Apologies to Suzanne Hallam. In quickly listing those who filed for the City Council election, as I rushed to get off on vacation, her name did not get written into this column’s list a couple of weeks ago. Suzanne made the rounds at the Fire & Ice Festival as a volunteer, not as a candidate, selling raffle tickets and handing out the giveaway fans.

The candidates were given an extension (until Oct. 15) from Loving Mountain City for the completion of the questionnaire compiled from those who sent in questions. The answers should be published by 5:00 p.m. on October 16. A compilation will be posted on www.facebook.com/lovingmountaincity and emailed to those on the LMC email distribution. (This is different from the city’s email distribution). To get added to the distribution, send a request to lovingmountaincity@gmail.com

Thanks and congrats to Penny Moulder and Karlyn Ellis for ramrodding the 5th or 6th annual Fire and Ice. Thanks to local band Island Texas for providing the music.

The favorite part might have been the band’s break when kids came running out of the woodwork (well, the inflatable fun) for choreographed dancing to their familiar tunes.

Thanks to Roland Garza for standing over a hot grill making the hamburgers and dogs. Thanks to Verlenne Monroe for facepainting and for creating the adorable Fire and Ice trophies for the salsa and ice cream winners.

Thanks to others who volunteered and to all who came out, some even inviting friends and family, to make it a most enjoyable event in our “little slice of paradise” – a little city that’s barely still out in the country.

After last week’s column, information came in about my goldenrod and the butterfly that shows on the photo that printed with the column.

My goldenrod is the native, “Soldidago altissima,” not the undesirable alien. It’s no wonder that it attracted a native Great Blue Hairstreak (Atlides halesus.)

Looking at the butterfly’s printed details, it’s quite interesting. (Surprise. Surprise)

At over 1.5 inches, it’s “great” in size for a hairstreak. Like other hairstreaks, it has two colored tails, thought to draw predators’ attention away from the head. When resting, the butterfly rubs its wings together (with muscles in thorax) causing the tails to oscillate.

My “bluebirding” friend David Gwyn, in Dallas (actually, in Alaska on vacation) identified the butterfly from my Facebook post. He wrote back that they “have a rather interesting host plant … Oak Mistletoe and others of the Phoradendron genus. Do you have many mistletoe-laden oaks in or near your yard?” Yes! I do.

When each green larvae hatches from a tiny white egg, it’s the same color as mistletoe. Many can look at the leaf without seeing the larvae.

All these interesting happenings right here in Mountain City! Ah! And, yes, we’ve seen Eastern Bluebirds at our big boulder birdbaths. It was the bees and the wasps at the water that totally fascinated my “bluebirding” friend Ann Thames, from Carmine.

What’s fascinating in or around your house? Please send word. Email ptom5678@gmail.com (Subject: TIDBIT) or phone 512-268-5678. Thanks! Love, Pauline