Welcome to Caties Nature Page
Yesterday the weather afforded me the opportunity to finally work outside on my much-neglected flowerbeds. With constant 100+ degree-days and an even higher heat index, yesterdays morning rain and cloudy mid 80s afternoon was a HUGE relief. I took full advantage
I wrote a lot in the spring about my love for lilac bushes; yesterday I planted 3. One is looking a little rough and Im worried she might not make it, but the other two are gorgeous and healthy. Here are the lovelies I planted. Give them several years and the side of my house will look like one enormous lilac bush!
See the one in the very back, by the fence? She is very special. When I was in second grade, my family moved from the suburbs of Chicago to a small town in Indiana into a house on a lake. The house we moved from, outside Chicago, had a row of lilac bushes on the side of the house, right outside my bedroom window. That is where my love of lilacs began. So when we moved to Indiana, the first Mothers Day I gave my mom a lilac bush. She and I planted it at the edge of the rose garden she was starting down by the edge of the lake. The only sunny spot in our backyard that was full of magnificent oak trees. 16 years later, my parents divorced and my mom had to sell the lake house and move into town. She took a shoot of the lilac bush I bought her so many years before, with her to her new house: A piece of me, a piece of the lake, in town. She planted it in her backyard and now, 11 years later, it is huge and beautiful. When my mother came to visit a few months back she brought me a shoot off that lilac bush she brought from the lake: a piece of me, a piece of the lake, a piece of my past here in Arkansas. It has been sitting out in my garden, in the pot my mother brought it in, all summer. I didnt want to plant it until I knew what direction my life was heading. I wasnt going to plant it here until I knew I was staying. Today I planted it, back in the corner by the fence, underneath my daughters bedroom window. In a few years I hope the bush will be big enough for her to smell the spring blooms in her bedroom as I remember as a little girl.
After I planted the lilac bushes I planted 2 Spiraeas and a gorgeous Forsythia I scored for $7 at Walmart. Once those were planted I started pulling weeds and grass out of my flowerbeds. Since I havent been out to weed for 2 months due to the oppressive heat here, there was an enormous thorny weed that had grown to the size of two of my Azalea bushes. Just as I was about to pull it out of the ground, cursing at the thorns and its size, I noticed something on one of the branches. It was two of the biggest caterpillars Ive ever seen.
Finger in pic so you can tell how big the little guy was
here is the other one munching on a flower
Im glad I saw them hanging out, one eating a flower the other eating a leaf. I cant pull the weed now, until they crawl away or turn into butterflies, that weed will stay right were it is.
Last but not least, I began filling in all the holes a pesky armadillo has been making in my 2 flowerbeds next to the house. This has been going on for about 4 weeks. Every morning I wake up and mulch is all over the walkway and holes throughout my garden. Last weekend I thought I had gotten rid of the little critter. At about 1am (slightly drunk, I had just gotten home from the bars, I know, early, Im an old lady) I heard something outside the dining room window. The boys and I went outside to investigate and found the armadillo under my bushes. Here is a pic of him, kinda, it was 1 am, I was drunk, and Im not sure how aggressive the fellas are so I really didnt want to move any more of the bush to get a better pic.
his head is in the middle of the pic, you can see his eye, and his body is on the right side of the pic.
We scared him out of the bushes and he ran across the street into my neighbors yard. It was pretty cool. Id never seen an armadillo before. He just started coming back a couple days ago (or a new one) so the holes are back
That was my Saturday, how was yours?
Oh, and Friday when I was in the carpool lane picking up my son from school, a katydid was crawling on my drivers side window, I wish I had my camera. He was really cute, looked a lot like the cutie crawling on the side of my breast
AND, while talking on the phone with Josephene on Friday, she and I discovered I have a hidden talent, Fairy Erotica!
Is this what it feels like to be happy and content? I like it.
Yesterday the weather afforded me the opportunity to finally work outside on my much-neglected flowerbeds. With constant 100+ degree-days and an even higher heat index, yesterdays morning rain and cloudy mid 80s afternoon was a HUGE relief. I took full advantage
I wrote a lot in the spring about my love for lilac bushes; yesterday I planted 3. One is looking a little rough and Im worried she might not make it, but the other two are gorgeous and healthy. Here are the lovelies I planted. Give them several years and the side of my house will look like one enormous lilac bush!
See the one in the very back, by the fence? She is very special. When I was in second grade, my family moved from the suburbs of Chicago to a small town in Indiana into a house on a lake. The house we moved from, outside Chicago, had a row of lilac bushes on the side of the house, right outside my bedroom window. That is where my love of lilacs began. So when we moved to Indiana, the first Mothers Day I gave my mom a lilac bush. She and I planted it at the edge of the rose garden she was starting down by the edge of the lake. The only sunny spot in our backyard that was full of magnificent oak trees. 16 years later, my parents divorced and my mom had to sell the lake house and move into town. She took a shoot of the lilac bush I bought her so many years before, with her to her new house: A piece of me, a piece of the lake, in town. She planted it in her backyard and now, 11 years later, it is huge and beautiful. When my mother came to visit a few months back she brought me a shoot off that lilac bush she brought from the lake: a piece of me, a piece of the lake, a piece of my past here in Arkansas. It has been sitting out in my garden, in the pot my mother brought it in, all summer. I didnt want to plant it until I knew what direction my life was heading. I wasnt going to plant it here until I knew I was staying. Today I planted it, back in the corner by the fence, underneath my daughters bedroom window. In a few years I hope the bush will be big enough for her to smell the spring blooms in her bedroom as I remember as a little girl.
After I planted the lilac bushes I planted 2 Spiraeas and a gorgeous Forsythia I scored for $7 at Walmart. Once those were planted I started pulling weeds and grass out of my flowerbeds. Since I havent been out to weed for 2 months due to the oppressive heat here, there was an enormous thorny weed that had grown to the size of two of my Azalea bushes. Just as I was about to pull it out of the ground, cursing at the thorns and its size, I noticed something on one of the branches. It was two of the biggest caterpillars Ive ever seen.
Finger in pic so you can tell how big the little guy was
here is the other one munching on a flower
Im glad I saw them hanging out, one eating a flower the other eating a leaf. I cant pull the weed now, until they crawl away or turn into butterflies, that weed will stay right were it is.
Last but not least, I began filling in all the holes a pesky armadillo has been making in my 2 flowerbeds next to the house. This has been going on for about 4 weeks. Every morning I wake up and mulch is all over the walkway and holes throughout my garden. Last weekend I thought I had gotten rid of the little critter. At about 1am (slightly drunk, I had just gotten home from the bars, I know, early, Im an old lady) I heard something outside the dining room window. The boys and I went outside to investigate and found the armadillo under my bushes. Here is a pic of him, kinda, it was 1 am, I was drunk, and Im not sure how aggressive the fellas are so I really didnt want to move any more of the bush to get a better pic.
his head is in the middle of the pic, you can see his eye, and his body is on the right side of the pic.
We scared him out of the bushes and he ran across the street into my neighbors yard. It was pretty cool. Id never seen an armadillo before. He just started coming back a couple days ago (or a new one) so the holes are back
That was my Saturday, how was yours?
Oh, and Friday when I was in the carpool lane picking up my son from school, a katydid was crawling on my drivers side window, I wish I had my camera. He was really cute, looked a lot like the cutie crawling on the side of my breast
AND, while talking on the phone with Josephene on Friday, she and I discovered I have a hidden talent, Fairy Erotica!
Is this what it feels like to be happy and content? I like it.
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Maybe you are a shaolin?