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Friday, October 10, 2008

SkyWatch Friday (my thirteenth) -- Fall sky above Texas orchard

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We call these things Horse Apples but their proper name is Osage Oranges. They grow on a lot of native trees around here and are generally called a nuisance.

The fruit can be used as insect repellent but it is hard to get into a spray bottle.

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Down the road a bit is this ornamental pear tree in bloom. Many of the pear trees are in bloom here right now. This is one of ours in the front yard.

I blame it on shock caused by Hurricane Ike, their system is messed up and they think they have to make blooms so late in the year.
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23 comments:

  1. Wow those are great pics. Thanks for sharing.

    Cheers

    http://reginainpictures.blogspot.com/

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  2. Imac reminds us on his Skywatch blog that this could be an unlucky 13th posting of the new Skywatch.

    I don't believe in bad luck so it is OK with me. I think 10/10 is super good luck. (Except I don't let black cats run in front of me, I don't walk under ladders or sweep up broken mirrors or cross my suspenders, I just don't like to do things like that.)
    ..

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  3. I love that first image!
    Love the framing of the fruit.

    Let's just forego the unlucky 13!

    Have a wonderful weekend Jim!

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  4. What you call horse apples we call hedge apples here in Indiana...and the wood of the trees is used for bows...I think it used to be more popular than it is now.

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  5. I didn't know about horse apples, thanks for sharing the information and the very beautiful photos,
    Cheers,

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  6. I am amazed t the information on the'mess-up' trees here as much as the views...

    Tom

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  7. How strange that they'd bloom NOW!

    Happy Sky Watch!

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  8. Isn't it amazing what weird weather will do to trees? I love ornamental pear trees (Bradford pear?). They're so pretty - their shape, and their flowers. Those "horse apples" are pretty wild looking - wonder if our elk would enjoy eating them? Thanks for stopping by!

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  9. Maybe you can throw the apples/oranges at the insects ;-)

    We have had rhododendrons bloom twice this year.

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  10. It's very interesting what you wrote about those trees . We don't know them in The Netherlands. You thought that Ike was responsible for the fact that the trees start blooming so late in the year! I noticed that here in Holland birds started nesting in February, which is two months early.

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  11. The osage orange may be a nuisance but it is sooo pretty.

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  12. Nice shots with some interesting trees. As we become more "green" there might be a call for that natural insect repellent...

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  13. Very cool pictures. That first looks like a tree of tennis balls hehe.

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  14. This is wonderfully informative for me. I've never seen either tree before. I love the blossoms on the ornamental pear tree! Thank you! Happy SWF!

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  15. the trees are reblooming again here in delaware too...thanks for the identification of the osage tree we've got them here and I always wondered what they were. :)

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  16. Hey Jim, love your Osage oranges! Nope, I don't work at Disney World, I just love it there. Now that I live in Florida, it's only 3 hours by car - not something I'd want to do every weekend, but certainly I can do it several times a year now.

    I know what you mean about the hurricane weather confusing things. We had some high winds here with Fay, which blew all the blossoms off my plumerias. Well they are supposed to be losing their leaves starting about now, but instead they are making more blooms. Go figure!

    Tink *~*~*

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  17. Now I know what they are, Jim! What great sky shots. God bless.

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  18. You jogged my memory back to childhood days in Missouri where we had an abundance of those Osage Apples. :-) My father used to make fence posts out of the wood.

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