My Hubby is so Handy
I spent some time gardening and pruning the plants last weekend. First of all, it still amazes me that’s warm enough in January to even be out in the garden, but especially to still have one! Our flower pots are still in bloom and we have a yellow pepper that is ready to eat. The tomato plants have several flowers on them. We also have a few strawberries starting to grow. This is exciting since our strawberry plants didn’t produce a dang thing over the summer! Maybe I should just plan on a winter garden next year. 😮 For the expert gardeners out there—if the tomatoes, peppers, and strawberries make it all the way to spring, can I leave them or do I need to dig them out and plant new ones?
As I was doing the gardening, I remembered that I never posted photos of the beautiful wooden planters James made me for Valentines Day last year! Here is our patio with the wonderful planters he built:
He sure is handy. I think I’ll keep him. 😉
And for those of you who might want to build your own planters—once he built them he painted the outside with a sealer and covered the inside with tar.
This post was linked to Tip Me Tuesday.
Too Much Nature for Today
I think I’ve had enough nature today to last for the week.
Earlier today I went outside to pick tomatoes and found that a HUGE green caterpillar devoured all but 5 leaves on my cherry tomato plant and ate half the cherry tomatoes too. I mean, this guy was enormous- he ate the whole plant in a day and a half. Then I found my heirloom and beefsteak tomatoes were covered in tiny spiders and spider webs (yuck!). I tried to brush off some of the spider webs and picked off the dead leaves (without touching any spiders) and almost grabbed a hold of a praying mantis cleverly disguised as a dead leaf, of course. I’m glad he’s there, hopefully he’ll eat the spiders, but he nearly gave me a heart attack. I went inside and debated whether to make lunch or go back outside and take pictures of the caterpillar and praying mantis, and decide to take pictures.
I walked outside and turned around to slide the screen door shut and to find a man eating, spotted orangey-red spider, at least the size of a half dollar, right near my face on the screen door. (I thought the praying mantis nearly gave me a heart attack). I didn’t notice him when I walked out because the blinds were mostly shut. So, I backed up in the corner near the caterpillar (who was big enough to easily eat my index finger in one swift gulp if he were a carnivore) and millions of tiny spiders to the right of me, not exactly sure what to do. I decided to take a photo of the spider, you know, in case I died so my husband would know what caused my death. For those of you who think I’m over-reacting (I probably am) but we have these big ugly aggressive black spiders in our house that actually run at you. (This I’m not over-dramatizing). I’ve found three of them in my office, one per day, for the last 3 days in a row and one of them actually ran towards me, backing me in the corner behind my desk (I had to throw a blanket on him and run out). So, the entire time I’m picturing this red and orange spider leaping onto me with its fangs out. And that’s when my camera battery died. So there I was, trapped outside, starving, with an unusable camera, no pictures of the praying mantis, and my cell phone was inside the house.
I started praying the spider would travel left instead of up, like he was trying to. He took his sweet time but the spider eventually moved far enough to the side that I could get back inside. I did not go back outside to take more pictures or remove the caterpillar from my poor naked tomato plant.
For those of you interested, I think the spider I saw looked very similar this marbled orb weaver, but darker with more red and orange shades. It turns out they are not man eating or venomous (if that’s what kind it was) but I don’t plan to test that out anytime soon.
I did get a few photos with my phone of the caterpillar and praying mantis the first time I went outside. They aren’t great, but I’m not going back out there today 🙂
My Favorite Room in the House
My favorite room in the house isn’t actually in our house. It’s our patio! It’s really spacious and covered so we can sit out there and be out of the sun, or enjoy a rainstorm and not get wet. I just love the grass and the trees and how quiet it is too.
This year we planted several pots of flowers , tomatoes, basil, strawberries, and peppers and it really does feel like a garden oasis. If there is a little bit of a breeze you can smell a basil and tomato aroma.
We also have two hummingbirds named Maverick and Goose. Goose is shy and won’t generally come around if we are outside. Maverick, on the other hand, is a little aggressive and protective of his territory and has dive bombed me a couple of times. I’ve noticed a third hummingbird sometimes in the morning but haven’t named him yet. Any ideas? 🙂
Maverick- watching my every move.
Goose- He's so shy that I had to take this from the back corner of the living room.
And last but not least, one of the best parts… our flip-flop door mat.
Have I mentioned that I love flip-flops? 🙂
flipflopsallyear.wordpress.com 