Daniel, our favorite mozo (waiter).
Category: plants
Scared of the wind
Can’t say I blame them, but still…huge and pretty eucalyptus, gone.
Dumbbell squash
Another oddly-shaped volunteer squash from the plant near the chiquero (pigsty).
18.5″ (47 cm) long. We could have let it get much larger, but at this stage it’s still like a summer squash.
And there will be many more.
Kitteh sez…
…you haz da priorities wrong.
I said ‘planting,’ not ‘planning’
We’re installing some new fencing. At the neighbor’s suggestion, we’re making an ‘alley’ through which machines and cattle can pass to the back of the property without disturbing our yard or garden. The other side of the property is too steep (from the road) and sometimes too wet.
The alley lies, of course, presactly where I planted fruit trees. Those that survive summer will now need to be transplanted in fall – meaning May. To the other side of the property.
Let’s just skip that bit of bone-headed non-planning and admire the wire work.
Starting the year with wildlife preservation
The cloying heat yesterday broke into a downpour, turning our road into a river. This morning, heading back from the deserted beach, I noticed that one stream had formed a puddle in the road, full of tadpoles, most less than a meter from a ditch full of water, but with no way to get to it before car tires crushed them or they died in the sun as the rest of the water drained.
Surprisingly difficult to catch them with a cut-off plastic bottle, but I managed to get 50 or 60 – most of them – into the ditch, where they at least have the chance to grow into frogs.
And eat mosquitoes.
Monsters in the yard
Our friend Gundy sent photos of a monster caterpillar in their yard. I had some incredibly camouflaged tomato hornworms a few years ago in my first garden here. I actually pointed to them from less than a meter away, and people couldn’t see them!
But this – wow.
She also sent a couple links about caterpillars:
Fotos de orugas (just learned a new Spanish word if you were paying attention 😉
Why you might not want to pick up that cute fuzzy caterpillar
Mushrooms
Awaiting the alambrador (fence guy), I pile old sheet metal on top of logs and other crap to try to convince the big dumb bovines not to enter the area where my garden will soon be, and eat the volunteer squash plants growing there.
Spot a couple of large, odd mushrooms. I know very little about mushrooms; certainly haven’t seen this type before.
Something new
Bright orange-billed terns on the beach that I’ve never seen before, and these plants on the way back. No idea what they are.
Testy llama
Walking the dogs back past our local zoo, I saw only one llama standing, making a roink-roink-roink noise near the shed in which the other lay.
When I approached he bared his teeth and I vaguely remembered something about those critters spitting and kept my distance.
Expectant papa guarding mama inside?
Ya veremos – we’ll see.