Spring Storms, Shirking Work

From a couple of years ago. Not much has changed!
Enjoy this archive post … and your spring-y days.

∞

Dressed In White, Nowhere To Go

It is so very hard to concentrate on ‘meaningful’ stuff these days, in that, I mean the dirty four letter word: work. We are all affected by it, Mom, Dad and kids. I don’t even want to blog about it, because it means more time indoors. I just want to be out in it.

These are the precious days of spring on the Gulf Coast, when the temperature is not yet in the unbearable range and the mosquitoes aren’t trying to take flight with us still attached to their faces. Here it is, end of April already, still sleeping with the windows open at night, hardly running A/C at all. Unprecedented. Not only does it mean the electric bill stays below $100 for another month, but being indoors just plain sucks.

Gotta get outside.

Next month, it’s all over. Summer will be here even before it is scheduled to arrive, and He won’t pack His bags and leave until sometime at the end of October. Those hot months are why we get the garden planted by the end of March, if possible. Thanks to the rain, it’s looking good.

There are three 16-sq-ft spaces already planted, and another three ready to plant, as well as the keyhole which will get topped up with some green-and-brown this week an additional 25-sq-ft. Mostly tubers (radish, beets, turnips) and additional greens (lettuces) are what remain to be planted. Here’s the garden as is:

• Peach (3), Plum (4), Fig (8) and Pear (4) all set to fruit
• Blueberries (out of frame)
• Tomato, Roma (2), Cherry (2), and two unknown ‘volunteer’ variety
• Cucumber (8) and unknown ‘volunteer’ gourd or squash
• Eggplant (2)
• Sweet Basil, Thai Basil, Parsley and Dill
• Bell Pepper (8) and Jalapeño (6)

We’ve had several storms hit our area, and the fruit trees are loving it. Judging from the standing water in the front ditch, the water table is a few feet high. We have never seen the creek so high in the decade we’ve lived here, including the days following Hurricane Ike in 2008.

While in February, there were the pinks, and March followed with yellow, these days, our property is awash in brilliant whites, with the fifteen (yes, 15!) white Crepe Myrtles a month off. The debris of spent blossoms along the driveway looks a lot like snow.

Pink Jasmine

I have no idea what this flower is.

Again, no clue.

But it’s so very fragrant!

The Ligustrum ‘shrubs’ that line the driveway
are heavy with blossoms.

And finally…BEES!!

Have I said how much I love spring yet?

♥

On-Line School Benefit

This week is the second and final round of state testing for the year:  STAAR. Because we’re public school — not a traditional home school like many others — we are required to test like everyone else in the public school system. No biggie, I say, as do the kids.

Everyone worked very hard up to last week, getting ready, practicing strategies for math/science, and basically getting comfortable and prepared to take a 4-hour test in a strange environment with a bunch of people they don’t know. They are all going to do great, I’m certain. Taking a few days off to relax after all of that seems justified. Putting lessons off another week isn’t going to hurt anything.

Off to Galveston once again. Kids do love the beach.

Kids find the sand dunes

What’s a beach day without chasing
gulls and skimmers?

Mom and Dad did a little birding, ’cause we can. We added several new ones to our list for the day putting us over 180 lickety-split:

• Short-billed Dowitcher
• Least Tern
• Dunlin
• Black-bellied Plover
• Common Tern
• Semipalmated Plover

Black Skimmer

Ruddy Turnstone

American Avocet

Sandwich Tern, courting his Lady Friend
with a tasty fish

Reddish Egret – a lifer for me!

Sanderling, all in a row

Royal Tern

Geez, you two! Get a room.
Laughing Gulls (she doesn’t appear to be)

Birding Hot Spots in Galveston

Thanks another blogger lighting the fire for us (thanks, Paul!), we spent some time at two birding hot spots: LaFitte’s Cove and (new!) Corps Woods. It is located near the ferry crossing just outside the entrance to the US Coast Guard.

Both places were brimming with bird activity, but the best sighting of the day had to be the Painted Bunting. We saw it several times, but I had to chase an Indigo Bunting flock around the outside of the space in order to get a shot of him.  So glad I did!

Painted Bunting, peeking at me

Scarlet Tanager

Hooded Warbler

Mr. Cheeto Face (thanks to Ginny)

We also added to our list these species from both places:

• Ruby-throated Hummingbird
• Swainson’s Thrush (boy, did we know that sound!)
• Western Tanager
• Inca Dove
• Eurasian-collared Dove
• Gray Catbird
• Blue Grosbeak (but, sadly, no Rose-breasted Grosbeak)
• Baltimore Oriole
• Orchard Oriole