Heat and Bugs

It's hot and dry in the Concho Valley now. It's been several weeks since our last rain, and I really don't expect much more until September or later. The grass is quickly turning brown, and we are having to hand water our plants regularly now.

Flowers in our front beds. Notice how brown the grass is. That is partially due to lack of rain, but also due to our landscape people who cut the grass far too short for this time of year.

Although the daily highs are now dancing around the 100 degree mark -- one day just below, the next just above -- it is a dry heat, and I'm thankful for that. On our recent trip to East Texas and the Shreveport/Bossier City area, Donna and I suffocated a bit from the high humidity. We'd much rather be in a dry climate.

Zinnias, marigolds, and various herbs in the bed along the garage.

But there are days I wish we lived in a true four-season climate, perhaps some place in the foothills of the Rockies. We do a lot of wishing, but we manage to stay grounded in reality. It's still nice to dream. I find as I grow older, though, that I have more trouble with heat than I do with cold weather. I don't mind cooler weather, though I must admit trouble with true cold weather. Luckily, in our dry climate, we are able to sit out each evening, and we are quite comfortable, especially if there is a nice breeze. And one thing that West Texas has plenty of is breezes.

Zinnias by our front patio gate.

Donna's zinnias are really beautiful right now. I don't know much about flowers, but I do love the varied colors of these flowers as well as the different petals. I guess they are all zinnias; if they aren't, please feel free to correct me. Her tall marigolds have finally started blooming as well. The shorter ones have been blooming profusely for quite a while now, but the tall ones have taken their time. It is so nice to have color in these beds that once were home to those ugly, monotonous shrubs.

I love the variety of color

The flowers have brought an invasion of grasshoppers. As with flowers, I know little about these insects, but the ones we have are quite large, probably measuring about 2 inches or so. And they are everywhere.

Grasshopper looking in our kitchen window. They are everywhere, and they are particularly fond of Donna. They follow her around.

In the pictures of our plants, you may notice a white powder on them. That is baby powder. We read somewhere that such powder deters pests, and we've found it to be rather effective.

We had an interesting visitor the other evening as we sat outside. I noticed something dark on the street behind our house. The street is probably about 75 feet or so from our back patio, and it is down a slope. In all, the street is probably about 6 feet or more lower than our back patio. So, I could clearly see this dark object slowly moving across the street. That I was able to see the object in the late afternoon sun with my old man eyes tells you how large it was.

So, the old woman and I set off to investigate. We discovered that it was a tarantula slowly making its way across the street. Well, we watched the little fellow off and on for the next hour or so, and found him to be quite determined. First, he scaled the curb from street to yard, then headed almost due west and approached our roof mate's patio. (A roof mate is someone we share a roof with; in other words, 2 residences share a common wall and roof.)

Our friendly neighborhood tarantula crossing the street. You can tell something of his size by comparison to my foot, which is roughly a size 9½.

Closeup of my new best friend.

He seemed to have a certain direction in mind that he wanted to go, but the neighbor's home blocked him. So, he turned sharply north, and paraded by our patio as we watched him. At the end of our house, he turned back west, then continued his journey in his original direction. He eventually crossed the street, then scaled the curb and plodded across the lady's yard across the street from us.

This is a view from Google Earth of the route our tarantula took, starting with the red circle at right (east) and moving west, then north, and then west again. That is quite a journey for such a little fellow.

How very interesting! What made him go from point A to point B? What gave him direction? Anyway, I hope he got to where he wanted to be.

And speaking of bugs, we've been invaded by scorpions for the past month or so. Perhaps the heavy rains we had earlier brought them out. Regardless, we've probably killed half a dozen or so in our house the past month. Miss Donna doesn't like scorpions! She's pretty spooky right about now. In fact, I killed a scorpion in our closet just a few moments ago. Donna found him lurking near a corner.

I've not mentioned our other plants. On the north size of our house, we planted several tomato and pepper plants. The cherry tomato plants are quite tall, taller than Miss Donna. And they are producing well. Each one has numerous groups of tomatoes about to turn. The other tomatoes and peppers are just now beginning to set fruit.

Donna also salvaged a hydrangea plant. One of our neighbors thought it was dead and was going to throw it out. We put it in the ground, then Donna carefully trimmed it and has been watering it faithfully. The plant is now looking healthy. There are no blooms yet, but we are hopeful it will survive.

Taller cherry tomato plants are in center. That is the recovering hydrangea at lower left.

What a beautiful red color on this zinnia.

Bloom on one of the tall marigolds. It's a lovely flower.

Final note:

I began writing this on Saturday. There was no rain in our forecast. Sunday afternoon, it began to rain. It rained off and on from mid-afternoon until bedtime. It then rained some more Monday morning. In all, we received slightly more than an inch. How nice! Best of all, the temp never rose above 81 degrees. Today (Tuesday), however, the high is expected to be over 100. That's West Texas for you.