Idalou Texas

Somebody from Idalou, Texas read my blog today. I don't know who you are, but I am naming the white bunny after your town. I love my site meter. One time someone showed up from Katmandu, too cool.

ARRRG...CLICK BEETLE!!!!!!!!!

It has been a critter filled day here at Aunt Debbi's Garden.

The temperature is below 90 so out into the garden I go. The chore list includes weeding, spreading compost, and killing weeds in the pathways with boiling water. Smells a lot like cooking spinach. Why would anyone every cook perfectly good spinach and make it into a green gooey mess? It is so lovely as a salad.

The first visitor we noticed was a giant swallowtail butterfly. It was sipping nectar from the zinnias. We check the lemon tree to see if it had laid any eggs. Instead of a bird poo looking caterpillar, all we found was actual bird poo on the lemon. Too bad, maybe later

The next visitor was a two lined skink. It was not actually a visitor. Baby Monkey kidnapped it from a neighbors house and brought it home. I made him release it in the garden after the poor things tail fell off.


I came back into the house to put the pot back on the stove to boil when I noticed something large and dark on my shoulder. It moved when I tried to brush it off. I asked Middle Monkey to identify it. He starts screaming, "It's a giant cockroach." I find myself dancing around the kitchen screaming, "GET IT OFF, GET IT OFF!!!!" He runs for a towel yelling, "This may hurt." Not sure what he was planing on doing. About the time he took a swipe at it with the towel I hear a loud click. Praise the Lord it was not a giant cockroach. It was a black and white click beetle. We played with it for a little while and let it go on the deck.

On further research I find that the click beetles larva eat corn plants. Hmmm, maybe we should have let it go someplace else.

Happy 4th

High Noon at Aunt Debbi's Garden the Spagetti War Begins

Will it be "The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly?

Click the question for more fun.

The Sock Situation is Not Over

Remember the great sock debate? Rember the poll?. Well the four of us who thought it was important remember it. OFB was out voted and socks are here to stay. Well, The manic gardener had this too funny post today. This is exactly what happens when garden bloggers get in a tiff. Shame on all of us ;)

June Block of the Month and a Bunny

The June block of the month is the baskets on the left. The top block is a completer my mom had to finish for me because I had a fit and fell in it. I was threatening to quit making the completer blocks. She felt bad for getting me into this mess and is trying to help me. On the right is the first block (actually circle) for my niece's wedding quilt. The colors are too dark in this picture. The fabrics are burgundy and plum prints in the dark rings with gold and plum floral prints in the light ring.

Here is a gratuitous "aw look at the baby bunny picture." Isn't she cute, I mean the rabbit, but the girl cousin is cute too.

On a Lighter Note

The very sweet Cindy at Cinj's Chat Room honored me with the Arte y Pico award. Below is the explanation I copied from her post, because you know I am too lazy to rewrite it and I would probably get it wrong anyway.

"Ana explains the thought behind her award. “This prize has arisen from the daily visits that I dedicate to many blogs which nourish me and enrich me with creativity. In them I see dedication, creativity, care, comradeship, but mainly, art, much art.”

I am very pleased and a bit confused. I never thought this blog qualified as art, unless "crazy middle aged woman tries to herd monkeys" counts as art. Maybe it is a craft. Is it a craft?

Anyway, here are the rules and instructions.

Please be so kind to accept this award. You can keep it to yourself or pass it on, that's up to you of course. But there are some rules if you decide to pass on the award to remarkable blogs you feel are worthy of the award.

1. You have to pick 5 blogs that you consider deserve this award through creativity, design, interesting material and also contributes to the blogger community no matter of language.

2. Each award should have the name of the author with a link to their blog.

3. Award winners have to post the award with the name and link to the blog of the person who gave them the award.

4.Please include a link to the Arte Y Pico blog so that everyone will know where the award came from.

5. Show these rules.

Here are the blogs I picked and why

My sister at In Stitches because I love to watch and see her spread her creative wings.

Weed Whackin Wenches because their photos are beautiful and sometimes they crack me up.

Garden Life a beautiful Japanese garden blog. Can't read what he is writing, but the pictures are awesome.

Ourfriendben, Silence, and Poor Richard at Poor Richard's Almanac for great writing and good recipes

Finally, Givinya De Elba at Killing a Fly with a Ukulele is Probably the Wrong Thing To Do because she is seriously funny and her brother wrote me a poem.

Okay, I wasn't finished and I am going to cheat. Actually, I am going to swipe a nominee from my sister. Sorry Sis, you only get four. I also want to pick Dee at Red Dirt Ramblings. Her blog is beautiful and she can actually focus on gardening. She also gave me blogging advice in the beginning. I am still open to your mentoring Dee.

Thanks again Cindy. You are the best.