Curiosity

I found a walking stick and Michael wanted to study it. He doesn’t get to hold too many bugs here in Texas but this one was safe. He really enjoyed checking it out face to face. When I asked him to hold it up near his face and take a look at its eyes he told me “ If this thing jumps on my face I’m going to scream like a girl!”. He had me laughing so hard it was hard to hold the camera steady. Never a dull moment with my boy. He wanted to keep the walking stick as a pet but I talked him out of it. We put it on a branch after our photo shoot.

Credits:

Kit called Curiosity designed by Edeline designs and Joyce Paul and is available at catscrap.com or pickleberrypop.com

~

Today was Digital Scrapbook day. For days now digi stores, bloggers, and designers have been having sales and giving freebies away...I've been having fun and checking out the great sales going on. Some of my favorite digi stores/designers have increased their prices lately and because funds are limited I've had to behave myself and not buy much...I understand the economy is bad and people need funds and that the designers work hard on their designs and should be compensated but I'm having a hard time understanding how they expect to sell their items while raising prices when everyone else is struggling too...it's frustrating! Enough said on that...I had been planning ahead regarding sales this weekend on digi items so I had some funds set aside and really had fun. I think I'm pretty well stocked up on some of my favorite items that were on sale and so now its time to PLAY!! Yea...

Some more Butterflies, Blooms and Bugs...

I've been busy taking photos last week just haven't had time to post them. I was having fun with the camera and editing them in PhotoShop Elements 7.....

I loved how the sunlight was hitting this Pipevine Swallowtails wings...Such a beautiful blue...I added a texture to this photo.

Awesome autumn colors and I have still haven't been able to identify this caterpillar.

Not sure why but I've been seeing a lot of moths during the day fluttering around with the butterflies? I know they also enjoy the nectar from the flowers but normally at night...

Honey bees are all over the flowers...

Border Patch Butterfly.

I've just started seeing the Border Patches but they aren't cooperating for the camera...

Yep, it's another Peacock Butterfly!

This Peacock Butterfly's wings were catching the light just right and had a tint of blue to his wings, cool!

All I did with this photo was re-size and crop it...I loved how it had the darker edges and the butterfly and bloom were bright...

8 Pointer

Last week when Michael and I got home from school we spotted an 8 point White-tail Buck out in the pasture. He was courting a doe and completely ignoring us. I tried my best to get some decent photos of him. He was gorgeous. I probably could have gotten closer to him but bucks in rut are a bit aggressive and I decided to play it safe.

He kept looking back towards the brush line, more than likely looking for rivalries...

I liked this photo but it just wasn't very clear and crisp. I played around with it and used a watercolor action on it...You can't tell here but the original was pretty cool and looked just like a painting.

He moved off soon after these photos and we haven't seen him since. Guess his business was done here and he moved off to greener pastures!

Noah would like Lots and Lots of Christmas Cards...

My sister sent me this email earlier today and has asked that I post this. It is from a friend of hers that has a request from a 5 year old boy she knows..

Noah Biorkman from South Lyon, MI is five years old and has terminal cancer.
His family is asking that we all pray for healing.

Noah's wish for Christmas is that he will receive Christmas cards from all over the world...

Here is the address:

Noah Biorkman

1141 Fountain View Circle

South Lyon, MI 48178

Please pass this on to all your family and friends. Thank you for making a little boys Christmas brighter this year..

P.S. Noah is not expected to live to Christmas and him and his family are celebrating Christmas next weekend. The sooner he receives the Christmas cards the better.

Thank you- Wen

Texas Fall Wildflowers

I was recently asked if I would like to share a blog post on Wednesdays about items in Texas by Sarah at "Wandering off" blog. She is calling it "Texas photo round up" and wants to introduce people to different aspects of Texas and since most of my blog posts deal with "Life in South Texas" I was happy to oblige.

I thought it was a bit funny last night and this morning as I hit a bloggers block, ekk. I didn't know what to post for the Texas Photo round up...Seriously I take photos most every day and share with y'all and now here I was stuck!

I grabbed the camera and wandered the yard and decided to go with the Texas Wildflowers that are blooming in our yard. Now mind you I did not go out into the pasture as I am sure I would have found more wildflowers but these are the three I have blooming in my yard for the month of November...A little bit of Texas sunshine :o)

The bloom above is a Violet Wood Sorrel. It loves dry sandy soils and is a bulb. They bloom from March to May and then again from October to November. In the spring they have leaves that almost look like a shamrock and in the fall they don't. Brewed correctly a mild tea is said to be good for the blood and a cold tea stops vomiting. But then it says if the leaves are chewed in large amounts they can cause violent convulsions, so probably best to just enjoy the bloom and not put it in your mouth! The Omaha native Americans used the flowers in a poultice for swelling.

Normally I call this bloom a "Wild Texas Mum" but technically it is called "Golden Crownbeard" and it is from the Aster family. They are also known as Cow-Pen Daisies and are found all over Texas from February to December. In the olden days some portions of the plant were used for treating boils, skin diseases, and spider bites. It has an unpleasant odor and I wouldn't recommend it for bouquets. The caterpillars of the border patch butterfly use it as a food plant. And as you've seen in most of my butterfly photos as of late the butterflies love it for it's nectar!

The bloom above is a silverleaf Sunflower and so named because of the showy silver leaf. It likes to grow in sandy soils and if spring rains are sufficient it is one of the dominant plants in this area. Because we were in a drought this spring there are not too many but still a few managed to survive and bloom.

~
I hope you enjoyed your Texas Wildflower lesson for the day!
Ms. Sarah has a wonderful blog post on the Bexar County Courthouse with some beautiful photos too...so go check out her blog too!

SpellBound...

~

Michael found this injured Tropical Leaf-wing butterfly and he was spellbound by it. "Momma take my photo!" I thought it was pretty cool too!!

Credits:

All kits were designed by Dawn Inskip heres her blog.

Kit - A Wild Adventure

Kit - Confessions of a digi-scrapbooker

Kit - Spellbound

At the moment we are in prime butterfly migration...There are literally thousands of the little darlin's and the front of my truck can prove it...I cringe every time I drive down the road. If I could, I'd switch to horse and buggy, lol...the main butterfly migrating at the moment is the Snout nose butterfly pictured above. They come through every year about this time...

This is the same butterfly Michael is holding above in the digi layout. It was injured and not flying...It is a Tropical Leaf-wing. I was reading they are found in Texas but rare...hmmm we've seen a lot of them so maybe not so rare anymore. The inside of his wings are bright orange with a few black spots...he wouldn't hold his wings open for me, darn it :o)

And another one of our migrants....The Monarch butterfly. I've been seeing quiet a few and wish them well on their travels to Mexico...Winter will soon be here, sigh!

Thank you for stopping by have a great evening!

- Wen

The chickens had a visitor...

Uh OH!!

The chickens had company today...I went outside this evening to get the eggs and when I pulled the nesting box out I was like hmmm, why one egg? Then I looked over and said Ahhh now I see why? The old timers call them chicken snakes...the books call them Texas rat snakes! We knew we'd get them, it's inevitable when you have chickens and it happened...and yes Dawn I think this may be the one, lol...no further comments Dawn!

I went and got Fred, he got the gun and I got the camera! LOL...I'm too funny but I have to get photos!!

Isn't he beautiful? He was about 4 feet long.

And not too upset with us either...of course he had a full belly, sigh! I really didn't want to kill him. He's harmless other than eating eggs but we really didn't have a choice...I need to get some snake pinchers so I can capture these little darlings and take them far far away...But after my photo session Fred scooted him out of the coop with a stick and then attempted to shoot him, ekk...He missed! We spent the next 3o minutes searching and finally found him again...Fred gave me the gun and I swiftly took care of him...I let Michael study and touch him. Michael was like me and a bit upset we had to kill this one, as they are good snakes...I'm going to start looking for a pair of snake pinchers...That was our excitement for the evening...

~

If you live in Texas you will have snakes it's part of life here, you just learn to deal with it...or at least I have :o)

November 1st in South Texas...

We took a real quick trip over to Mom and Dad's ranch today...The Dallas Cowboys played at noon and goodness knows we can NOT miss a game...So I wandered off for a short walk with the camera to see what I could find...At times it is frustrating being rushed but today I thought I'd see what types of photos I could take today in a short amount of time...

Dad had caught six little Feral piggies, well some weren't very little...The sow was Not too happy with me and the camera and kept charging me...so I left them alone and went for a walk...

A tortuga (turtle) in one of the dry creek beds...The San Antonio river recently flooded and went over it's banks so the dry creek beds in certain areas are still holding water, the turtles are enjoying it!

Spider web! You have to watch where you walk as these are not fun to walk into but they are fun to try to photograph :o)

Ahhh Ha!! A Green Jay!! He actually came down to me and I was loving it. The only problem is it was really shady and a lot of branches so very hard to get a decent shot...But still you can see what he is, lol. They are so pretty! I also saw chickadees, woodpeckers, and other birds but just didn't manage any decent photos!

The San Antonio river and still a bit muddy from the flooding.

Spanish moss hanging down from an oak tree...and a glorious blue sky!

The woods...isn't it gorgeous?

Dad, Fred and Michael discussing the Feral Hogs...The discovery channel had a really good program on Feral hogs in the U.S. recently. If you get a chance try to watch it.

"Mom!! Mom!! Look a butterfly wing, take a photo it's beautiful!"

He's such a good boy and always trying to find things for me to photograph!
~

It was time to head out and Fred was in a bit of a hurry...Gotta go watch the game....But he wasn't going to go to fast...Ekkkk

As we got stuck behind this group on the road!! A common sight in S. Texas but one positive thing is this group is wearing helmets, Yea!! I'm proud of them. In Texas you do not have to wear helmets, which in my opinion is stupid!

In the meantime Fred was growling...they were doing 55 in a 70 mph zone and he was NOT happy!! Can anyone explain to me why Motorcycle riders have to ride in Large groups and then go way under the speed limit??

We finally made it home with minutes to spare and Fred calmed down...I'm also happy to report his team won!!

A few favorite photos from Halloween...

Zeke, Michael and Ashley clowning around. I wanted a nice photo but you know what it was Halloween and I realized it's time to act silly!

Princess Ashley!

Fred took a dozen or more photos of us and now I'm glad he did...It's really difficult to get a group shot, lol...He did a great job!

Helen (lets not forget her helper, Matt) is so good at decorating...here it is before it got dark!!

This is one of my favorites from the evening...I'm not sure what Ashley is doing but I love this photo!

Another one of my favorites...Michael was so excited and so Happy :o)

It's Ms. Helen and she has her broom, Yea!! I love this woman and her beautiful smile...Thank you Helen!!

Trick or Treating...remember your manners kids!! They did a great job!

And back to Helen and Matt's and their spooky house...Fred and Matt (I think) had a blast scaring the kiddo's and handing out candy!

It was a beautiful night and we had a great time!!