Periwinkles, Roses, and a Lizard Friend

Nothing influences you like the wishes (especially sweet ones) of your precious grandchildren!!! Going against my efforts to go all perennial, Donovan REALLY WANTED to pick out a few periwinkles yesterday at Home Depot! Of course, Grandma Julie said "Yeah, OK...sounds good, Mr."! So here are 4 new ones, one reddish, one purple (violet), one light and one dark pink. I wanted a white, but none were available. I just got them into a tire this morning, while to was still bearable to go outside...(heat and mug)... Should be very pretty in a few weeks!

Oh, BTW...my Home Depot no longer carries miniature roses...I have to go to Lowes or an independent nursery. Interesting.

Here are a few shots of my miniature yellow roses...gosh they are so fun! You deadhead, and BAM...a few hours later, you are seeing tons of buds! This could be enough to EVER keep me from returning to work! LOLOL. Yeah. Right.



This pink one below is what the buds sometimes look like in the early stages! Strange, eh??? Then they turn yellow. So sweet.

Here is a little friend who met me this morning, and seemed to be unafraid as I spoke to him, and got closer for a photo...he was out a'courtin...with a lot of dancing and flapping of his dewlap! So amazing.

Stitches, Doozey and Nature Wednesday!

Doozey is thinking "I hate this woman...I am not gonna look, even though she he snapping, calling, clicking...get her away with that red thing...go away mama"!!!

Lookie! What is better than your own artful stitches as your phone background??? Yeah, baby!!!

Here are a few pics I took during a little hike through the woods in search of the illusive praying mantis (not found).









Happy Wednesday!
Julie

I'm dripping in eggplants, and other garden delights!

When I got home today, the lighting seemed perfect for a few garden shots!
My Kalanchoe are covered in leaflets right now! Here is a shot looking straight down onto the top of a K. tubiflora (talk about an awe inspiring design)!!!:

And K. daigremontianum. Isn't this just gorgeous colors???

The new Drift Rose is getting covered by new flowers!




I have a load of green tomatoes. Besides this plant, I have 3 more plants loaded up!!! I think I will make Emeril Lagasse's Green Tomato Pie...I found the recipe in my last Organic Gardening Magazine! Looks delicious!

How many eggplants do you see hanging in there??? I counted 8 visable ones, and a few more were hidden by leaves!!! These babies are continually producing...I have to admit we are reaching the brink with consumption though...I think I have too many plants for sure...but it has been a ton of fun!!!



This little guy ran out just in time for me to snap a pic of him...he seemed to enjoy modeling...stood there quite a while! It looks like his body is wet, and his tail is dry, doesn't it???

I ended up going to work today for my last day of laptop training...
I still have laryngitis tonight, but feel good. It has been a strange illness in that I have been able to carry on throughout. Thank God!

Hope everyone has a great weekend!!!
Julie

I'm running an upscale resort for lizards!

It's multi storied, warm, and a friendly kinda place! Beautiful too...populated with colorful succulents and weeds! Ha! I have to say that while I have been sick, and barely tottling into the kitchen to get yet another cup of hot tea, I have enjoyed my little lizard friends! They have given me the most happiness (Doozey is # 1 in that department)! Everytime I look out there, there are anywhere from one to five of them laying around, sometimes frollicking about with each other...playing in the new found warmth of the spring sun of south Florida!

Sometimes I think I should get rid of the tires...maybe they are too much of an eyesore for some (not me)...but then I think of my little lizard friends...their whole lovely vacation lifestyle would be gone. There is no way I can do it.

As soon as I am better (Dr. Oz says the flu generally lasts 14 days, and I am on day 13)...I will get my succulent tires revised again and upgrade the resorts...new hot stones, refreshed hot rubber spa mats, with a few new lovely plants for decor. My outdoor guests should be as happy as clams (I mean spoiled rotten lizards)!

Lounge lizards...

They look about how I feel....

Happy Cactus Monday with a rabbit riding lizard!

It was a happy Cactus day when I saw this little guy riding on the back of my stone rabbit!! Can you see him???

Should I ride this way? I forgot my saddle!

Or maybe backward facing??? Bareback is best anyway, I suppose!

Happy Cactus Monday from one messed up ol' lady!!! LOL.
xoxo- Julie

Well, I did it!

Well, here is an all-too-familiar story. The one where you just feel compelled to stop somewhere on your way home from work, just to sort of check out the succulents, and maybe a new pot. Yeah, yeah, yeah...and then you know what happens. I found a nice pot for burying my crested baby, but I also found another crested baby (just like mine), so decided to plant two. Here they are with their stalks buried, to become giant roots. BTW, the new plant I bought was calling my name because it was sitting in a bag of water because they were in an open area, and it has rained every evening for the past week. I HAD to. Had to. Had to. I think they look real nice sharing their new pot together. Of course I removed all of that wet soil around the roots of the new plant, so it is so happy now. I am happy for them both!

Here is a littel orange colored lizard that Doozey and I found on our walk tonight. It is hard to see just how orange he was...he was a sort of bright rust color...quite pretty.

And last I got a shot of Doozey saying "Please don't take me in the house...I want to contine on my smell-o-walk"! That is what we call our leisurely walks where she is allowed to stop and smell all those lovely doggy smells around the neighborhood. When she gets back home again, she stops in her tracks outside on the sidewalk, and refuses to walk to the front door...she has to be carried up, because no good walk can ever last long enough!!!

Home Sweet Lizard Home...

Many lizards are found basking in the sun on my succulent tires throughout the days, but today I walked out to take a few pics, and found this sweet little head poking out from the back of the tire...from a little home he made...can you see it???

Here is a close-up! He let me get pretty close, and seemed to trust that I wouldn't hurt him. I named him No Tale...(his tail is missing, and all he has is a stump!)...even though he probably would have some good tales to tell, if he could tell them to me!!! LOL.

The beginning of my Saturday!

I went outside to clean my car out, and I kept hearing this little splashing sound (and it was not raining). Finally I investigated, because I thought I might be going nuts...and here is what I found...a little lizard who had fallen into a pitcher I keep out on my front step to collect rain water in to water the plants by my front door. Poor guy!


Well, I "poured" him out onlo a new arrangement I had just made (the red pot), of some of my succulent plants...and guess what he did...he sat a good while and posed for my camera!!!


Then my Mom, my daughter and I went to a doll show (my daughter is a collector)...and look at one of the dolls suitcases! She had been to Death Valley, California! Boy, was I JEALOUS!!!

My Mom bought me this book which shows pages of toys for girls from out of Sears Catalog Wishbooks from 1950-1969! My main period of time for looking at the Wishbooks as a child would have been during the 60's. This is nothing but a trip down memory lane! I am amazed at the amount and variety of toys we had during that time! I found a few in there that we actually owned (my sister and I)! By the way...I did not get a real Barbie...I had to have the fake one...because REAL Barbies cost 3 dollars, and it was out of the budget for my parents at that time. I have since found out that this was true of many girls in my age range...Did you have a real Barbie??? I was fortunate enough to have recieved a real Barbie case, to store my doll and her clothes, shoes and hangers in! I was happy! My sister and I really played with our dolls! My Mom made many of our dolls clothes...and guess who owns them now? My daughter! How cool is that?

Little Lizard looking around...probably for an opening into my house...

I caught this little lizzy looking around on the edge of my succulent tires today! He's kinda cute...from afar! (Hey...I had to take this shot from my bathroom window to keep from scaring him away). Normally the lizards are climbing into my house through any possible microscopic crack or crevice...only for one purpose...to leave a trail of lizard poop! No matter where you go in south Florida you will find lizard poop on every window sill...inside and out! It's disgusting...and my Mom is actually trying to come up with any unusual plan of attack! She read about soaking corn kernels in God only knows what kind of liquid, that would poison them. She sets traps, bait, shoots at them with rat shot from her rifle (OK, I made that part up)...but basically we are on a hunt to find a way to keep them out of our houses, and outdoor places like window ledges, inside our grills, etc. Any ideas???
P.S. Check out the sparkles/shine on those glass stones in the tires...pretty cool, huh?