The Bolfs of Mountain City woke up Saturday morning to find a screech owl in their birdbath. (Courtesy of Nancy and Stanley Bolf)
Mountain City Montage
by PAULINE TOM
Well, owl’d be. Nancy and Stanley Bolf on Poplar thought to photograph the Screech Owl in their birdbath on Saturday morning. Nancy tidbitted, “He stayed for about 10 minutes, just long enough for me to snap a picture. The other birds didn’t appreciate him being there and put up quite a fuss.”
•••
A Texas Spiny Lizard sat in a hole in our backyard this past week. In 50 – 60 days, her eggs should hatch.
•••
Have you ever seen so many agarita berries? And, they’re so much larger than usual. The Internet has recipes for jelly and wine. To harvest the berries from the spiny bush, put a sheet on the ground (after a rattlesnake check), and beat the bush with a stick.
“The berries are also delicious straight off the bush in late spring, though they are so acidic that it’s best not to eat too many,” says Mr. Smarty Plants on the www.wildflower.org website.
In that same answer, Mr. Smarty Plants gives word that another native red fruit that appears in many of our flower gardens can be eaten – turks cap! “One of its Spanish names is Manzanilla, because it has an edible, thumbnail-sized fruit that is red and tastes sort of like apples, appearing in late summer.”
Lavender-flowered bee balm – Mondarda dispersa – fills fields around here these days. Both bee balm and turks cap attract hummingbirds.
•••
Melissa Garrett is finding some green Monarch butterfly chrysalides on her fennel. (“Chrysalides” look strange? It’s a plural.)
•••
Kiss’Me’ came hobbling in through the doggy door one night recently. His soooooo looooongedness makes three-legged hobbling almost impossible. Bless his heart. Probably another scorpion sting. I followed the emergency procedure we learned last month in a phone call to the pet hospital – one Benadryl. By the next morning he was fine.
I’d love to find a low and long dog kennel for Kiss’Me’ at Saturday’s Mountain City Garage Sale. We found one that’s long enough last year, but it’s double the height he needs.
•••
I’d love to find some tidbits in my inbox. ptom5678@gmail.com (or 512.268.5678)
Thanks! Love, Pauline.
