Something new and some things old

Last year we only saw one teeny-tiny nonpoisonous snake here at the stuga. I thought that was just about the right number of snakes to see. Zero, of course, being the perfect number. Unfortunately, my feelings of security were false, because this year we've already seen four. I've decided to add a list of all the snakes we encounter here in stuga land (in the sidebar to the right). I'm hoping that by going to the effort of making a list, I won't see any more this year.

I guess I'm a copycat once again, because this time I copied Spork and moved some of my old googlepages stuff over to Blogger. In my defense, he copied me (after I copied Lorie) by moving to Blogger. So I'm a copycat of a copycat of me. This is beginning to feel like an infinite loop.

The garden keeps growing

Growing in size, anyway. I happened to catch a new shipment of roses being unloaded last week at one of the big box stores, and pretty little Europeana caught my eye, then found its way my cart. I'm amazed at how far a potted plant can jump in an effort to go home with me.


Europeana

I also took a trip to a local rose grower this week with my sister, Terri, and my mom. I did great sticking to my plan of only buying a Charles Darwin and a Duchesse de Brabant, until I got to the checkout and noticed the clearance section. Stupid clearance sales, they get me every time! I picked what I am hoping is an Ebb Tide. It had no tag, except for the $5 price marker, so it's a little like buying a lottery ticket. Maybe a slightly higher chance of winning, though.

The climbing Don Juan I planted last month is putting out some whopper blooms already. Isn't he pretty? I like to imagine him speaking to me with Antonio Banderas's voice. "Hello, my darling. You look so lovely today. Come a leetle closer and give me a kees."


Don Juan

The edible garden plants are doing great, too. Spork dug up the first potatoes of the year Monday (because I had already had enough fun with nature that day). We ate 'em boiled with lots and lots of butter.



Other goodies from the garden this week include dill, broccoli, onions, snow peas, strawberries and blackberries. The blackberries are just trickling in, but I sense a cobbler in my future.

Mother Nature is trying to kill me

So yesterday we get ready to take the dogs for their morning walk and I point out a spiderweb by the door to Spork. He says, "Yeah, I poked at that with my foot yesterday." I look a little closer and notice that it is a black widow. Spork digs it out and smashes it repeatedly with his shoe until it's just a greasy spot on the floor.

Later that day...

I probably haven't mentioned this before, but I keep an old plastic cup from Andy's Frozen Custard* in my bathroom to water my plants. I decided to water the plants, since it was Monday and all, and found this inside:




Since there's nothing to provide scale here, he's about 2 inches from leg tip to leg tip.

I jumped. The spider jumped. That made me jump and almost drop the cup. I, of course, took it to Spork to see him jump, but he just said, "Spiders are cool." Harumph, I guess he didn't recall the morning spider puree incident.

About 6:00 PM...

I'm outside doing the garden thing, preparing the soil to plant some okra. I take my garden fork (a threek, technically) and pull the mulch back towards my flip-flop clad feet and this pops out at me:



My reaction was a swearing fit audible only to dogs. Then I realized that it was "hiding" from me. Snakey apparently thought that if it couldn't see me, I couldn't see it because once the tiny little leaf covering its head was removed, it took off like lightning. Unfortunately, it took off into the garden, so I know its still in there... Somewhere...

So what's up with Mother Nature? Is she pissed off at me because I didn't send her a Mother's Day card? How can I make amends?

*If you haven't been to Andy's, it's freakin' fantastic!

By popular request, I present Lizard McGuire

Lizard McGuire is a fence post lizard that lives in the rock pile by my irises. She (for some reason, I get a "she" vibe off of her) moved in last spring when she was about 1" long. As long as she's sitting on top of this rock - her sun rock - she's pretty brave, but if you come across her on the ground, she is so outta there.




My sister, Mary, is trying to hook Lizard McGuire up with her lizard, Nubby. Nubby lost his tail in a tragic accident. There may be legal action in the near future.