Looking Back

This has been a curious week here in Big W.  Normally, nothing exciting or interesting happens.  However, this week there have been all sorts of things going on – some impacting others, some just me.

My Oxblood Lilies bloomed!  My sister shared a bunch of bulbs with me.  They are a fall blooming plant and go dormant in summer. The blooms look similar to amaryllis, but the two plants are not related.  They’re very adaptable and very eye catching.

The First State Bank was robbed.  That’s kind of a big deal.  I live in Wharton for gods sake - a very small town.  One man was caught.  The other managed to get as far as Lufkin and, during a high-speed chase, lost control of the car he was driving and died. 

My Roselle Hibiscus bloomed!  I planted seeds earlier this year and a couple made it to bloom size.  Very cool.  Although the flower is somewhat insignificant, it has a stout fleshy calyx at the base, which turns bright red as the fruit matures (takes about 6 months to mature).  This is used in hibiscus tea, jams, and syrups. 

Tuesday night, there was a huge fire downtown.

Completely burned up an attorney’s office and did some minor damage to the bank building on one side and the newspaper office on the other.

I hope he had any client information backed up off-site because there is nothing salvageable left.  So far, I haven’t heard of any cause of the fire but it seems suspicious at best.  According to WFD, it burned hot and fast.

My friend, Bobby, came over with his drone.  This is my neighborhood and my house.

We finally got some rain.  Yay!  About 3 inches total.  Not near as much as Houston but enough to help the plants (good), grass (bad) and cause more branches to fall (double, no triple, no quadruple bad).  I walked out to find this delightful mess on my shed in the back yard.

That’s three large branches.  Two are still attached to the tree itself.  And, I’m just not sure how this is going to get cleared up.  But I’m not going to deal with it until things dry out some.

The rain also woke up all the mosquitoes – ugh!  Going outside is taking your life in your hands!  Now, I'm going to have to mow because these little vampires love the tall grass.  Double ugh!

Finally, I saw this on a blog I read and couldn’t resist copying it.

22 Sep 2019