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IS NO MEETING Texas Constitutional
Amendment and |
| Numerous people take advantage of
our quiet, tree-lined streets to walk on a regular basis. Keep walking but stay safe. |
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join the COVNA Email List, click below and Find out the latest neighborhood news and
developments. |
2011 MEETING SCHEDULE
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Advertise in the COVNA Newsletter Only $10.00/month. Reaches over 400 homes & Online at COVNA.org Email Hal Ferguson at: hferguson3@yahoo.com |
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AVOID BECOMING
ANOTHER I've had two different neighbors report that their cars were broken
into Thursday night. Please remember to lock your car doors and
remove anything of value from your cars. Most break-ins are crimes
of opportunity. Mark Tilley |
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A FALL TREAT Fall - the most wonderful time of year if you ask me. It has always been my favorite season as long as I can remember. I grew up here in Texas. It is not every year you get to see the leaves change so when it does happen I take it all in and enjoy it. I don’t know what it is about fall that just warms me all up inside - the start of the football season, the cool autumn air, or just all the yummy seasonal food that comes with fall days. Pumpkin seeds are one of the things I look forward to. Every year we get a pumpkin or two and cut them open, clean them out, cook the flesh, and roast the seeds. I tell you if you have never had home roasted pumpkin seeds you are missing out.? Here is how we do it: Clean out seeds of your pumpkin and rinse them well. Let them dry in a single layer. When dry I like to sauté them in butter, ok this step is not necessary but oh so yummy! Once you’ve sautéed and salted them a tad, lay them on a baking sheet and roast them in the oven at 375 for about 15-20 minutes. Then set them on the counter to cool and get crispy. They usually don’t last long on the counter. So that’s it – butter, salt, and a little heat and you’ve got yourself a yummy and great seasonal snack. There are all kind of pumpkin seeds out there….Jack-o-lantern pumpkins seem to have the best seed selection but I have also had the princess and pie pumpkins that are yummy too. Don’t forget to cook up the rest of your pumkin for pie. Jessica DeLeon
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HELP THE BUTTERFLIES There are noticeably fewer mosquitoes this year because of the drought. While this may be convenient for us when outdoors, there are not only fewer mosquitoes but many less insects of all kinds this year. Insects are a very important part of the ecosystem. One thing missing this year is the number and variety of butterflies. Monarchs are making their annual trek through our fair city and because of the drought are not finding the sustenance they need on their annual migration to northern Mexico. You can help Monarchs and other butterflies by taking past-it’s-time fruit, cutting it open and leaving it out on plates, in hanging baskets, or on flat surfaces in the garden so the butterflies will have a chance to get some sweet sustenance. Flowers are certainly a key component of a butterfly garden, but if you want to lure in a wide range of butterflies, you'll need to add an unexpected feature to your garden: mud. Many butterflies, including Swallowtails, feed on nectar from flowers, but they also get essential minerals and salts from mud and animal manures. Butterflies often gather in mud puddles, a phenomenon called mud-puddling. It is easy to make one. Place a glazed ceramic pot saucer in the site you've selected for the bath. Fill the saucer to within a ½ inch of the rim with a 1:1 mix of garden soil and composted steer manure, which is available in bags at nurseries and garden centers. Thoroughly moisten the mud mixture and keep it consistently moist throughout the summer. Remove in the fall (if we have one) and put it back out in the spring. There are a few nectar plants that attract so many butterflies in a garden that it would be a good idea to plant them in your yard. They are: annuals - Zinnia, Sunflowers (good bee attractor), Tithonia; perennials - Butterfly Bush, Lantana, Common Milkweed (which doubles as a host plant for Monarchs) and Butterfly Milkweed. This is only a partial list. Please help make Austin an oasis for butterflies and other insects. A great resourse for butterfly attracting plants: www.austinbutterflies.org/gardening Click on small images below for full-sized version.
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EDITOR'S CORNER Perhaps the drought is causing our backyard to seem like an oasis for birds. My son, Alan, has maintained several vegetable gardens and kept our birdbath full. He also let a forest of sunflowers grow in the bare dirt around our house addition. We keep several types of feeders. In addition to the numerous House Finches, goldfinches, hummingbirds, wrens, Cardinals, Blue Jays, woodpeckers, etc., we have seen birds rarely or never present in our yard before. For at least a week we had three or four Baltimore Orioles, a yearly visitor. New this year are a Nashville Warbler, a White-crowned Sparrow, a number of Lincoln’s Sparrows, and a very striking Summer Tanager. Click on small images below for full-sized version.
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