§ Backyard Botany...

It's been yard work mostly the last two days. Altho, I figured we lost more again to the deep freeze of 2021-22, I do believe the plants are a bit more hardy this time around. I thought, early this Spring, we wouldn't have a surviving pomegranate tree [as you can see with the first two photos], and Bud drastically trimmed away most of it to near the ground. But, the last couple of days, fruit blossoms have taken hold, and some are now in full bloom. Sadly, I was warned that with the cholesterol meds I'm taking [statins], just like grapefruit...mixing pomegranates and meds is a dangerous combination. Bud doesn't like 'em, so either, if they mature well enough, the neighbors will get 'em, or the birds!! Bummer. While securing our Don Juan Climbing Rose, I gazed around the yard and so much is blooming. I grabbed my cellphone and hit the shutter icon...

I have a couple of pots with yellow marigolds and sweet william by one of the benches on the patio. The amaryllis are blooming! Yes, they are planted in the ground and didn't freeze!! The cactus I bought long ago and moved it here when we relocated to Texas from Arizona --I thinned it out several years ago and potted them in small clay pots...all are blooming. The Duranta is blooming [a favorite of mine...weeping purple clusters], the hibiscus are recouping and showing some growth again. My two Easter Lilies are getting buds! The Esperanza bush is flowering. The crepe myrtle are all leafed out, soon to bloom. And the gardenia, well it survived again, but little flowering so far. Here are photos of some that I took when I was supposed to be assisting dear hubby [lol]...

Lady Banks Rose [aka Tombstone Rose]

Someone asked why it's called Tombstone Rose. Well, in Tombstone Arizona, there is the world's largest Lady Banks ....'tree'! Read about its history HERE My bush is cut back often, but still measures about 1/4 of our 100' fence.

Don Juan Climbing Rose
My favorite rose!!!



Sweet William and Marigolds in pots on Patio




...and a biology FACT SHEET: Koalas have two thumbs on their front paws!!
They also have unique and individual fingerprints.
‘Koala’ is thought to mean ‘no drink’ in the Australian Aboriginal language
one source

§ Back to Day Trippin' Part II....

Addendum:  For those that are wanting to see photos of birds [Ruth mentioned cardinals...I will eventually show close up images I took on my bird blog.]  

To continue my morning at the park, I am sharing a few of the cardinals seen. As I mentioned in my previous post, the cardinals, both male and female, were seen just about every corner of the park's grounds. Their singing could be heard with each step I took! At the smaller pond, where we all stopped to watch/photograph the kingfisher, I also saw a sandpiper. I have yet to ID that one [three working the pond for food]. Sandpipers are a difficult bird to identify. Especially if the legs are not visible which is the case here. Most often the legs will give you a good idea of the particular species. I'm leaning toward stilt sandpipers, because one photo I took and uploaded from my camera card to the computer, their upper part of the legs were somewhat tinged green. Grayish-green. Other sandpipers are black legs, while still others have yellow legs -and the plumage pattern is near identical in all. But, the stilt sandpipers migrate to our area in Spring. I need to be near 100% sure before I share them on my bird blog. I also have close up photos of the cardinals, green jays, the kingfisher, ducks, egrets, cooper's hawk, scissortail flycatchers, and herons that will be show n tell eventually on that blog. But in the meantime, these will be posted here to give you an idea what I experienced on Wednesday this week. The one image with the pond, look close...find the kingfisher?...

There are two cardinals in the tree below...see them? And since the moon was part of the frame, I zoomed in with the zoom lens...

FACT SHEET:. Also seen with this particular outcropping of trees, I spied some mistletoe clinging to a branch. Did you know that mistletoe is a parasite!?!!

Mistletoe is a parasitic plant, meaning that it needs a host tree or shrub in order to thrive. The plant is actually considered hemi-parasitic because it uses photosynthesis for a short period of time while young. As it grows, it sends roots through the bark of the host plant and into that plant’s circulatory system. Once established this way, mistletoe stops using photosynthesis and collects water and nutrients directly from its host plant.
source

Next post, part III. Texas Bluebonnets

§ Don't it Make My Brown Feathers....BLUE

I'm gonna be taking a couple of days from blogging of sorts 'cause today Bud and I are just gonna bum around all day, away from the dragging-down news of the world, etc. We will take ourselves out to lunch and perhaps spend the day shopping. Then, on Friday, we will be having a plumber stop by and replace our kitchen faucet. Long ago, when we were a lot more agile and younger, we used to do the DIY home improvements ourselves. We are too stiff and unable to move about much so...it's gonna be done professionally. A big expense, but well worth the time and money to have it done without crimps in the neck, shoulders, and back!!! I had them order a whole new style from the old, antiquated general look. The faucet that is curved and sloping downward. Dunno what it's called, but 'the in look' for today in home decor. LOL So, in the meantime, I will talk a bit about birds. Surprised? I didn't think so....

In the coastal region we don't see one of my favorite birds, the blue jay. When we lived in Colorado, year 'round, we had blue jays at our window feeders and I enjoyed watching them. This was long before I became infatuated in photographing birds seen. I just like birds!! Then, once upon a time, I read on the subject of pigmentation of the birds' feathers and learned that blue jays, among other blue birds such as indigo buntings and the bluebirds, that their color that WE see isn't a true color. Their feathers are NOT blue. In fact blue is the least color in the spectrum of birds. It's all more or less illusion. Which brings me to this little thing that I may begin doing often on my posts. Little bits and facts added at the end of my posts, on many different subjects...

FACT: The bright blue hue of a blue jay can be an eye-catching sight set against the dreary, drab backdrop of winter. In actuality, though, blue jays aren't really blue. Instead, the blue appearance is a trick of science, an optical illusion of sorts.

Whereas a cardinal, for example, gets its red plumage from red pigment, blue jays don't have any blue pigment. In fact, blue pigment is rare in nature. Instead, the pigment in a blue jay's feathers — melanin — is brown, but we perceive it as blue because of a phenomenon called light scattering, according to the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. If you look at the feather in normal light conditions, it will appear blue, just as it does when you see the bird in nature. If you backlight the feather, however, it will appear brown. [I have done this as an experiment, and it's true...I see dull, dark, brown] This is because the light won't be reflected back — there is no prism effect —so we will see the melanin in the feather instead of the reflection of the blue light.

Source

Happy St. Patrick's Day!!!