Back in bloom

Nice lazy Sunday with showers off and on, and a late afternoon check to see what's blooming at Oak Point.

A basket flower full of ants.

© 2014-2018 Nancy L. Ruder

Color walk

© 2014-2017 Nancy L. Ruder

Sprucing up, no trees required

Good to see new pads for picnic tables and benches around the lake at Oak Point. A new fishing dock is in place with tall posts. Those posts will let the dock float up higher in times of high water. My ever changing job situations let me learn about things like connecting dock systems. Prevents boredom, I guess!

New dock Sept. 5, 2015

In the May 30, 2015 flooding

The old dock March 20, 2012 after 4" rain.

Replaced pad and picnic table Sept.5, 2015

That picnic site in the flooding of May 30, 2015

New bench site. It used to be nearer the dam.

All of which brings me to the phrase, "spruced up". Oak Point Park and Nature Preserve will host the grand opening of the Nature Center/Parks & Rec HQ next month. So why do we say, "sprucing up", as opposed to some other evergreen tree. Does it have something to do with Christmas decorations? Does it have to do with the pine smell of many cleaning products?

Nope. "Spruce" is an old word from the 14th century, and related to "Pruce", an old name for Prussia. And Prussia is the home of blue crayola crayons if you are of a certain age. Nope. Leather and other items from Prussia were labeled "Spruce". You know how obsessive compulsive those heel-clickers can be, so by the 1600s "spruce" was connected with cleaning:

[You shall] spend a whole twelue month in spunging & sprucing.

You didn't toss out broken crayons in the Olden Days!

Not me! I don't do that sponging and sprucing unless company is coming over, and maybe not then either. I would rather read the history of Prussia than clean. Just FYI, Crayola seems not to have ever had a spruce green crayon. If you are ready to be really distracted, go ahead and read about the color "puce". If you call in sick tomorrow you will have time to learn about the history of spruce jerkins.


© 2014-2015 Nancy L. Ruder

Good week for herons, bad week for patio umbrellas

I'm growing very fond of the green heron hanging out in the creek at the Environmental Education Center. It is sustaining me through a time without Oak Point visits. It stalks the little critters in the water, and from above looks like a gray rock sticking out of the water. In flight its gives an impression of green. Otherwise, I would think it misnamed.

The green heron is showing off its yellow legs, reminding me of the Capulets' yellow leggings. A month ago those legs were bright orange when he was looking for a lady friend.

I took the photo of the green heron with the zoom on my little Canon PowerShot ELPH 340 HS. Switched to the macro and took this dragonfly shot without moving. We were all glad to see the sun after two days of Tropical Depression Bill.

May 20 orange legs in high breeding plumage

Bill created very scary driving situations, and threw temper tantrums with patio umbrellas. Bill pulled them out of their stands and flew them. He dumped one in a flower bed. The other sailed about the length of a city block and landed in the creek, pole end sticking straight up. Mary Poppins meets the Wizard of Oz!

Returning from an errand, I finally spotted the pole from my car. It looked like a measuring device, but eventually I realized what I was seeing. I'd just seen a yellow-crowned night heron catching tasty tidbits in a pool of standing water by the car dealerships. It's "mask" made my day!

Changed into grubbies and wellies for my umbrella retrieval mission. A water-soaked patio umbrella is not a cooperative dance partner, and it weighs a ton. Amazing to find the spokes in good shape.
Completing my "other duties as assigned", I helped move soggy mulch from the drop-off pile closer at the street.

  

Yellow-crowned night heron

Different creek, different job, but good to see a heron on lunch break any time. August 2013 in Highland Park.

© 2014-2015 Nancy L. Ruder

Prickles!

See the flower blooming from the basket?

Basket-flowers are not prickly.

Thistle. Ouch.

The bracts, the specialized leaves at the base of the thistle flower are very sharp.

See the basket?

  

The bracts at the base of a basket flower look like a woven basket.

Basket flower is also called "shaving brush".

Leaf-footed bugs, Leptoglossus phyllopus, are minor crop pests, but they make me laugh. They remind me of a pirate with a yellow belt. TAMU has a better image here. The leaf-footed bug is on the stem of the basket flower above.

Pink thistle + green insect = complementary color scheme.

Red admiral on basket flower.

Sphinx moth visiting basket flower.

It's a busy place!

Prickly pear cactus are prickly, too. Don't sit on one.