An abrupt early afternoon thunderstorm blew through here and then it was back to hot and muggy. Not nearly enough rain came down. It’s staying in the air. I did get a chance to walk out back today and check on things. Mostly good, some things of concern. Some pictures and videos. Hope you enjoy them.
Not sure what kinds of flowers these are but they are blooming all over in the fields.
This is a patch of papyrus reed out back that grows in a wet spot that is now dried up. There are sites online that show how paper can be made out of it. Pretty neat, huh?
Ginkgo #1 of 3, grown from seed. It likes the moist soil.
Ginkgo #2 of 3.
Ginkgo #3 of 3. This one is growing the best of the 3.
Red Pine #1 of 3, grown from seed. It looked pretty straggly this spring but seems to have recovered.
Red Pine #2 of 3.
Red Pine #3 of 3. This one has the most compact shape and no pruning was done.
There’s one sunflower in bloom, way ahead of the rest:
Linda, here is the video of the wind and trees having a conversation. Not sure why the video was blurry but I hope you can hear the wind:
I saved the best video for last. It looks great on my phone, but blurry on youtube! It was a pretty good-sized snake. And fast!
Tao Talk 
Great pics !!!!!!!!!!!!
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Thanks Chris!
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I sure do like seeing what you get to see around your place. So much green, and the flowers and trees are wonderful. That snake, he was so still, and then all of a sudden he took off so fast. :)
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Yes, I have never seen a snake move that fast! How do they do it with no legs????
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wonderful pictures Lisa.
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Thanks Max. What did you think of the snake video? The snake was pretty big but when they are coiled it’s not apparent. Way bigger than the one on the thistle plant a few weeks ago. Did you see where the neighbor said there are Missisauga rattlers around here? He told me about one that got ran over right in front of my house that he drove by (he lives 2 doors down) and he came back a short time later to get the rattle off of it and watched a red-tail hawk carrying it off! You just never know what you’re going to see out here.
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Snakes and heights are two of my biggest fears… that’s cool you saw the hawk carrying the rattler off…
We had a brave snake to come in our back door when Jennifer opened it. It looked like a rattle snake with the patterns… I killed it but afterward I think it was a chicken snake… I felt bad than but… I didn’t study it long. It was comical. Jen was freaking and asked if I could grab it’s tail! I said I’m not f’ing crocodile hunter lol…
The snake you found looked cool with the stripes.
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funny about the crocodile hunter comment. I didn’t see the hawk carrying the snake the neighbor said he did when he came back to cut the rattle off of the one dead on the road. I’ve never seen a snake near the house that would be scary. This one is a garter snake, which is common and apparently plentiful around here!
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Oh ok…that would be cool to see that! Sorry I was out at lunch.
I live in the middle of woods and I’ve only seen one bad snake in the 12 years we have been there…a copperhead at the side of the house.
I’ve seen black racers and chicken snakes but those I don’t mind. They keep the mice away and black racers kill bad snakes. YAH
My nightmare as a kid…and I still have it… is that I fall in a pit of rattlesnakes. I hate snakes
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I don’t know … strong muscles? Sure was cool seeing that. I’ve almost never seen a snake around here.
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I’m surprised that Texas doesn’t have a lot of snakes!
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We do have lots of kinds of snakes here in TX. like rattlesnakes! I’ve just never seen them, and don’t want to. :)
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:) Makes sense to me.
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