Central Texas Photography Giveaway!

The Intentional Mama is having  a photo session with Shelly Negrete Photography, who does photography around Central Texas.

Click here to enter.

Sky Watch - Grackles

On the street corner

Grackles perch on the phone lines

Hoards waiting to fly

Sky Watch Friday

This is Texas State Pride

If you were blindfolded and flown from another state to Texas, it wouldn't take you long to realize where you were. There are reminders everywhere.

Like this plate I found over Christmas...

Yep, that's Santa in a cowboy hat holding Christmas lights like a 

lasso in front of the Alamo.  Where did I find this?  Some cutesy little souvenir shop next to a state monument?  NOPE!  I found this at the grocery store. 

Oh yeah, there's LOTS of state pride to be found at the 

grocery store!  Check out this "Lone Star Pasta" with little

macaronis in the shape of Texas, boots and stars.

 Browsing down the aisles of my local HEB I also

found chips and crakers in the shape of Texas.  Didn't get 

a picture of that, but Texas Type A Mom got one of the chips...

and a lot of other Texas Pride she found around town.  Actually, 

it took her TWO POSTS to share all the stuff she found.

Want more?  Here's some stuff I posted earlier here:

1. A Texan Birdfeeder, 2. Texas-Shaped Grill, 

3. Texas Waffle 4. Texas Brick

Found that stuff on Flickr.  I've also seen a Texas shaped jacuzzi 

and a whole sidewalk paved with Texas Shaped bricks.  And the number of 

Texas flags and Texas stars I've seen decorating people's houses

are countless.  

Never saw anyone put a California State flag outside their house.  When I lived three I'd occassionally I'd see something with California Poppies on it, and sure, you'ld see surfer and palm tree stuff.  But I've never been to a state where I've seen AS MUCH state pride as I've seen here.

What about you?  What symbols of "State Pride"  have you seen lately?  (Or City Pride, regional pride, etc.)  You can just let me know in a comment, but if you want to do a whole post on it, I'll share a link (and pics if its ok to share) on this blog next week. PLUS, it would make a great post to share over at Whatever Wednessday.

Wikipedia Blacks Out in Protest of SOPA!

Guess what I found on wikipedia today....

Nothing! Well, ok, not nothing...but not what I was looking for (which was, ironically, a list of internationally banned books).

If you're reading this AFTER January 18th...wikipedia basically shut down its site in protest of the SOPA bill, which if passed has the ability to greatly undermine internet freedom of speech. You can read more about it here. The bill is meant to protect copyright...but can block websites which publish user content (like blogger, you tube, pinterest, Facebook, university websites which publish student work, flickr, etc..) if their users postup copyrighted material.

(Full Sized Version Here)

My husband accually just got a change to meet with a representative of John Cornyn along with some other geeks (um...sorry...computer professionals) who were concerned about the implications of this bill.  Since he was a sponsor (or co-sponsor...can't remember) of this bill I'm not sure if it will help but we're hopeful!

Texas Gardening Tips: January Veggies, Herbs and Spring Frost Dates

January is a flighty month as far was weather is concerned...warm one day, freezing  the next.  On the nicer days you can enjoy getting back into your garden!  I know I have.  Its a great time to weed (and I'll get into that later this month if I have time.  It's also a great time for growing cool season vegetables!.  Here's some veggies you can plant this month.

Plant in Zone 7
Onions
English and Sweet Peas


Plant in Zones 8 and 9
PLANT FROM SEEDS
Beets
Broccoli
Cabbage
Carrots
Cauliflower
Chinese cabbage
Collards
Kale
Kohlrabi
Lettuce
Mustard
Peas (English and Snow)
Radish
Rutabaga
Spinach
Swiss chard
Turnips


USE SETS, TRANSPANTS or TUBERS
Celery
Leeks
Onions
Potatoes, Irish (Tuber Pieces)*
Shallots

*Irish potatoes are planted potato pieces, cut egg-sized, each containing at least one eye.

PLANT IN GREENHOUSES or HOTBEDS
Eggplant
Peppers
Tomatoes

Now, as for herbs, my go to gardening book says "Although herbs have their seasons, planting times are not as critical as they are for vegetables" which explains why their herb planting chart is more vague than for vegetables.  One thing it does say for some herbs is "Plant after frost."   You'll see that on a lot of seed packets too.  Have no clue when that is?  I didn't either...but the internet is my friend!  You can find the first frost date for the Freeze / Frost Occurrence Data at the National Climatic Data Center.   It has the average last spring and first fall frost dates for most US cities.

But it's not exactly a simple chart to figure out.  The Spring section of the chart shows when the temperature is likely to fall to three different temperatures:  36 degrees Fahrenheit, 32 degrees and 28 degrees.   The 32 degree dates are the ones you should use for most crops.  The three columns in Spring show when the likelyhood of having frost at those temps are at 90%, 50%, and 10%...leaving you to decide how much risk you want to take. 

You can read more on frost dates at Mother Earth News and read more about how levels of frost affect plants at The Old Farmer's Almanac.

Oh, by the way, the plant pictured at the top is some heirloom oak-leaf lettuce I planted this fall...I think in November.  They're only a couple inches high and I'm not sure if that's how they normally grow (being an odd variety) or if they are supposed to grow taller.

Well, as you can tell, I'm no gardening expert...just an amature trying to figure things out.  I find most of my info about when to plant in the book Month to Month Gardening in Texas, which I highly recommend, especially if you are new to Texas!

So, this is a birdbath?

Where are all the birds?

Shared on...
Throwback Thursday

Cowboy Hat Giveaway

My dad was a native California...but he would right in here in Texas with all the cowboy hats he always wore.  But then, Cowboys are part of California history too.

Found a giveaway to Adventure Hats, which has some nice cowboy hats, and thought I'd share it with you all. It ends January 15 :-).