Friday, February 08, 2013

Landscapes in Texas

We have beautiful sunrises and sunsets here in Texas. This one is actually a sunrise, although it looks more like twilight. We get out every morning and walk 2.6 miles. If it's cold, we may have to walk later in the day, but we always try to do it early. Many times it is still dark when we get out and hit the pavement. It takes us 50 minutes to walk our route, so we are usually greeted by the sun beginning to show over the horizon.

Last year our Golden Barrel cactus Spike bloomed sometime after we left. No one saw the blooms, so I didn't know what they looked like. Early last month I noticed there were many more "flowers" pushing up from the crown. They look dark and kind of like straw and there are many that are breaking the surface. Yesterday I snapped a picture of one flower that finally did bloom. If all the buds continue to pop up and out, there could be about a dozen blooms on Spike. The dried blooms from last year are still on there and at the base of those you can see seed pods growing. Baby cactus! Whoo hoo. I read about harvesting the seeds and it sounds like a lot of work and I really don't know what I'm doing with that, so I will probably just wait and see what happens. I assume that the seed pods can be snipped off and just planted. Hmmmm. All our cactus are doing extremely well. I enjoy the desertscape here. We have two new cacti to plant that we picked up off the ground when they were trimmed from other plants.

The last few days I have been busy making a baby quilt for Aenea. I hate the pinks they have in the fabric stores. Too gawdish. So I found some lavender flannel prints and used those. It turned out beautiful and I hope she will enjoy using it as much as I enjoyed making it.

Ronan's is still being used a lot. I made him a camping quilt so he would like to sleep in the tent. I didn't really make them to be family heirlooms, but to be serviceable blankets.

We have a Valentine's dinner next week we are going to. Should be good.  We will be here for three more weeks. Then we start our trek out of the valley and east to see the kids, then to Indy for doctor appointments.

We are getting things in order for the start of our Alaska trip on May 22!

Till next time. . .

Dale

4 comments:

Nan said...

That cactus looks like it will be beautiful!

Nan said...

3299 arymain

Nan said...

love those blooms. should be beautiful.... really dislike your comment moderation. It is a pain. I have tried 4 times

Dale said...

Sorry about the moderation John and Nan. Unfortunately I had a viewer some time ago who decided to rant against me and my family for something she thought I had said. She was wrong, but I didn't think my viewers as well as my friends and family would appreciate her nasty remarks. People certainly are brave when they can sit in their home and send poisoned messages. What a maroon.

I normally get email notice of comments, but I must have missed yours. I LOVE cacti. We just planted two starts. They grow so much over the dry, hot summer.