Category Archives: bug

Oct4

They Are Mine Alright!

Posted on by
Standard

So these are my grandchildren, Libby, Ella, Brendan (in the back) with Eli and Hannah (in the front).  Yes, they are mine alright.  They are loud and rowdy when they get together, like they had not seen each other in ages and catching up with each other’s news.  They see each other fairly often as their mothers are best friends and sisters.  I love my grandchildren despite their loud presence.  I have actually learned to relax with children as I get older.  It is guaranteed, they will bring a smile to my face and make me belly laugh when I am with them.   Angels they are not, unless they are sound asleep on their pillows.  This photo was taken on Easter at my parents’, their great-grandparents’ home in Pike County, Missouri.  Libby is a precocious 8-year old, smart as a whip, and will say things as she sees them.  She is a sponge with science subjects such as plants, likes to garden and camp.  Libby thinks she is the ultimate authority on some matters; therefore, it is her parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, and teachers who instruct her differently with her reluctance.  School of hard knocks, you know.  She reminds me of her mother, my daughter Elisabeth.   I adore them both.  Then there is 6-year old Ella.  She is one investigator, discovers and researches things.  Inquiring minds want to know!  She is a peaceful child, though can let stubbornness ruin “the  moment” unless Mom or Dad steps in.  Ella resembles me in so many ways.  My Dean calls her “Mini Anna”.  Then there is the 1st born grandson, my 5-year old Brendan.  Reading in full sentences since age 4, on the go as a new adventure character, wrestling with Dad, yet makes time to cuddle with Mom.  Now there is one long word to describe 2-year old Eli … whirlwind!  Maybe another word … tornado!  Eli is into everything!  And definitely has those “terrible two” moments.  But he will bring a smile to my face when he says “I like ‘hot cream'” rather than ‘ice cream’ or when he sits next to me and wants to read a book.  Well, I just love to read to children, especially my grandchildren.  And finally, there is my 1st grandchild, Hannah who will be 11-years old in November.   Her nickname “bug” dubbed before she even walked fits her well.  Hannah loves nature and animals, bugs included.  I have a ladybug stepping stone her mother and her designed for me when she was a preschooler.  Hannah is a “social bug” now, loves to be in the know of the raising teenage movie and singing stars, and has limited access to online chats.  I imagine a cellular phone would be her 1st choice for a birthday or Christmas gift.  See if Mom & Dad are ready for that yet!?  Meantime, journaling and creating art are great outlets for her.  Mine, five wonderful grandchildren!

Aug3

The Big Dipper and the Northern Sky

Posted on by
Standard

My Dean & I so enjoyed our stay at Valhalla Resort on Island Lake outside of Detroit Lakes, Minnesota.  It was a peaceful vacation, time to slow down our pace.  Our stay included meals with friends, walks, swims, and fireside chats with tales of old.   Friends shared stories of our childhood sparking laughter one after the other.  One evening turned into a 1:00am departure from the dwindling campfire.  A night owl called to us, or maybe he was talking to the rabbit hiding in the bushes.  Bugs chirped.  All dogs and cats had long since retired to their favorite beds.  As Dean & I walked to our lakeside cabin, we saw the Milky Way.  The Big Dipper shone so brightly in the clear northern sky.  It brought to memory my father sitting a boat nestled near the dock for that particular summer night, telling a young audience how to tell time from The Big Dipper.  My friends recalled this, too.  It seemed like yesterday …  Dad seemed to explain it so easily that we understood it. Here are a few web links on telling time with the stars: http://www.johnpratt.com/items/astronomy/telltime.html, http://www.av8n.com/physics/star-time.htm,  http://www.physics.ucla.edu/~huffman/dtime.html

Jun21

June Bugs

Posted on by
Standard

This June the Japanese beetles made their way to our yard.  (They are not really June bugs, but they arrive in June in my world.)  And of course, we have much for them to munch on as our greenhouse is still in reconstruction.   These shiny metallic looking green bugs seem to love our basil, and tasted the hydrangeas,  geraniums, and hibiscus.   We are thankful as the plants’ temporary home, our green screen house seems to capture the little critters.  And while they mate on the screen, we capture them into jars that become their coffins.  Dean & I seem to have conquered this bug invasion, but are on guard everyday, morning and night for the next  couple of weeks.   Beware!

Jun5

The Ambiance and Menu

Posted on by
Standard

The ambiance and local menu tonight was colorful.  My huge kitchen is decorated with vases of our cut flowers and the fireplace mantle is overcome by beautiful blue hydrangeas from my parents’ yard.  Dean & I’s  dinner plates were filled with roasted spring root veggies and beef  farm fresh by friends who allow their cattle to graze in their farm’s natural pastureland.  I sit on my patio listening to the evening chatter of the birds and crickets until the summer night sky is dotted with fire flies. I needed some beauty in my life today.

My feline companions bat at the moth and June bug on the patio screen hoping to get a hold of them.  Celine and Lily will need to stay inside as the neighborhood Great Horned owl visits our tall backyard maple tree some evenings.  This may be one of those evenings.  We protect our animals from harm with barriers like screen doors.  Maybe similar to how our God sets up boundaries for us.  I take in the beauty of our green friends, the plants we care for everyday.  Tonight I will not water or trim or plant.  I will sit and enjoy the greenery.  They endured the sudden hail storm yesterday.  Our elephant ear , banana trees, and birds of paradise have ripped leaves now.  These plants will come through after some shedding.  Is not life like that?  We get hammered by hard blows,  unwarrantly and needlessly.  Yet, we rise again to be ourselves, probably better people for it if we allow.  Thank you God for the beauty my eyes behold tonight, and the reminder that the heart heals.

Apr25

Why Did My Plant Die?

Posted on by
Standard

Dean & I have been to our eyeballs with green, green, green.  Every now & then, one of our greenhouse plants is brown!  This can be from a number of causes … pests, too much water, not enough water, root damage from a transplant. We are learning more about greenhouse pests, slugs and aphids, and natural methods to eliminate them.  We use beer for the slugs.  They must want a drink served in recycled jar lids, and find themselves swimming in the fermented drink which they eventually dissolve in.  Yuck!  And then aphids dislike dish soap, pepper spray, and lady bugs.  The last resort will be buying some lady bugs.  Gobble them up, ladies!  

I found this gardener/author, and thought to share his humorous poem about “why did my plant die?”  Enjoy!

A poem by Geoffrey B. Charlesworth …

Why Did My Plant Die? 

You walked too close. You trod on it.
You dropped a piece of sod on it.
You hoed it down. You weeded it.
You planted it the wrong way up.
You grew it in a yoghurt cup
But forgot to make a hole;
The soggy compost took its toll.
September storm. November drought.
It heaved in March, the roots popped out.
You watered it with herbicide.
You scattered bonemeal far and wide,
Attracting local omnivores,
Who ate your plant and stayed for more.
You left it baking in the sun
While you departed in a run.
To find a spade, perhaps a trowel,
Meanwhile the plant threw in the towel.
You planted it with crown too high;
The soil washed off, that explains why.
Too high pH. It hated lime.
Alas it needs a gentler clime.
You left the root ball wrapped in plastic.
You broke the roots. They’re not elastic.
You walked too close. You trod on it.
You dropped a piece of sod on it.
You splashed the plant with mower oil.
You should do something to your soil.
Too rich, too poor. Such wretched tilth.
Your soil is clay. Your soil is filth.
Your plant was eaten by a slug.
The growing point contained a bug.
These aphids are controlled by ants,
Who milk the juice, it kills the plants.
In early spring your garden’s mud.
You walked around! That’s not much good.
With heat and light you hurried it.
The poor plant missed the mountain air;
No heat, no summer muggs up there.
You overfed it 10-10-10.
Forgot to water it again.
You hit it sharply with a hose.
You used a can without a rose.
Perhaps you sprinkled from above.
You should have talked to it with love.
The nursery mailed it without roots.
You killed it with those gardening boots.
You walked too close. You trod on it.
You dropped a piece of sod on it.