The sun came out this morning, after four days of being missing in action, and the damage caused by yesterday’s ice storm is all too obvious. We drove to the airport and back (that’s another story) and saw a depressing number of broken tree limbs throughout the city. It’s going to take weeks to clean… Continue reading Ice Storm 2015: Aftermath
Category: Nature
Ice Storm 2015: From bad to worse
I don’t care what Luke Bryan thinks, there are times when rain isn’t a good thing. Like, this morning. We awoke to the sound of falling rain, which normally would be cause for rejoicing in West Texas. However, when temperature has been below freezing for more than 48 hours and the streets are already coated… Continue reading Ice Storm 2015: From bad to worse
“Our Desired Future”: Exploring the water dilemma in Texas
Alert Gazette readers may recall this post from almost two years ago, where I tracked down and photographed the elusive flow of Comanche Springs in Fort Stockton. To my knowledge, that was the last time the springs flowed, thanks to a combination of drought and continued heavy irrigation in the Belding Draw area just west… Continue reading “Our Desired Future”: Exploring the water dilemma in Texas
Winter is Coming
No, this isn’t a Game of Thrones post. But we are anticipating our first freezing temperatures of the season this week, so preparations are underway at Casa Fire Ant. It’s slightly ironic that our landscape is looking better than it has all year, just in time for a killing frost. Here’s a sample of some… Continue reading Winter is Coming
Camera Sunday
I spent some time last Sunday afternoon wandering around the grounds, camera in hand, looking for photo ops. As usual, once I focused on the trees instead of the forest*, a number of interesting details emerged, most of which involved flying creatures of the six-legged variety. This insect goes by the rather unappealing name of… Continue reading Camera Sunday
Rites (and blights) of spring
Spring has sprung (despite the temps in the 30s yesterday morning), as evidenced by the return of hummingbirds and barn swallows. The latter will apparently try to take up residence in the same nest they built on our front porch last year, provided they can run off the wren squatters – which, up until the… Continue reading Rites (and blights) of spring
Cold Snap
What we thought was an ice storm was just a mild precursor to what happened overnight, as we awakened to a quarter-inch coating on, well, everything. There’s a certain amount of beauty in such events – not enough to make us wish for more of them, of course – as ordinary things are transformed into… Continue reading Cold Snap
Cool Photos…Ice Cold, in fact
We had our first ice storm of the season last night. Or today. I’m not sure; we were out of town, but returned this afternoon to find a thin layer of ice over all the vegetation. (Fortunately, there was none on the roadways between Midland and the Hill Country, although it appeared to be moving… Continue reading Cool Photos…Ice Cold, in fact
Fall Blooms
We haven’t yet had a freeze this fall, and the really hot temperatures of summer are finally behind us. The recent rainfall coupled with the mild conditions means that the flowering plants are putting on some wonderful performances. Last Saturday I strapped on a macro lens and walked around the yard, snooping on our blooming… Continue reading Fall Blooms
Stalking the wily Punica granatum
We’re a little late for Rosh Hashanah, but we harvested the first pomegranate this morning. We may still be a bit early for optimum ripeness; we never know for sure until we break one apart and try it out, but most conventional wisdom says to wait until October to harvest them. The seed pulp on… Continue reading Stalking the wily Punica granatum