See You Later Alligators

Leaving for Mexico early early in the morning. Be back next week. Brother is house sitting and caring for the pets.

The Frustration of Butterfly Photography

I spent part of my morning chasing two butterflies around my garden. The first is the one I actually managed to photograph. It is a Gulf Fritillary and it was laying eggs on my passion vine. That mama needs to get after it and leave me some caterpillars. That passion vine is out of control and needs to be cut back. How much fun it is to let the caterpillars do it for me. The bottom picture shows that the passion vine has eaten a bicycle.

The other butterfly was a black swallowtail. Very beautiful, but she just wouldn't pose for a photo. Must be shy or something. Or maybe she's a snotty diva who is too good for my camera.

I finally succeeded in braiding garlic. I found excellent instructions on the interweb. Turns out you start with three, braid, add one, braid, add two braid, rinse repeat. Worked great. Looks like we are vampire proof for another year.

Two days to Mexico. WooHoo.

Mistaken Tomato Identity

The tomato I said was Mr. Stripey yesterday is not Mr. Stripey at all. It is Avivvi. Monica from Garden Faeries Musings was generous enough to share these seeds among others with me in a progressive seed exchange earlier this year. The other tomato seeds I took from the exchange were Ladino di Panacchio which is producing lots of flattened ribbed fruit. They are still little, but the plant is loaded.

Thanks again Monica. You're the best.

I'm back. I just ate that tomato and it was awesomely delicious. There is nothing in this world as good as the first homegrown tomato of the summer sprinkled with a little sea salt and eaten all by itself. Avivvi had a nice acid real tomato flavor. I will definitely grow it again and again. I like it even better than green zebra.

Finished Dead Until Dark.

Just finished "Dead Until Dark" by Charlaine Harris. Much fun with vampires, but the humans are still the bad guys. There is even an Elvis sighting. Looking forward to the rest of the series.

Read any good vampire stories lately other than the Twilight series?

Hello Mr. Stripey

The honor of first ripe tomato goes to Mr. Stripey. He beat out early girl by a long shot. Of course, the little cherry tomatoes are ripening a few at at time and will make produce fruit longer than the rest during the heat. That pepper is supposed to be a Serrano, but it doesn't look like any Serrano I've ever seen before. Stupid plant labels.

Tomorrow I will eat this Mr. Stripey and not share. I wills save the seeds to grow it again next year. Now I am off to try to figure out how to braid that garlic.

Taco Casserole

I am taking this casserole to my sister's bachelorette party. Yes, we pot luck events like this. Bow to our awesomeness and lack of nekid men.

2 pounds browned ground beef
2 packets taco seasoning
2 cans of crescent rolls
2 cups shredded cheddar or Mexican blend cheese

Prepare the taco meat. Line a casserole dish with one can of crescent rolls. Spoon the meat over the crescent rolls and top with the cheese. Place the second can of crescent rolls over the top of the casserole and bake at 375 until the crescent roll crust is golden brown.

Have a great weekend.

Bad Garden Blogger, Very Very Bad

So a couple of weeks ago I promised some of you who commented seeds. Then I got all excited and decided to make you a hand made present. Then I thought it would be nice if you had one more set of seeds that was not quite ready yet. Anyway, I finished the craft and organized all the seeds. They will all be in the mail tomorrow. Sorry for the delay my lovely garden blogger buddies. I hope the wait will be worth it.

To those of you who volunteered to be interviewed and help me learn to put together a newsletter; I am going to Mexico next week and will be blowing you off until I get back get back to you when I return.

You are all excellent.

Sorry I suck.