Mosaic Mom

Appearance

Mr. Gopher Turtle showed up this afternoon.
Plant Daddy spotted him/her/it grazing on the Bahaia grass. So we quickly harvested strawberries, a few tomatoes and a couple of bell peppers and offered him a proper meal.

He scarffed it all up then waddled back to his turtle hole to digest.


Bountiful Baskets

Our little vegetable garden just keeps on keeping on.
Twice this week we have harvested LARGE bags of tomatoes, bell peppers, jalapenos, and eggplants. The Kid has toted the veggies to her home and feasted with friends. Awesome.
There’s one last harvest of sweet corn this week, too.

Tonight we fertilized the Okra and planted marigolds. As long as the monsoons hold off, the tomatoes will keep going. Once the rains come, diseases and bugs get the upper hand. Then we will plow it all under and wait till fall.


Case Against Casey

I need a 12 Step Program!
I am addicted to watching the the Casey Anthony Trial on TV.

It’s just like watching the Hurricane Katrina Disaster in New Orleans.
It’s awful and horrific, but you just can’t not watch the train wreck.



Dumpster Depression

Here’s a little sign of a bad economy:

My dumpster bill came today.
The company offered me $25 if I recommend a new customer for them.

You never think of the trickle down effect like that. Fewer businesses means less dumpsters. A downward cycle that just keeps spinning.

Lookey Lookey at what the Kid made at Sugar School!

Wow! and Yummy too.

Our Internet has been out for a couple of days. Messages are not coming and going properly, so if you sent something and haven't had a reply, re-send.

It felt odd without internet. But the darned part was that I had some writing/publishing messages that had to have a response. I THINK those messages got through, but I will follow up next week.

I went to Publix tosay for all the Memorial Day sales...Buy 1 Get one Potato Chips. The hookers were sitting on a bench near Matress Giant, waving at passing pick-up trucks (no pun intended). They were behaving nicely today, not looking or acting skanky. Way to go, Hookers! Well played.

We are waiting for the sun to go down then water the garden and hop in the pool. I bought a new bug zapper...will try it out on the danged yellow flies tonight.

The Kid dropped by yesterday to harvest tomatoes, potatoes, zucchini, and corn for her Memorial Day feast.

Is she cooking those good veggies today?
No, she is at Sugar School!

Notter Pastry School

I think with all her skills in art and sculpture, she will make excellent sugar sculptures.

I will be indoors today. Cleaning and processing corn for the freezer and watching the Casey Anthony trial.

I spent the entire day from 9AM till 4:30 PM sitting on the sofa watching Channel 6 coverage of the Casey Anthony trial.

What a guilty pleasure.

What a wasted day.

Well, I did get all the ironing done. And cooked a nice eggplant dinner. And tomorrow looks like I will get the house dusted.

And what the heck it's 94 degrees outside, so why not?

This morning I was off to the Post Office.

I opened the back door and started to step down.

Oops!

Blackie the Black Snake was parked on the step.

That would have been a bad encounter for both of us.

I slammed the door and waited 30 seconds. He had started to inch away. I waited 30 more seconds and he was gone.

When I got out to the front gate, I smelled the possum again. He was run over 3 days ago. The buzzards worked him over, but he is still a stinkin' in this 95 degree heat!

P.U.

Plant Daddy and I spent the afternoon bobbing in the pool.

Plant Daddy hopped out and went off to BBQ our last meal.

(Since the world was to have ended at 6PM we wanted a good last meal…pork chops, potatoes, corn and a tomato salad…)

After I got out of the pool to get dressed, I decided to go commando.

For the genteel among you who don’t know what that means…it means I got dressed without any undies.

We ate our dinner, Plant Daddy napped on the sofa and I decided to plant some Zinnias around the pump. That went well, except that I had left over Zinnias.

“I’ll put them in the back garden,” sez I and proceeded back there.

I got the Zinnias planted.
I got the hose and watered them in.

I suddenly felt that I was not alone in my shorts!
Something had flown up my leg for a visit.

I shook the hem. Nothing moved. I returned to my watering.

That hornet proceeded to pop my nekkid rear end with a vengence.

On the first sting, I arched backwards, hose water shooting up in the air. I managed to shower myself soaking wet.

On the second sting, I dropped the hose and hollered so loud they could have mounted me on a fire engine and used me to move traffic.

By the third sting, I managed to get my pants pulled down. I was now bare ass nekkid within sight of traffic moving down the road, but I did not care. I wanted that thing off me.

I was blind with pain, I scooted to the house to get some first aid.

Poor Plant Daddy got his nap interrupted. He had to apply Bactine spray…carefully!

Tomorrow morning , I will be heading out to the garden with whatever serious pesticide spray I can find.
I am going to get my revenge.
I will be wearing underwears.

Yesterday was wash the sheets day, hence I slept late this morning enjoying the fresh fragrance. Good excuse, but I will feel like I'm playing catch up all day.

Yesterday was also clean out the pool again. The temps are back to mid-90's, so we are back to swimmimg. My Mom even sent me a cover-up to wear when I get out of the pool at night. Thanks!

Today is harvest tomatoes and zucchini and eggplant...go to the garden and get hot...then hit the pool. Great strategy.

I am going to plant a container of zinnias by the kitchen window. Also might transplant the sunflowers into the back garden by the corn today. It's grow your own bird seed time.

No more blackberries or blueberries or strawberries. Just waiting on the pineapples and figs now.

Not much else to report. Have a great Saturday...and since it might be the last day ever...make it count!

If you’re like me, this is what you think of when you hear the word “hose”…


Yesterday, however, my whole world of hoses got expanded exponentially!
I visited Amazon Hose Company in Orlando.

When I got there, I went in the wrong door.
As it turned out, it was not a busy moment and one guy showed me through the warehouse.

Holy Moly!
Did they ever have hoses!
I never thought about so many kinds of hoses before.

Automotive…
Construction…like that hose they blow shot-crete through!
Food and Beverage…soda dispensers at all the fast food places!
Government…fire trucks
Heavy equipment…back hoes and hydraulics
Marine...
Petrochemical…gas pumps!
Pharmaceuticals…latex and plastic tubing
Plants and mills…milk and flour and grains
Utilities… sewer cleaners

Go visit their site. Amazon Hose. You’ll love it!

http://www.amazonhose.com/

I was there to get two new hoses for the nursery sprayer.

I got a mind expanding adventure for free.

Here’s another view of the sweet potatoes.

I used sweet potatoes in the chicken curry tonight. Yum.
It added a spicy flavor that carrots just don’t deliver.

I had sent a story to Storyglossia. It got rejected. Sigh.
I think now I know what went wrong and I will start a rewrite asap.

The editor rejected me really quickly…within 48 hours of submission. I really appreciated that. Now I have time to do the rewrite and submit the story elsewhere.

I also appreciate that I had to create a submishmash account to do the submission because a place I will submit to this fall now accepts submishmash (on-line submissions).

I have 2 other writing assignments on my desk, so the story will have to wait. I had to make a run to Orlando today, which I will write up for tomorrow’s blog.

This little raised garden has sat out in front of Lowe's about 3 months.
Poor Little Garden...it never got any attention.

It was stuffed with all the wrong plants, in all the wrong placements within the box.

It was never fertilized.
Probably not watered much.
Sad.




Somebody needs to put it out of its misery.
Either plant it up with some summer annuals, or ditch it.

It has been marked down to $69.
Pretty good bargain actually.

We keep a second garden for corn and sweet potatoes.

We have consumed the first block of corn and will have another batch late next week. Yum!

Just to the right of the corn, I planted 22 sweet potatoe plants yesterday. That should be a good crop come October.

I was afraid the severe storm and hail might have beat up the transplants, but they are OK! Already growing. We had 2 inches of rain yesterday.

We are having more rain today. It's good for the trees.

We had a sudden intense thunder storm and it produced HAIL!


It was scorchingly hot all afternoon but It's too cold for swimmimg now!

I thought I posted this picture yesterday, but it is not showing on the current list. Grrr.

Today I started planting sweet potatoes for the October harvest.

With Thanks to Ed Thralls, here are some more really great web sites for gardening in this area...Check 'em out!

Orange County Master Gardener Blog

Orange County Community Gardens

Facebook Fan Page for Orange County Master Gardeners

Twitter for Orange County Master Gardeners

Orange County Extension Service Website

I am having a great Mother's Day!
Plant Daddy is grilling the BBQ ribs.
Little Mind Escape is doing the laundry.
I am sitting on the sofa reading the Sunday paper...say, did you know there is a Zucchini Festival in Gainesville next weekend? Maybe we should go!

Anyway...hope everyone is having a great day!

At Target, I was checking out with my paper towels and dental floss…it’s corn harvest time; got to be prepared.

A manager came up to clear away a cart that had been abandoned near the candy and magazines…apparently with items left in it!

“Do you think those people will come back for this?” the manager asked the cashier, holding aloft some sales circulars from JC Penney.

“No, but someone’s probably going to come after this.” The cashier held up a black mini-bag tied with a fancy bow…from Zales Jewelers!

“Somebody’s going to have an unhappy Mother’s Day if they don’t retrieve that,” I said.

Nods of agreement all around.


I drove on to Publix.

I got my BBQ items, got in another check out lane. A girl named Piper scanned my items.
I had to bag them because the store was busy and no bagboys were available. NBD…until…

Piper says, “Oh, I didn’t scan your chicken.” And she scans 2 bags of Tyson tenderloins.
I bagged them and paid, moved my cart up 2 feet. Then I stood there and checked that tape.

Sure enough, Piper had rung my chicken up twice!
It was a $10.00 error!

I complained immediately! A manager came over and issued me a credit straight away!
Close call.
Caveat emptor.

Were there hookers today?
No, but there was a very odd couple at Walgreen’s.

She was a tall, 5 ft.10 in., svelte, black woman, exquisite shoulder length, lightly curled wig, designer sunglasses, gold necklace and earrings, long manicured nails, high heels, wearing a skintight royal blue sundress that looked like it came from Fredrick’s of Hollywood. She looked like a Fredrick’s of Hollywood model.

He, on the other hand, was a 5’6” dumpy white guy with a straggly, grey, ponytail down to his hips, a beach motif shirt, surfer shorts and cheap flip-flops.

They were standing right next to each other, not talking to each other, in the vitamin aisle. They were not removing vitamins from the shelves and looking at them as if they might be considering a purchase. They were just standing there.

Just odd.
Or maybe I just notice stuff like that because I’m a writer.

I have found an awesome web site for gardening information...
Check this out!

Orange County Ag Extension

I have also heard that they have some new demonstration gardens there that are worth a see. I will be going as soon as the stack of writing work on my desk gets whittled down a bit.

Mom 1
Squirrel 0


Mom 3
Cockroaches 0

Where are all those roaches coming from? We've had one a day for three days.
Last night Plant Daddy was the hero and smashed the nasty critter in the hall.I finished the job with my shoe.
I sprayed the house yesterday, so , hopefully, no more.

As for squirrels, everybody knows how much I hate those rats with fuzzy tails.

Adjust the timer.
Yesterday I ran to the Post Office…Mother’s Day cards en route!
There was a terrible smell in the lobby of the P.O.

(It was similar to the smell at Winn Dixie last week….Did I ever blog about that? I went inside the WD on Monday after the Easter holiday and smelled ammonia. Very strong. I complained to the manager who said it was only floor wax, never the less, I made a bee line out and shopped at Publix instead.)

Anyway, I said nothing to the postmistress about the odor, but while she was weighing my priority letter, she complained that she had just burned her bacon in the microwave and ruined her lunch.

Mystery solved.

Time to renew the membership.
I got an email reminder from Florida Writers Association. I suppose I will give it one more year.

Time flies when you’re having fun.
Since hearing Lee Gutkind speak at Tallahassee Writers Association, I have written one article in creative non fiction style. It got accepted for publication.
I have read three memoir style books.

Time to get crackin’!
Yesterday, I started a story for fall competition.

Berry Good Time!
LME arrived from South Carolina yesterday and immediately set to picking blackberries. She hauled in 16 cups = 4 quart bags = 4 pies!
Yummy!

You should never go barefoot in the garden.
Danger.
You might step on something sharp.

Likewise you should wear shoes with tops, like athletic shoes, so that insects cannot bite your toes!

Not to mention that you could sunburn the tops of your feet. Ouch.

Last night I got the last eggplant planted and got a bed of Zinnias transplanted. They always cheer me up. Such happy flowers.
Tonight I will seed in some more Zipper Cream peas and then that's it till fall.

OK, except for the sweet potatoes next week, then that's it till fall.