It borders on heresy to complain about rain in West Texas, but that’s exactly what I intend to do. Well, it’s not so much the rain itself that gripes me, but rather the timing. Yesterday, much of Midland experienced record-setting rainfall. The airport recorded just over 2″ and street flooding was a serious problem. I… Continue reading Rain: Too much, not enough…it’s always something
Category: Midland/Odessa
Horny Toads on the Comeback Trail?
Several people have asked whether we’ve spotted any horned lizards this year, and we’re happy to reply with an emphatic “yes.” We’ve sighted them on almost every walk or bike ride, and seen them from the car driving through the neighborhood. I wouldn’t say that we’re overrun with the little rascals, but they definitely seem… Continue reading Horny Toads on the Comeback Trail?
Pomegranate Life Stages
Our pomegranate tree is simply loaded, and we’ll have to do some serious thinning of the fruit in a month or so to protect the overall integrity of the tree. I have no idea whether pomegranates in the wild are this prolific, and if so, how they get through a season without many broken branches.… Continue reading Pomegranate Life Stages
Oriole
A rare sighting of an oriole in our neighborhood
Dove Update (or…”That didn’t take long”)
I just checked the dove’s nest in the palm tree and found it bereft of dove and eggs. I don’t know where the bird went, but the eggs are lying at the base of the tree, victims of poor architectural planning and some stiff West Texas wind. We can but hope that the local dove… Continue reading Dove Update (or…”That didn’t take long”)
Flaming Sky
New Neighbors
I recently wrote about the mockingbird nest in one of the trees in our front yard. The fact is, while we don’t have that many trees, and they’re not that big, those we do have are apparently quite attractive to the local birds. Besides the aforementioned mockingbirds, we have a western king bird nest in… Continue reading New Neighbors
It’s going to get ugly
I predict war will break out within the next few months, and I’ll probably be on the losing end. A mockingbird is building a nest in the live oak tree planted in our front yard. Last Sunday I noticed the bird flying into the tree on a couple of occasions, seeming to pay no mind… Continue reading It’s going to get ugly
Deluge Aftermath
If you live in West Texas then yesterday’s torrential rain is old news, but a 3″+ rainfall is still rare enough in these parts to make it worth writing about…or at least worth posting a few photos. Our neighborhood didn’t sustain any damage from the rain or the hail, other than leaves knocked off various… Continue reading Deluge Aftermath
Ice Sage
We were driving through a neighborhood yesterday and Debbie observed a lone Desert Willow that – as she put it – was “blooming up a storm.” Most of them aren’t blooming yet, and so my response about the over-achiever was that it would be sorry when it froze. OK, so it wasn’t that funny…but it… Continue reading Ice Sage