Tag: Briar

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01/22/2024 world’s most long-suffering dog

The OU Campus was very wisely closed due to freeezing rain today. It only got above freezing in very late afternoon. You’d think having humans home would be glorious, but instead the whole world has become a very scary shiny floor. Even the patio isn’t safe! She’s gone out three times and has been eager to return to stable footing. (Briar was spooked by slipping on a shiny floor once in her youth, with no physical harm, and at age 6 isn’t really over it.). Hopefully now that it’s at 33 F we can have a little walk before any refreezing occurs in the evening.
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01/16/2024 walk to OU duck pond

It’s 22 degrees F and sunny and with very light north wind now, so we walked over to the OU duck pond to see what was happening. All the geese and ducks were at the north end at a patch of open, flowing water on the creek. We also saw two Belted Kingfishers tangling in the air – squabbling? Courting?

A woman in a long blue quilted coat looks into an iced over pond at some big slider turtles.
Paula spotted one big slider turtle under the very thick ice!
Three turtles (two close together near shore and one farther out) under cracked ice that’s at least half a foot deep b
Can you find all three? They were all moving under the ice, which looked at least 4-6” thick.
A big iron sewer or water cover with the tidy graffiti described in the caption as well as a small geometric pattern of partial squares at right angles. Briar the dog sniffs the concrete under the lid.
“think, look, listen”… smell?
Paula holds a purplish leaf of the spring beauty. It’s very narrow and long, with dry tan bits of bermudagrass around it.
Paula remembered where she saw Spring Beauties blooming last year and after a few minutes of searching we found several leaves! No buds yet.
Briar’s fluffy tail near a geodetic survey marker in low bermudagrass and small forbs.
We also noticed this geodetic reference survey marker for the first time. Dog for scale.
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01/05/2024 before dark

Before it got dark yesterday we did the winter (structural/shape) pruning on the fruit trees. The buds were fuzzy. (Summer pruning is supposed to be about reducing tree size for those of us who want the trees smaller.)
Everybody who’s a fruit tree in this picture got a haircut!
The dwarf peach tree mostly needed a few crossing branches in the middle removed. Otherwise it looked good.

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10/07/2023 weeding helper

Briar the German shepherd dog lays, looking completely and devastatingly bored, with her butt squishing the base of several stalks of Mexican sage, which are valiantly flowering purple and white above her butt.
After kindly avoiding sitting on the Mexican sage while I weeded, Briar finally decided to sit on them. 🙄
Briar the German shepherd dog stands with her head and back wedged under and draped by long arcs of Maximilian sunflower stalks and blooms.
Earlier, Briar helped us look over the now conveniently low Maximilian sunflowers. We can see all the insects easily!
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10/05/2023 red list day

Today I walked outside for a break and saw a very boldly striped bee on the Maximilian sunflowers and thought to myself, “Self, that bee is different.” Turns out I was right! This beautiful lady is a Southern Plains Bumblebee! If I have counted and remembered correctly, this is our fifth bumblebee species for the yard.
This species is an IUCN red list endangered species. It is not federally listed so it has no legal protection in the United States, but it is declining and of great conservation concern. Briar was observing our exciting new friend with great attention.
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09/16/2023 inspection of dust

An overhead view of a leashed gray and white cat avoiding a very happy German shepherd laying down nearby.
The formerly pristine gray and white cat laying on his side in dust on concrete near the edge of the lawn. He is covered in brown dust bits everywhere. His face is happy.
A close up view of the now very dusty gray and white cat as he presses his face and paws onto the dirty concrete. Heaven.
The dust covered gray and white cat pushes himself up to leave because of the extremely annoying presence of the smiling and proud German Shepherd Dog nearby in the lawn who is watching over him. Gross, a dog.
Shackleton, the slightly less dust covered now gray and white cat, attempts to enjoy eating grass but has to turn away because of the enthusiastic nose of the German shepherd dog that keeps going to snuffle him.
Briar was delighted, honored, and thrilled to be allowed to escort Shackleton on a leashed walkabout. Shackleton was less thrilled about Briar, but finally got some good dust rolls in and sampled various lush grasses. He also hissed at Briar every time she got too enthusiastic about her adoration.
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08/03/2023 Thursday

The last few weeks have been a bit chaotic. Nonetheless, Briar says it’s important to take time to smell the inland sea oats!
The yellow flower
The flower on its giant plants
My mystery soft growing plants have turned out to be GIANT Heterotheca subaxillaris. the flowers are regular size but the plants are 2-4 feet tall!
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07/30/2023 very tall

Ironweed, gaura, four point primrose, gumweed, and more have grown very tall this year.
Briar likes her short grassy spot at the edge of the very tall “prairie”.
My supervisor likes her grassy spot.
A rattlebox flower blooming again!
Gaura longifolia doing well right now.
The gaura are very tall!
A very late Texas Dandelion blooming this morning!