Thursday, September 17, 2020

flowers, frogs, and other miscellania


Well, dammit, I completely forgot about the night blooming cereus and every single flower opened Monday night. I bet it was a sight to see and fragrant. Oh well, next time.


Other things in bloom...cuphea 'bat face', the last coral butterfly ginger, the bridal bouquet plumeria continues to bloom it's little heart out, and the yellow angel trumpet, and while I was out there taking pictures there were two frittilaries and a queen butterfly but the queen was very shy and would not let me take her picture.


I caught a glimpse of movement through the window in the back door and went out to investigate. A little tree frog had leapt onto one of the leaves of the walking iris

and then a few minutes later leapt back onto the screen on a window.


And then last night at dinner I noticed there was a green tree frog in the house snugged into the corner of the dining area


so I scooped him up 


and took him outside.


Wednesday morning I was outside in the little backyard and there was a very loud explosion and the power went off on our street. It brought all the neighbors out. The transformer blew or the fuse or whatever it is that explodes with a loud bang so there should be a dead squirrel somewhere underneath it or in the general vicinity depending on how far it flew. Power was back on in about an hour and a half.

So this happened...apparently someone in this small town keeps a 9' python as a pet and it escaped on Monday! She had just eaten, claims the owner, so small pets and small children should be safe...for about a week. Still hasn't been found and the neighbors are not happy.

I've been staying off social media for the most part, just quick scans passing over anything political, looking to see if any really cool art has been posted or other non-political interesting stuff. The afib is starting to settle down I think. I've gone 30 hours so far without an episode, just an occasional blip here and there.

My neighbor at the other end of the street has his three hummingbird feeders out and he says in the mornings there's about 30 of them swarming around them so I put mine out Tuesday evening. Nada. I have seen one that comes and investigates and then flies off. Someone told me that if you have a lot of flowers in the yard they will go to those and not the feeders. Which is smart because I imagine nectar has more nutritional value than sugar water.

I finally started a new drawing Tuesday. It's from a photo taken by Shoreacres on her blog Lagniappe. She takes the most amazing photos of our native wildlife. 


I meant to publish this yesterday but Tuesday night I ate something that didn't like me and was up just about all night with pains and gas and a monster afib episode that finally settled down around 5 AM but the intestinal distress continued all day Wednesday and I spent most the day in bed and it continued last night as well. It's better this morning, the cramping is about over but my guts feel like someone pounded on me so I imagine I'll be spending a good part of today in bed as well.




12 comments:

  1. Belly distress is the worst! I'm so sorry you had to go through that. Do you know what it was you ate?
    My hummingbird feeder isn't getting any traffic lately either and it had been. Maybe because yes, the fire spike is blooming.
    I've been seeing the little tree frogs here too, and yesterday I must have startled a larger guy because I saw the grass moving as he hopped, hopped away through it.
    Be well, Ellen. Get better. Rest.

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  2. Sorry to hear you've been under the weather. No fun at all, and very exhausting when body fluids are affected.

    I love the little tree frogs. I used to get frogs and tiny toads coming in on houseplants back in the house after a summer outside. They all looked like little toys.

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  3. I can commiserate with your gut problem. I've been having gallbladder trouble for two weeks now. Ugh! Not fun at all. Take care and rest... eat light and let things heal. Healing thoughts to you!

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  4. Food poisoning is the pits. I bet it affects you for some time. Laura and I had supper once at a local bar. Our meals were identical except I had flan for desert and she had something teenager. I was so sick that night and the next couple of days, and the obvious culprit was the flan. I never went back. They changed hands, a friend discovered it and cannot quit raving. I finally went back. It's not worth raving about, it's just a bar with food service food. And no, I'm not swayed by the flan.

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  5. I'm so sorry about the gas and pains with the Afib. But I love the small green frog. He's wonderful.

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  6. Your flowers are so pretty. I lve really close to the Guadalupe river and I hardly ever see any frogs during the day. I do hear them sing at night though.

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  7. Ugh - sorry about the gastric upset. On the other hand - frogs! So cute! Can’t wait to see the finished drawing.

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  8. What a surprise, to find "my" lotus bloom on your page! And what fun -- I always enjoy your drawings. I will admit I like your froggies, too. I finally found a toad under the lights a couple of weeks ago, but we don't really have a frog-friendly environment around here.

    I put two hummingbird feeder out day before yesterday, and I've seen a pair and two singles come by to investigate. I'm hoping that with another couple of days, I'll begin attracting more. I was able to hang them a little distance from my other feeders, and that should help -- at least, in the exploratory phase. My bluejays are loud and fussy, but I've heard that, like the honey badger, hummingbirds don't care!

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  9. Love seeing the flowers, butterflies and frogs there. Hope someone finds that python soon. Yikes! And I hope you are feeling better.

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  10. Thank you Lagniappe, Gorgeous find! WOW, and I do love your tiny frog, he is important!


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  11. The frogs are such beauties. I wish we had some of these.

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  12. love the frogs. I found one sitting on my phone in the kitchen. I carefully removed him to the front yard, as Bo seems to find them tasty. Belly distress is the worst! My feeders are not attracting birds, but I still have a lot blooming.

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