It was another very warm and windy week in central Oklahoma. I have been busy this week. I went to the farm on Friday and I visited my family in Texas yesterday. The traffic was not good and I was late to arrive at my sister’s house. I baked chocolate chip cookies for my family and they turned out great. I did a drawing of Springtrap on Monday as well as a few drawings for art class. I tried to draw the Kpop Demon Hunters a few times but I wasn’t successful. When we went to the farm, we were surprised to see an opossum in our cat’s shelter. We also encountered one last winter but this time we got a photo. It is a big Virginia opossum, North America’s only marsupial. They are not aggressive and they eat a lot of ticks. They also coexist well with cats and usually don’t stay in one place for too long. The phlox was still blooming and the two coral bells look good. I took some time to water the garden since our irrigation system needs repair. I saw quite a bit of mistletoe in the trees. I planted some milkweed seeds my sister gave me. The pods are green when unripe but turn light brown and start to split open when they’re ready to harvest. I have seven more seed pods to plant the next time we go to the farm. I have not had much luck starting milkweed in the past so I hope I can get a few going this year. I saw a new insect I had never seen before called a buffalo treehopper. I guess they are a kind of pest because they lay eggs on other plants. I also found a new kind of fruit at the grocery store called nance. It is very tropical tasting, similar to a pineapple but more complex. The texture is similar to an apple and it has a hard seed in the middle. I saw a cool statue at the rest stop in Texas called “A Call to Duty”. It is in remembrance of a troop that fought in World War 2. The names of the troop members on a wall behind the statue. The weather was even warmer in Texas and I saw some lovely roses still blooming. They are called the carefree rose and are especially suited to the climate of Texas. My family gave me another Beatrix Potter book called “The Tale of Jemima Puddle Duck”. I’m looking forward to drawing Jemima soon. Happy holidays!
Lisa Ledbetter 