The rest of the story...

Finally the rest of my photos from last Sunday's nature walk at Mom and Dad's ranch. I first walked down near the San Antonio river in the river bottom where when it floods it's under water. The variety of wildflowers is astounding...

~

Fiddle-leaf tobacco

~

Blue curls

~

~

Wild Onion bloom, there were onion all over.

~

~

Texas frog-fruit

~

Honey Mesquite bloom, it's actually a tree.

~

Drummond Onion or Praire Onion. Sandhill Cranes feed on the new leaves of this plant in the spring.

~

(Above and Below photo) I saw these flowers years ago with Fred while we were driving the 4x4 mule back through the bottom lands and I got a photo but not a decent photo. I've been looking for it ever since and I finally found it again, yeah! I thought it was a leather flower but now I'm confused...different books and another flower that looks like it leave me wondering. It could also be blue Jasmine and or blue bell. Whatever it is I think it is really cool and absolutely love the delicate curl of the bottom of the bloom. I was just tickled when I finally found it again too!

~

~

We always called these spit bugs growing up.

I just looked them up in my bug book and they call them spittlebugs.

~

Mom's pink roses

I then headed up to the pasture across the road. This amazes me as the wildflowers completely change. It's dry and rockier in this area.

~

Aster family

~

Aster family

~

Bee Balm

~

Aster family

~

Scarlet sage or also known as Tropical sage, Texas or Blood sage and Scarlet salvia.

~

Even the fungi was blooming

~

Aster family

~

Golden Dalea

~

Berlandier Flax

~

I've been spotted...not sure if you can see him but the bull was back in the brush behind this cow and calf. He came out soon after to check me out.

~

Virginia Buttonweed

~

Aster family

~

Scarlet Gaura

~

~

Harvester Ants

~

~

~

More blooming fungi

~

Mustang grape blooms

~

Cardinal feather (male bloom) used by the Cherokee for various illnesses.

~

Pipevine Swallowtail caterpillar

~

Scarlet Pea

~

Sage

~

Mexican Hat or also known as a coneflower and or thimbleflower

~

A Bouquet of wildflowers

~

Indian blanket or Firewheel and a type of Gaillardia

~

Closer look at the sage, it was gorgeous

~

~

~

Texas Dandelion

~

Whew that was a lot of flowers!

I did my best to identify most of them and identify them correctly.

We are going back over there Sunday morning (this morning, yikes it's past midnight) and maybe I'll try a few different areas to see what I can find.

~

Almost a Frog...

Our tadpoles are growing up. The one pictured above is almost a frog. He has his back and front legs and his tail is shrinking. He hasn't lost his gills yet either so he still breaths under water but that will change soon. Michael is so excited that he is going to have a Frog really soon. I am thinking these may be Leopard frogs due to the stripes on the legs, but then I don't know if Bullfrogs have stripes too, I've never taken a close look at a Bull Frog.

~

A close encounter of the stinky kind...

While on my nature walk Sunday at Mom and Dad's ranch I ran into, well no I didn't run into him, but saw him before I ran into him, thank goodness...

~

Silly skunk was so busy looking for food it never even saw me...I just stood there taking photos until I remembered their spray can go 20 + feet. When I went to walk away from him, he finally noticed me, lets just say I walked a little faster, lol...He put his tail up but didn't spray and I decided it was time to move on and find items that weren't quite so threatening.

~

Spider Milkweed

Also known as Antelope horns due to the buds looking like the curved horn of a pronghorn antelope. This is one of the first Texas Wildflowers I looked up several years ago.

I had Julie, my horse, staying on a ranch out by New Davy Texas and saw this species of milkweed there. I thought it was so neat and very unusual and one I will never forget. I knew it was a type of Milkweed and that Monarch Butterfly caterpillars love milkweed. I haven't found it growing here around the house but I do see it often at my In-laws ranch.

~ ~

~

Love the close up...

~

If you can believe it I am still working on my photos from Sundays nature walk. There were just so many wildflowers blooming and I couldn't help myself. Plus I've been working a few odd jobs out and away from the house and I'm so tired at night, ugh!

Slowly but surely I'll share my photos with you!

~