Assassin bug

If you see some of these in your garden or landscaping, do not squash, spray, or otherwise kill them.

It's one type of "assassin bug", which preys on other insects and which can help prevent landscape damage.  They patrol all day long, like an insect version of a police force. 

That particular species of beneficial insect is known as a "milkweed assassin bug", but I see them all over our yard, not just on the milkweed plants. 

Milkweed.  I wonder if the bugs attained their bright orange color for the purposes of camouflage. 

They eat stink bugs and aphids, among many other pests.  The Texas state insect is actually the Monarch butterfly, but anything that eats stink bugs (native or invasive) is a close runner up in my book. 

If you look closely, you'll see a long proboscis tucked under the front of its body.  That's the deadly apparatus that siphons the guts out of other bugs.  Yummy. 

How to attract birds to a birdbath

To attract a bird, all you have to do is think like a bird.  Attracting birds to a birdbath is very easy if you follow a few simple rules.

What chance does this birdbath have of attracting birds?  It's a tiny isolated element in a sea of brick and rock and it's right up against a tract home window to boot - why would that be even remotely appealing to birds?  Isn't it just for decoration?

No - the primary function of the birdbath shown above is not for decoration, although it certainly does enhance our new stacked stone garden by providing a focal point.   But here are the reasons why some of our local birds have come to prefer it and depend on it:

1. It's the only water source for quite some distance, which is particularly consequential now that we're into the full heat of the Texas summer when all animals need to drink frequently.  You have to remember that, when modern subdivisions are engineered, drainage is a priority, so there's little or no standing water anywhere near our house.  Birds who did not get their morning and evening drinking water from this bath would need to fly some distance away to find another source, and they don't like that idea. 
2. I'm very careful to re-fill it daily, flushing out the old water each time.  Therefore it has the added appeal of freshness to the birds.  They may have to come right up against a scary suburban window to get it, but the cost-benefit analysis works for them regardless.  And it's easy for me to remember to re-fill it because this is my home office window so the birdbath is frequently in my peripheral view. 
3. I keep the surroundings consistent.  Birds are acutely attentive to changes in their environment, as I will illustrate further down in this post.
4. Birds in our area (perhaps all areas) prefer to nest within eyeshot of water.  If they can see a water source and there's a suitable spot available, they will nest, which further strengthens the patterns of birdbath-visiting.  Other birds observe both the nesting and the visiting, and will also be drawn in. 

A brand new nester in one of our front yard live oaks.  She's been there about a week now after discovering her near-ideal new water source just fifteen feet away. 

You might wonder how I know that it's the same much older dove nesting in our back yard, which I described most recently in this post.  Easy - she's tame.  By this time, she has raised so many successive broods on our back patio that she does not flush when we are in proximity.  We can literally stand two feet from her and she doesn't move.  That's not "normal" dove behavior - that's learned behavior.  Which means that it's almost certainly the same dove each time. 

In contrast, this new lady is still steeped in bird neuroticism and fear.  She flushes if anyone even steps into the front yard.  Getting this photo was really difficult and required a long lens, whereas our back-yard dove will simply stand there and allow herself to be photographed.   

Unfortunately, I'm stuck with undesirable builder-grade windows which have fake mullions embedded between the double panes of glass.  This makes birdbath photography a bit challenging.

Nice action shot as she examines the interior of my office for potential predators, but those danged plastic window mullions sure wreak havoc with the artistic potential. 

Now a word about consistency of the environment.  I noticed that some of the smaller birds were having trouble with the slippery ceramic edge of this birdbath, so yesterday evening, I placed a few "grippy" rocks in the center as an alternate perch.

A leg to stand on, and a more secure base for the legs. 

But look at what happened when this little girl came to visit this morning:

Do you see the way her head is cocked such that her eyeball is pointing straight at the center rocks?  The center rocks represent a change in the environment, and birds are highly suspicious of such things.  It will take all of them a few days before they habituate to this new element such that they can fully accept its presence and start to make use of it.  Meanwhile, visits to the birdbath will be reduced and the birds who do come won't be as comfortable. 

In sum, it's pretty easy - the general rules for a successful birdbath are fresh water always present (never let it run dry or the birds will "un-learn" that it is a reliable source) and strict consistency in the immediate environment. 

Happy birding.

This was a curious sparrow social faux pas, because for some reason she had a tiny flower stuck to her tail feathers.  It didn't seem to fall off as she was flitting around, and she didn't seem to care about it.  Odd. 

Educational access, Part 1: CCISD Parental Advisory Committee

Within the past couple of months, I've had fresh concerns with the depth and breadth of access that CCISD students currently have to educational content for which the taxpayers have already footed the bill. 

My concern was motivated by our family's individual plan for our child's education, although it comes coincidentally on the heels of the $367 million bond referendum that passed last month.  Part of the resulting mandate involves increasing computerized access to educational content, and CCISD has associated the statement "We believe learning can occur any time, any place, and at any pace" with the new initiatives. 

Screengrabbed from this CCISD site. 

It would appear that I'm not the only parent with concerns, or at least extremely-motivated interest in this issue.  Last Monday, CCISD announced a summer volunteer opportunity to help flesh out what this initiative actually means in practical terms.

I'm screengrabbing only because internet pages like this tend to decay and disappear with time, and I want to be able to refer back to this announcement in future blog posts. 

I received this new volunteer opportunity announcement just this morning via a PTSA email blast.  I immediately clicked the link to volunteer, but this is the response I got:

According to CCISD communications coordinator Elaina Polsen (CCISD Office of Public Information) who responded to my inquiry via email, CCISD quickly received 120 applications and had to select 35 volunteer positions via lottery. 

There was such a large amount of interest that the application basically closed right after it opened.  For me, the lament "always a bridesmaid, never a bride" came to mind, except in my case, it's "always a commentator, never a contributor"!   Continuing in the idiom groove, I'm a day late and a dollar short with this one, but I do plan to continue monitoring and evaluating this issue, so stay tuned for future posts if this topic is of interest to you and your family. 

A seller's market

If you go to the "single family" search page on the Houston Association of Realtors website and type "Centerpointe" in the subdivision box, you'll see something remarkable: only 2 active listings out of 438 homes (HAR pegs us at 436 but I had written down 438 during a POA meeting so I'm not sure which is the exact figure). 

That's an availability rate of less than half a percent at the height of the summer selling season, and quite a reversal from about a year ago when spec sales in Section 9 were wrapping up.  A few listings that had been on the market for quite some time have now either sold or gone under contract.  The situation seems to bode well for property values. 

From Wikipedia. 

The pink lollipop car

You'll never see another one quite like it.

IH-45 service road northbound at League City Parkway, about a week ago. 

I did a major double-take upon pulling up behind it at a red light.  The internet being what it is, a quick Googling of the search string 'Texas pink loli pop car' (using the license plate's abbreviated spelling) revealed this October 2012 blog entry, where the car was identified as a Nash Metropolitan, and where its owner self-identified as Tina Keeling who, in turn, was readily identifiable through Galveston County Appraisal District as a League City resident living literally a stone's throw from Centerpointe. 

You'll notice one difference in the car as it appeared last week relative to its 2012 portraiture. 


If clothes make the man, then eyelashes make the woman. 

IH-45 service road at Link Road.  

Yes, Loli Pop gained eyelashes at some point in the intervening months, and I do believe they complete the overall package.  Artistically speaking, they were sorely needed to counterbalance the pink fuzzy dice.

That statement might sound a bit flippant, but I don't mean it that way.  Well all have our hobby preferences and it's fascinating to see what other people choose as their artistic focus.  With me, it tends to be suburban tract home re-interpretation (and blogging thereof).  With other folks, it's cars or sports or kite-making or worm-farming or one of an innumerable collection of other endeavors.  Women in all their forms, including stereotypical personifications, are profoundly underrepresented in just about everything having to do with the design and general manifestation of cars, so it's neat to see this cute little automotive ambassador cruising around and so vividly representing a rarely-seen example of femininity.  You go, girl.  All 1,200 cc's of you. 

And yes, I know it's a Metropolitan, not an Ambassador.  I was using the term descriptively.

Dove is in the air...

...everywhere I look around....

After two successive sterile clutches of eggs earlier this spring, the ol' battle ax finally managed to punch out a young 'un.  Just one though - not the usual set of twins.  The ovaries obviously ain't what they used to be.  Neither are mine.    

She looks like an old bird, doesn't she??  Her eyes have more crow's feet than mine do, if that's even physically possible.  Which is what brings the song "Love is in the Air" to mind in a punny sort of way, because it, too, is older than dirt (1977, to be exact). 

Well, she's certainly had a good run at life, successfully fledging at least six and soon to be seven chicks from her perch under our patio.  I doubt if she'll make it to number eight, but she's probably done better than the majority of her species.

By the way, if doves get crow's feet, does that mean that crows get dove's feet?? 

The drought-resistant landscaping bill: What it means for us

Did I mention that I think the commercial news media sucks?!  Texas legislative bill SB 198 potentially affects about 8 million single family homes in this state (estimated using 2010 Census data) and yet, as of this morning, I can't find a single commercial news reference to the fact that it was finally signed into law last Friday. 

Excerpt from the 83(R) tracking site.  For crying out loud, I now get much of my news from Facebook, of all places.  In this case, it was the Harris County Master Gardeners who announced the bill passage by linking to this special interests site. 

This is the bill that clears the way for Texas homeowners to install drought-resistant landscaping irrespective of whatever is written in their Homeowner Association documents or municipal ordinances, including restrictive covenants / deed restrictions.  It doesn't require any homeowner to take such steps, but it allows them. 

What might it mean for those of us in Centerpointe? 

Well, it means a number of things, and I'm speaking here as a resident who is personally interpreting what I'm reading.  I am not speaking as a representative of the POA with which I am not affiliated, and neither am I speaking in the capacity of a legal advisor or attorney. 

First of all,  this new law does not mean you can simply let your existing St. Augustine lawn go to hell in a hand basket.  It does not relieve you of your duty to keep your subdivision property in an appropriately-maintained condition - it just curtails the restrictions that the POA can legally impose upon your choice of landscaping styles. You'll still have to have landscaping plans approved by the architectural control committee, but you'll have significantly more choice in what your front yard looks like.   

Grass be gone:  an example of full xeriscaping, where all turf grass has been removed and replaced with drought-tolerant plants plus mulch and rock to prevent soil erosion. 

Screengrabbed from the website of the Colorado business known as Blooming Idiot Lawn Care (love the name!). 

Partial xeriscaping where a drought-tolerant area has been incorporated into turf grass.

Screengrabbed from Keep Abilene Beautiful. 

Second of all, the new law will probably require a re-write or at least careful interpretation of certain sections of our deed restrictions. 

I'm not an attorney, but the new law appears to mean bye-bye to the "completely sodded with St. Augustine grass" part.  This is fairly standard boilerplate language which appears to have been adopted by the POA rather than originating with them or with our developer.  I've seen the same type of language in the deed restriction documents of other subdivisions. 

Screengrabbed from our deed restrictions as they are presently uploaded to the community website. 

Our architectural control committee will have to remain creative and well-versed on the issue of xeriscaping (as a subdivision resident who knows about landscaping and gardening, it is not difficult for me to foresee questions landing in my inbox). 

Here's one of the biggest challenges I see for Centerpointe residents who would aspire to reduce their front yard turf grass:


The problem is what to do with this danged tree requirement, which is also boilerplate.  This thing was already threatening to become a thorn in the side of the POA because many Centerpointe front yards are simply not large enough to accommodate two mature trees.  Some of them, especially the pie-shaped cul-de-sac lots, can't even accommodate one mature tree.  A small ornamental tree, yes, but each and every one of us got sprigged with live oak saplings by our builders, and live oaks grow to be massive. 

Screengrabbed from our deed restrictions.

As well as being a space issue, front-yard trees can be problematic for xeriscaping because most low-water species are adapted to grow in full sunlight.  Low-water landscapes tend to be treeless by definition... think Big Bend. 

I meant the ranch, not the national park.  Here is a photo of nature's most fabulous xeriscape, screengrabbed from the TPWD park website. 

Therefore, if you attempt to develop a low-water landscaping plan while maintaining your builder-installed live oaks, you could end up with a hot mess in your front yard if you're not careful.  That's the kind of mis-step that no decent professional landscaper would make, of course, but many homeowners are DIYers who don't hire expensive outside services. 

From the angle of the photo, it's difficult for me to tell whether this intrepid soul left his trees in place as he was building his personal cactus empire. 

Screengrabbed from The Dallas Morning News. 

In the face of the new law, enforcement of the tree requirement seems a bit questionable to me.  But personally, I think most tract homes don't look complete without trees in the front yard because they become too stark and barren.  Xeriscaping can be achieved with trees still in place, if done properly.  I'm planning to address the potentially-excessive shade issue by eventually pruning our front-yard live oaks in the style frequently seen in Austin. 

In a previous post, I mentioned moving to Austin for a few years a long time ago.  After I bought my house, my new neighbors asked me (paraphrased), "Are you planning to trim your trees?  Because people who move here from Houston never trim their trees, and we don't understand this."

In this screengrab from an active Austin Home Search listing, you can see what is often meant in Austin by "trimming trees".  The "skirt" is raised to an extent that only a small amount of canopy remains and it barely casts a shadow.  This magnitude of trimming allows unobstructed views of the house and it creates better conditions for healthy plant growth underneath the trees. 



Another example, but with no xeriscaping or bed installation surrounding the trees.  The canopy has been thinned out to such a degree that it doesn't impede full-sun growth of the lawn.  Rather than serving as dense shade umbrellas, these trees are trained to be more like sculptural elements in the landscaping. 

And another example showing partial xeriscaping around the base of the trees, while an area of turf grass lawn is retained in front of it. 

All screengrabs from http://www.austinhomesearch.com/.

Anyway, I'm sure there'll be additional guidance developed by the various property management companies and consortia.  I'll link to those as they become available here in our brave new suburban landscaping world.