Immersed in their work

Apparently, the best way to keep an eye ON a beauty berry bush...is to keep an eye IN the beauty berry bush.  An adolescent male (a guess due to the territorial behavior) mockingbird has essentially set up shop in this last as yet unstripped fruit bearing beauty berry, Callicarpa americana, on our lot.  He sits there all day until and unless one of us gets too close.  Then, fussing, he retreats, but not far and not for long.

This particular beauty berry bush, planted closest to the house, is typically the last one to have its berries eaten each year. This young bird is quite determined to get his fair share.  Or more.  If he eats them all he'll have to waddle over to the nearest tree.

I am amazed each year at how bright these berries are and though I'd love to have them left on display a little longer, when I see how much the birds, mockingbirds especially, enjoy them?  I am more than happy to share.  Sharing has its rewards, as well.  We have a couple or three bird planted volunteer beauty berries coming up in our spaces.  I consider them the result of a most happy cooperative venture.

When I spotted the tiny scrub snail on this pot I couldn't help imagining it had scootched all the way up the side to see what that white mulch was, scattered all around the tasty succulent.  Then when it got close enough to see the piles of empty shells, it had the snail equivalent of an "oh Sh*t!" moment and fled the other direction.

Some things you are better off not knowing, little snail.

We are still enjoying every cooler morning, not taking a single one for granted, excitedly opening windows to welcome in the gift of fresh air.  This is a wonderful time to be in Central Texas, especially outdoors in Central Texas, and that is just where I'm headed.  The garden beckons.  Hope you are having a lovely Fall as well, wherever you may be.

Please, (please!), don't eat the daisies

I haven't gotten much path weeding done lately.  Mostly because I've been busy as one of these

Honeybee on Datura

focused on finding and eliminating my burgeoning population of Aztec spurthroat grasshoppers.  

In the meantime I hadn't noticed until this morning how very many of these were appearing.

Very,

very many.

Scrub snails (I think), mostly in and on the clumps of daisies.  As the sun gets higher in the sky they retreat to the undersides of the leaves where they rest out of sight.  But. I know they are there now.  They can't run or hide.

And at least snails can't hop away.  One or two morning sessions with...hmm. What is the most efficient and yet most humane way to eradicate snails after you've plucked them out of your daisies?  I'll do a bit of research on that and get back to you.  Or if you have a tried and true method please let me know. Relocation?  Perhaps letting them sink into oblivion in a beer bath?

In other less annoying news, now that the potted succulents are well established, I moved them out to the triangular bed behind the bench where they'll get more of the sun they love.  Rearranging where pots go in the garden is easier than transplanting, and a lot easier to "undo" if the move doesn't seem to be working out.  It is also a whole lot more pleasant than weeding the paths.  Oh those paths.  Keeping them weeded is the largest single project consistently "in progress" around here.

Optimistically, it shouldn't take me long to pluck up and dispatch the snails. That's the good news.  Then I'll have no substitute "work" to use as procrastination for the path clearing.  That's the not-so-good news.

Cyrano Darner (Nasiaeschna pentacantha)

At least I won't suffer for lack of supervison.