Wanna See Something Scary?

As many of you may know we have been having a severe drought here in Texas and to make matters worse we had one of the coldest years last winter that I can remember since I have lived here in Seymour then we had record heat this last summer.  Thankfully, we are getting a bit of moisture now but oh my has my poor garden suffered.  I thought I would show you a few pictures of some of the damage.  Yes, those are weeds you see up there.  They seem to have taken hold everywhere.

This is a shot of one corner in my garden that used to be filled with pineapple mint, hollyhocks, beautiful rose bushes, mums, and several other plants.  There isn't much left except weeds.  In a normal year I would already see the plants coming out and growing but not this year.

The boxwood really took a hard hit.  This one will have to be completely removed.

I am hoping I can cut this back and maybe it will be rejuvenated.

I am hoping the same here.

This red photina died so it will have to be removed.

The same goes for my pine tree.  This one really was upsetting.  You can't believe how much I watered this poor tree.  I would even come out and spray it down really well every day but the heat was just too much.

What I don't understand is why did the weeds do so darn well?

Here are some more weeds that overtook another flower bed.  It is almost overwhelming when I walk around my yard.  I don't know if I look forward to spring or not at this point because of the sheer volume of work ahead of me.  I know Spring fever will eventually kick in and it will not seem so much.  

There are weeds even in my rocks.  Oh my!  Will I ever get it all back into shape?  I don't even want to think of all the money lost when all those plants, trees, and bushes died.  I don't even have the heart to go down to my orchard yet.  I am hoping and praying for a very mild and wet summer.  

Until Next Time

Debbie

Update

There isn't much going on in the garden at the moment.  We have had gorgeous weather but it isn't expected to last for long. I am busy taking down all my Christmas decorations and working on projects inside the house (mostly reorganizing things).  It won't be long though when it will be time to get out into the garden and see what survived 2011.  I am hoping and praying that 2012 is a much better year for gardening.  
Until Next Time
Debbie

Textures of Namibia

I thought I would share a closeup view of Namibia with you.

I am not certain what kind of tree this was but it was interesting.

This is what was left of a tree we found at a Namibian rest stop which consisted of a cement table and a trash can.

I know, another tree, but I really liked it.

I was told that this tree is well over 1000 years old.  Pretty awesome I thought.

This is a weaver bird nest in what I believe is an acacia tree.

a little butterfly that landed on a dry piece of grass.

My first feather in Africa.

These were the only wildflowers that I remember seeing bloom even though it was springtime.  This was a great surprise to me that there were not more.

Palm Tree with a thatched roof in the background.  The local people  make money by carving on these little nuts from the palm tree and selling them to the tourists.  

another palm tree

We saw a lot of razor wire around the houses and compounds.

Thatched roofs were a common site in Namibia

This was one of the windows in our hotel room.  We could see just a bit of a beautiful bougainvillea when we peaked out.