Easter 2024

Let me just go off the rails a little, here. I love Easter for many of its parts. 1) As a Christian, I love that Christ is risen. He is risen indeed. Hallelujah! 2) As a family man, I love that it brings my family together. Yesterday, Rachel and I enjoyed a special day in New Braunfels with Josh, Cat, and Jared. Today, we went to church, came home and ate a special breakfast of egg and bacon tacos, and played games with Jared. 3) As a foody, I love that Rachel bakes cookies. I missed out on my peanut butter eggs, but tomorrow is another day. Finally 4) I love the way the resurrection is reflected in the plants around me. I never noticed it as much as I have since becoming a master naturalist.

I bought this Texas native cactus at a plant sale. I prepaid online, as it was during the pandemic. On the day of the sale, I drove over fifteen miles to pick it up without getting out of my truck. When I saw it, I was shocked at how tiny it was. I kind of felt ripped off. But, it has really grown since. All of a sudden, it had 6 blooms yesterday. I didn't get a picture until today. By then, another had bloomed.

There are several buds left to bloom. Rachel is going to buy some special cactus potting soil and add it for more support.

Absolutely beautiful. I wish I could capture the true color on camera. For some reason, I just don't do well with pinks or reds.

I thought I had lost my native Lantanas. Tomorrow, I am going to cut away some of the plants that are choking it out.

This is my original Lindheimer's Senna that was gifted to me by my Class 41 classmate, Vince Armijo. Last year, it was HUGE. Can't wait to see what it does this year after being cut back.

Nope! This is not the same plant. This is a volunteer that grew on its own. There were about twenty of them, but only this one made it through the Big Freeze a few years back. I expect to get more of them, as the seed pods were super prolific last year on both of them.

This is my other Lantana hiding in the grass. I am going to trim around this one tomorrow, too.

These are those beautiful little native plants that grow wild all over our area. It is either roadside guara, scarlet beeblossom, or clockweed. They all look the same to me. Anybody???

This mocking bird is always in that tree in my neighbor's yard singing. Today, in observance of Easter, he was making a joyful noise unto the Lord!

This is my new feeder that replaces the old green one that was slowly being destroyed by squirrels. I have seen a few birds on it, but they don't seem to be eating the seeds as fast as they did on the other one. Maybe they have to get used to it.

We are down to one of these now. The Big Freeze killed all but a tiny bit of one of the six plants we used to have. Rachel coaxed that one back to full life and managed to get another one to grow from it. I think she is giving up, because I saw today that she replaced the dead one with a Butterfly Plant.

I wish I had taken pictures a few days ago. These Knockout roses (I call them crackpot roses) have been doing well this year. This is the only cluster of multi-colored roses I could get in a picture today.

The blue mealy sage is really producing a lot of flowers this year. Ours look as healthy as the ones at the Botanical Gardens. Too bad summer is coming.

I don't know what these are. Sorry it isn't a clear shot. Rachel planted these in the boxes around the PMP (Poor Man's Patio). They are nice, but I miss those ones that looked like mint candies. By the way, Rachel bought some really nice new chairs for the PMP. The ones we had were woven and they got dry rot. The new ones are solid metal and very comfortable.

This is bittersweet. Rachel bought a special cover for this Aloe Vera that was supposed to protect it from the freeze. Unfortunately, it did not work as well as the towels she covered it with in the past. It nearly died in the one short freeze we had this year. The happy thing is that there are so many pups. That's what Aloe Vera babies are called!

This is the best the Mexican Feather grass has ever looked. I love them. Rachel... not so much.

The red roses are doing fantastic on both sides of the landscaping. Once again, I will try to keep them healthy and blooming through the summer. I haven't been successful so far, but at least I haven't killed them.

Don't let the lush lawn fool you. I mowed it the other day, but it is really all native grass and weeds. You can see the new chairs stacked to the left of the door. Rachel wants to wait to put them on the PMP next weekend. Josh, Cat, and Skelator are coming down for the eclipse, and we are hoping to sit outside. I am considering a brisket.

Mr. Vinny needs to be renamed Mr. Skinny! I don't think he weighs as much as a roll of paper towels.

You can see the "lush lawn" better in this shot, except that you were most likely distracted by the amazingly beautiful image of Miss Olive. She is such a sweet little cutie.