May 09, 2006 Bat-faced cuphea (Cuphea llavea). I fell in love with this plant the first time I saw it. The name probably had something to do with it. If you look closely at the tiny flowers, you really will see a bat looking back at you. I had a …

May 08, 2006 Madison, our wire fox terrier, died today. Like most fox terriers, she was playful, athletic, fearless, and headstrong. Until recent months, when she began to decline rapidly, she seemed much younger than her 15 years and enjoyed walks around the neighborhood, visitors, popcorn, and the occasional squirrel …

May 08, 2006 The first Wilson’s Yellow daylily opened after the heavy rains. It’s a bright spot of color amid the blues in this partly shady spot. The other daylilies are starting to bloom too. Here is Best of Friends, a little battered from the storms but still cheerful. The …

May 06, 2006It ain’t over ’til it’s over. We had more thunderstorms overnight, with an additional two inches of rain. Everything is very soggy. But at least I’m not out there dragging the hose around …

May 05, 2006We were lucky not to have suffered any significant damage after the hailstorm and windstorm last night, though many of our neighbors were not so fortunate. Large limbs and tree trunks litter the yards two houses away in both directions, and whole trees lie in ruins elsewhere in …

May 04, 2006 Tonight around 10:30 a hailstorm blew in from the north, with 70-mile-an-hour wind gusts reported at a weather station about a mile away from the house. Penny-sized hail pounded the house and garden and blew past the front door horizontally. It went on for at least 10 …

May 04, 2006 The first rock rose (pavonia) blossom appeared this morning. More cheerful pink! Pavonia is a great plant for central Texas. It’s tough enough to withstand our heat and scant rainfall, and it blooms all summer long. The flowers open in the morning and close in the afternoon, …

May 01, 2006Over the weekend we visited Scarborough Faire, a renaissance festival near Dallas, in Waxahachie. I think the subculture of people who dress up and, in character, attend these sorts of festivals for a month and a half of weekends is odd. But you know what—they’re pretty good at …

April 26, 2006 Salvia guaranitica Ahhhhh! A cool north wind blew in yesterday and brought a gorgeous spring day back to Austin. Just when I thought summer had arrived, we got a reprieve. It is supposed to remain relatively cool (high 70s, low 80s) through the weekend. White skullcap is …

April 23, 2006 I seem to have become a wildlife-in-the-garden reporter lately, but I enjoyed this butterfly’s visit to my coneflowers yesterday …

April 21, 2006 Recently I posted a picture of a sphinx (or hawk) moth that I photographed in my front garden. Today I spotted several large caterpillars on the gaura under the vitex tree, and after looking them up on the internet I learned they are the larvae of the …

April 19, 2006 Purple coneflower Last night a “cold” front blew in, bringing the temperature down today to the mid- to upper 80s—still unseasonably warm, but not by much. Some areas received golf-ball-sized hail and torrential rain as the front came through, but at my house we got only a …

April 19, 2006 Purple coneflower Last night a “cold” front blew in, bringing the temperature down today to the mid- to upper 80s—still unseasonably warm, but not by much. Some areas received golf-ball-sized hail and torrential rain as the front came through, but at my house we got only a …

April 18, 2006Another day, another weather record broken. Yesterday’s high in Austin (at Camp Mabry) was 98 degrees. In southwest Austin it was 100. It’s like August in April. According to the newspaper this morning, the demand on the electrical grid exceeded the supply, and rolling blackouts were applied throughout …