Oak tree.
“Sounds like my kind of caterpillar eh Eddie.”
The larvae in this group are unique in that they are leg-less. Many have stinging spines. These have to be among some the most beautiful caterpillars out there! They also come in a rainbow of different colors and designs, this one just happens to be lime green and orange.
Image taken from rustyblackbird’s photostreamunder the creative commons attribution-non-commercial-no derivative 2.0 licence
Here is the small moth the larvae grows into. I have still yet to see one in person.
“”Who loves ya, baby? You know this next one is my favorite ESP”…
Cigar Plant,
Cuphea ignea
The species name ignea is Latin for fire.
The cigar plant is native to Mexico and the islands of the West Indies. It is a relatively fast grower and requires little attention. It is also a party place for all manner of butterflies and hummingbirds, they love these tubular flowers. I like the foliage, (imagine that), they are very tropical, with an abundance of leaves that grow all the way down the plants stem, for an added layering effect.
Here is my Barbados cherry, also providing some color right now with all it’s red berries…although they never last very long on the plant, at least, not in the Patch…
The shiny red ones are harvested it seems as fast as their color changes. The Artemisia, Powis Castle, hill in the background has really filled in with the recent rains.
I caught this minute translucent spider throwing up his huge arms in aggressive indignation on the approach of the camera lens, on one of my Jewels of Opar? (Oh yes, I will find a way of getting this plant into yet another post).
Look at that peeping eye! Now this has to be the smallest stink-eye caught on camera, ever! Oh you can beat it? Oh and is that really an eye?
Here he is scurrying away at high speed from the camera. He actually shot a Spider-Man line of silk to expedite his escape to an adjacent branch.
My fragrant mistflowers have finally started to decline after an illustrious display of grandeur this year, I guess conditions have been just about perfect for this plant.
I still think the plant is aromatically challenged though Pam :-)
This Mexican Lime tree has also been a solid producer this year, we have had limes from this tree all summer long, and there are still plenty ripening as you can see. This tree has really grown a lot this year, it is actually starting to finally look like a mature citrus tree…almost!
Purple in the Patch. Anyone know what the dark purple plant with the broad leaves is in the foreground?
Moving around to the front of the ESP…
Sago and Opuntia climbing to new heights, oh yes I will have my Opuntia tree, won’t I Germi? I recently planted these three Agave americana pups around this scene to add a splash of spiky drama. The soil in this part of the patch is particularly nasty, I thought these guys should be able to handle the adverse conditions, and wanted to get them started. The color and form of the agaves should work well with the darkness of the sago in the background. This hell-strip will eventually be dug down a little and the soil replaced with decomposed granite, one bit of the hell-strip at a time, that is what I say!
“I find myself completely disagreeing with that final statement ESP. Call me old-fashioned, but I prefer to finish the hell-strip first, then progress to the rest of the garden, and I do like to think of myself as having a bit of a red thumb”.
Stay Tuned for:
“The Sacrifice”
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Ah, I can smell the spicy fragrance of that white boneset (mistflower) from here, ESP. What a shame that I missed the season of all seasons for this plant, having left mine behind in the old garden. Not to worry next year, however, as I picked up a white mistflower on the blogger outing last weekend.