A 42° to 90° oasis day

A couple of days ago I had a perfect close look at a perched Saltbush Sootywing, but, alas, no camera. Today I was carrying my little Lumix. It's just too hard to carry the Canon everywhere. I saw the butterfly again but it just landed briefly and all I got was this blurry image. Gonna try to carry the Canon more.

Lately my ankles have been hurting bad. Worse than my back. Has to be arthritis.

Terlingua Creek Cat's-eye (cryptantha crassipes) is a rare plant, found only at a few locations about 5 miles west of Hwy 118 (about 10 miles WNW of CMO). The property owners there realize the value of it, but can't get law enforcement to keep cattle off it. Open-range is illegal these days, for all the good it does. Here's a photo of it taken by an area resident where it grows, Tim McKenna. He states that "it is known from only ten populations totaling about 5000 plants. All of the occurrences are within a ten-kilometer radius. This is a federally listed endangered species."  I love his photography.

My verbena patch today. There are verbena scattered all over the oasis but this is the largest concentration, such as it is. Nothing compared to last year.