Dumb Dog

 
Anybody want a German Shepherd? Anybody?

Where's the Fruit?

So, I put myself on a diet. It is not some silly little "you will use lose 20 lbs in 2 days diet" nope this is a diet to help lower my blood pressure. The plan calls for lots of fresh fruits and vegetables, whole grains, lean proteins, and low fat dairy. Sweets, simple carbs, and alcohol are limited. Right now I am not ingesting the three bad boys at all. My blood pressure dropped into a low normal range pretty quickly on this plan. As it continues to drop, I hope to get off of my medication.

I am not a very strong willed person. In order to follow this plan, I need all that healthy food right at my fingertips or I am going to make a bad choice. Here is where it gets difficult. Sunday I bought a big bag of grapefruit, a large bunch of bananas, a bunch of mixed lettuce greens, a bag of apples, and a pineapple. When I got home from work tonight, there was not a fruit in the house. They ate it all, every bit of it. There was just enough lettuce to make myself a salad for dinner.

I'm not sure I can afford to stay on this diet. Apparently, my kids can hold five pounds of fruit per kid per day. Yikes.

Monkey Photography

Give a child a crayon, finger paints, or chalk and see what they will come up with. It is often sweet, sometimes pretty, and often surprising. I was once depicted as a pregnant stick figure. As stick figures are transparent, the stick figure baby was visible inside of my triangle shaped stick belly. At least he didn't ask how it got in there.

I took Baby Monkey to a meeting at the extension office this evening. He brought a Rubik's cube to play with, which kept him busy about 35 seconds. I let him have my cell phone and answer the eleventy billion phone calls his brothers made wanting stuff. He is an excellent secretary. He stopped just short of saying, "I'm sorry, she is unavailable. May I take a message?" He ran interference for me for over an hour. I had several, less than positive, messages when the meeting was over. Things like, "The computer won't work." "Can we make flambe?" and "Billy Bob and Bubba want to come over and play jump from the roof to the trampoline." Baby Monkey's instructions were to answer all questions with "No, Mom said to stay in the house and eat peanut butter."

After the meeting, I gave a few new master gardener hopefuls a quick tour of our Earthkind Rose trial. While I was yammering about roses, he said he had found some wild flowers and could he use the camera.
 

Here are the pictures he took. I think he puts his mother's photography skills to shame. Still, I wish he had not attempted to get a picture of my backside. I am the the short one in the blue shirt.

So give a kid a camera and see what they capture.

Sorry, no squirrels.

Happy Monday Everyone.

Welcome to another edition of Aunt Debbi can't take a freaking decent picture to save her life but is really having fun in the garden. I know, being happy about Monday is just about crazy, but today is gorgeous and I managed to get a lot done before it was time to go to work.
 
I potted up some plants for Butterfly Gardener Sister's little pond. The plants are elephant ear, Curly Whirly Juncus, horse tail reed, and umbrella sedge.
 
Here are the same plants in my little water garden.
 
This is a picture of the pitcher plant Paul gave me. The plant in the tall blue vase is another pitcher plant I divided from the bog garden at the Outdoor Education Center (also from the Texas Triffid Ranch)
 

Finally, garlic harvest. These will stay out on the table for a few days until the cure and then I will bring them inside and figure out some place to store them. While pulling them, I got into some poison ivy. This will another test of Technu soap. Wish me luck.

Happy gardening everybody.

Off to the library to check you out some books.

Copy Cat Killer Strikes

 

A killer stalked and murdered an unsuspecting pineapple late this afternoon. This attack was much like the previous crime spree of 2008 targeting vegetables and pumpkins.

There is widespread panic among the peach trees in Tiny Town Texas.

The Ditch of Misfit Plants

 
Here is our ditch. You might call this the ditch of misfit plants. If they didn't fit in anywhere else in our yard, I put them in the ditch. I have big plans for this narrow strip of dirt. Purple cone flowers, Shasta daisies, bronze fennel, and a candle stick tree. I know, I know yellow and pink is a horrible color combination, but what do you except from the ditch of misfit plants?

Sorry No GBBD Post. We Have Swimming

 
We interrupt our usual monthly Garden Bloggers Blooms Day post to bring you the first day of swimming here in north Texas. The water was still cold. No I didn't go in. Instead, I documented their fun and winter tans. Go over and see Carol at May Dreams Gardens to see the real Garden Bloggers Blooms Day Posts.

Happy Summer Y'all.