Everything is Growing

We were adopted by a very cute kitten a couple of weeks ago. We call him Button.

Kitten Up Close

Our fennel and parsley plants were literally covered with swallowtail and monarch caterpillars this spring, and I have already begun seeing many butterflies in the gardens.

Swallowtails on Fennel

More Swallowtails on Fennel

There are lots of blooms in the [...]

More Native Bloomers

This native wisteria is so much nicer than it’s Asian counterparts, especially in the Hill Country, I can’t understand why folks wouldn’t choose to plant these instead. The Wisteria frutescens produces fairly large lavender colored blooms simultaneously with it’s clean, deep green foliage. It is a repeat bloomer, and is easily managed and contained.

Native Wisteria

There [...]

Growing and Blooming

We have almost sold out of our early spring vegetable plants and annual flowers, and what we aren’t selling I can’t resist planting in any nook or cranny I can find. We tried a couple of new varieties of violas this year that I was particularly pleased with; the Viola Bilbo Baggins (pictured first), and [...]

Caterpillars and Roses

I took these pictures last week before the cold snap arrived. It is hard to believe that it was snowing just two days ago. All of my plants seem to have weathered the cold with little damage. I did cover the tomato plants with thermal row cover fabric, so they should be fine.
We planted this [...]

Butterflies are Back

We planted carolina jessamine next to the dog pen fence outside our office window several years ago, and I continue to be pleased with how it is spreading on the fence. It is evergreen, and blooms from February through November (on and off). It thrives in the shade, and attracts many butterflies. When I saw [...]

What’s Blooming This Week at Lost Valley Gardens

Here are some of the photos that I took this morning to journal how things are looking at the beginning of spring this year. I selected my favorites from a set of 38 photos. Click here if you want to view the whole set as a slideshow.
I love the look of these lavender colored vincas [...]

Encased in Ice

It has been below freezing here in the valley since last Sunday, and the freezing rain, sleet, and occasional snow has turned our place into a winter ‘wonderland’. It is pretty, but there is at least a half an inch on ice covering everything, and we are hoping that the precipitation will stop until the [...]

New Photos – Caterpillars, Butterflies and Bees

These are the last of my fall photos. I finally got a shot of a monarch (last of the photos). I am not sure what type of caterpillar the first photo is – I am still researching it. I thought the caterpillar in the third photo was a monarch, but after doing a little research, [...]

More Butterfly and Garden Photos

The arctic air mass is coming our way, and by tomorrow it will be in the 30s. That will spell an end to my butterfly photography for this season, but I did get some pretty good shots from my last batch. These were all taken with my Canon EOS Rebel with wide angle zoom lens. [...]

Happy Halloween Y’all

I took this picture a few weeks ago when the moon was full. It is a little out of focus because I wasn’t using a tripod, but it is still a fairly nice shot.

I hope you get lots of ‘treats’ and no tricks.
Carol

New Butterfly Photos

I selected a couple more of the most recent photos that I took with my ‘analog’ camera to share. They are both shots of butterflies that are common to the Central Texas area. The first one is of a Gulf Fritillary, and the second one is of a Black Swallowtail.
I have been using the Dallas [...]

Trying Out Snapfish for Photo Processing

I like taking pictures with my ‘old’ Canon EOS RebelG with a Tamron AF 28-300mm wide angle – zoom lens better than my digital camera, but I didn’t have a convenient way to get my film processed and obtain prints and digital images. So I researched some available options and found Snapfish. They were the [...]

Favorite Photos

Ron has been scanning some of the photos we have taken with our Canon EOS Rebel camera. I have selected two of my favorites to share with you. The first one is of a painted bunting. It was taken through the window of our laundry room. We have painted buntings here regularly in the spring [...]

East Facing Plantings

East Facing Plantings, originally uploaded by Spinning Away.
Another Flickr test…..

Rose

Just a test to see how this Flickr function works.