Category Archives: Insects
The Beauty and Benefits of Dragonflies
Dragonflies are beautiful flying insects of the Odonata order that have been on our planet for a very long time providing us visual beauty and indirect physical benefits. Fossils of large dragonflies with 30 inch wingspans have been found dating … Continue reading
February Observations
In February in north Texas, when you begin to see more robins on the ground than in the trees, you can be reasonably assured warmer weather is on its way. Continue reading
What to Expect When Your A/C Goes Out in 100+ Temps
Hopefully this is a somewhat humorous and enlightening post regarding what I’ve learned firsthand this week living without air conditioning. We live in Texas, it is mid-July, and the daily temps, unfortunately, have reached 107+ every day this week. … Continue reading
Houseplants to Brighten Your Winter
While I pondered a topic to write about as we were enduring a few days of twenty degree temperatures here in North Texas recently, I looked around and began to admire the thriving houseplants I had surrounded myself with both at … Continue reading
Summertime & Shasta Daisies
To me, daisies are the flowers that best represent summertime. Just as tulips speak of spring and chrysanthemums of fall, daisies speak to the lazy and hazy warm days of midyear. Shasta daisies are among my favorite of this family for … Continue reading
It’s OK to Allow Plants to Bolt Sometimes
It’s OK to allow plants to go to bolt sometimes, such as when annuals are just past their prime season but not quite spent enough to pull. If you are unfamiliar with bolting, it is the phase in a plant … Continue reading
The Great Fall Monarch Migration
There is something amazing happening in the North Texas area right now: The annual fall monarch butterfly migration into Mexico. Last weekend, I saw multitudes of monarchs making a pit stop at my home, which is about 3 miles east … Continue reading
Anoles
First of all, thank you for bearing with me as I slowly transfer my previous blog posts onto my new WordPress site. I will not get into the details here, but it takes more than simply cutting and pasting! At … Continue reading
The Noble Vitex
Originally Published June 2011 When I first moved into my home about 19 years ago, the yard had very little in the way of landscaping and trees. Today I have several varieties of oak trees scattered around the front and … Continue reading
