Why Hello There!

We have not forgotten about you, though I would not blame you if the reverse is not true. Jess is busy with that little thing called running a household and raising kids. I...... I on the other hand, am just overwhelmed by the amount of things that have happened around here and I just don't know where to start. Problem is, I am not sure where I left off and what I have or haven't shown. If I go back and look though, I'll get distracted and put it off and then the cycle will start again. So, if I repeat anything forgive me. Especially if it wasn't interesting in the first place, HA!

Now I will begin at the end. This is the latest quilt I have finished. It. Takes. Me. So. Long. Seriously. I will start and then it will take me months to finish. So not proud of that. Way back last year during the holidays, some body on IG decided to start a Scrappy Trip Quilt Along. Normally I don't get sucked into stuff like that but I was vulnerable that day and hopped right in. I have a lot of scraps...... good news is, I have less now! This is for my babes. We play outside a lot and they need something to sit on. I backed it in some light canvas/twill that I have had forever. I can't say that I liked quilting through it but it will be durable for play out on the grass. It's also green which I figure will hide a multitude of grass stains.

 This is one of my favorite spots we've created. I'm sitting here, on this quilt, writing this post. I love being surrounded by things my guy has made for us to plant in. The brick wall keeps the plants warm through the winter so all of these plants survived even through the ridiculously-for-Florida low freezing temps.

 If you haven't heard of the Scrappy Trip  Quilt Along, a search will pull up tons of photos. I think it was an epidemic there for awhile.... Quiltville did a tutorial for a scrappy trip around the world quilt a few years back and I believe most people used her tutorial. You can find it here. It really is super simple and quick. I had the top put together in just a couple of days.

 I loved using all of my scraps, putting together fabrics that I would never use together otherwise. As you can see, instead of the trip around the world layout, I went with a zig-zag.

 Jessica, the kids and the grampa went to the beach one morning and these came home with them.

 We were eating pineapple last spring and I decided to throw the top into a pot of dirt. Who knew.

 I quilted this following the zig-zag pattern.

Thanks for stopping in!

From my Garden - A Case of Mistaken Identity

I cleaned out my garden in anticipation of Spring. Under the leaves of a rogue kohlrabi, I found this snail. I have never seen anything like it. It was a little over two inches long. Was..... This is where a little knowledge can make you feel really dumb. 

I did a google search for snails in FL and the first thing to pop up was the dreaded GALS aka giant African land snail. You can read up on them if you'd like. Let's just say, the article made me glad I was wearing gloves. This was the size of a young one. The GALS have been known to get up to 8 inches long, reproduce quickly, can destroy entire gardens and eat concrete (really??). Can I hear an EWWWWWWW?!

You are also asked to immediately report and possible siting of one of these gruesome creatures. Being completely grossed out and kinda scared the civic minded person I am, I contacted the Florida Dept of Agriculture, sent them a picture and told them I had killed it just to be safe. 

Oh how she must have chuckled. 

This is not a giant African land snail.

This is a rosy wolf snail. 

It's carnivorous.

One of the things is eats is....wait for it..... yes, the giant African land snail!!

I just killed a full grown awesome snail that doesn't eat plants but eats the snails that can devastate a garden.

When I saw the pictures of them together, the difference was obvious.

Now I am sorry and sad. I will continue to wear gloves gardening, just in case, but I will try to be more careful about jumping to conclusions. It's hard sometimes, the creatures here can be kind of icky.

Did you see yesterday's post about our giveaway? If you like gorgeous things, you need to take a look!

For more interesting gardens, go to garden Tuesday at Side Walk Shoes!

Around The Garden

I know it's been awhile since I've posted anything from around my yard. So, here's a fairly quiet look at some of the random wildlife I find interesting. On a day like this where we seem to take a bit more time to reflect, I have tried to dwell on how blessed I am to have a beautiful place to call home.

Mom, this is not a monarch, it is a queen. I had no idea.

Check out some other garden-y things over at Sidewalk Shoes Garden Tuesday.

Garden Tuesday - Where Nature (and You Know Who) Conspire Against Me

So just when I think I may have a week without an interesting creature in my yard another one shows up. I came home from work, said hey to the man, started coffee, and still following my normal routine, went out to see the back garden. Tucked in my parsley was this moth.  I ran back inside to get my camera.

 It was an amazing moth. Later I did some searching and found out it is a female Polyphemus moth. She is probably laying eggs.

The circles on it's wings are transparent! The lower wings are supposed to look like eyes.

While taking pictures I heard a rustling in the plant. I suspected a lizard because they are everywhere. 

Then beyond the moth there was something strange.

I parted the chives and ran right into this. I screamed pretty loudly. Unfortunately You Know Who was not outside and took his sweet time to respond to my distress. I am sure he wasn't too worried since I'd already started laughing about how close I came to grabbing a snake.  

When I told him he had to come see it and take care of it for me, he wandered over and leaned down while asking where the the snake was. I had no idea what kind of snake it was and when he reached out and started to get too close to it with his bare hand I may have started to freak out a bit.

 It was out of concern for his well being.

 I'm nice like that. 

Then he pulled it out and threw it at me. 

I screamed, I died and fell on my rear. 

Then I threatened him with bodily harm. 

I still cannot believe that nature decided to help him out with this practical joke. 

I've not forgiven either of them yet.

Go over to Pam's Garden Tuesday for more beautiful and less crazy gardens.

Garden Tuesday - Millipede

I'm thinking you all must believe that I have the buggiest yard ever. I can't help it though, I find these creatures so very interesting. Well, there are some that are just gross, like the pile of slugs I found the other day, no worries I won't show that, but this one is interesting. This guy was in a overgrown shrub that had to be removed. They are normally nocturnal so I guess we disturbed his slumber.  

They are beneficial to the garden so we left him to find a new home.

I'm linking up this post with Garden Tuesday.

Garden Tuesday - Grasshoppers

Specifically, Eastern Lubber Grasshoppers. We had a hatching back near our vegie garden area. 

It was so interesting to see these little guys crawling up the fence. 

Micah found them very amusing.

He almost decided to touch one.

Then he thought it was better to show them to grampa instead.

 After Jessica did some research we found out that these can be considered pests. 

Oh dear......

Use the button to visit more gardens!

Garden Tuesday- Another Butterfly

Found this lovely one morning in the garden. It's beautiful wings were broken. 

I know this is kinda sad but the good news is, I am attracting more and more of these pretty creatures into the yard. This one was all nestled down in my parsley. A nice hiding place.

This parsley survived the winter and has gone insane. 

Monarch

First of all, these are not good pictures but when I saw these outside my window this evening, I just had to share. 

Way back this summer I bought three milkweed plants. 

Then I never planted them.

I have reasons.

Not really.

Lazy much?

The good news is, they survived. 

The heat.

The cold.

The neglect.

Then today I had my unjust reward.

This is the reason I chose milkweed in the first place.

No, not the shrivelled, dried remains of the flowers.... 

 This, this was what I found. 

 Three monarch caterpillars eating my plants. 

 It's why you need to plant them. They are all the caterpillars eat. If I'm lucky at least one will make it to be a butterfly. 

How cool is that?

I'm linking to Sidewalk Shoes for her Garden Tuesday. 

Garden Friends- Garden Tuesday

To those who are afraid of spiders..... I'm sorry. This spider is just too strange and wonderful not to share. 

She's called a spiny orb weaver. Some people call them crab spiders. You can see why. The are classified as beneficial spiders for the garden so she and/or her sisters got to live in the tree above the hammock.

I know she looks large here but she's barely as big as my fingernail.

Some of our other beneficial neighbors/residents are bats. This was the second of several we've found sleeping in our umbrella. I'd been wanting to make bat houses for them but now it seems unnecessary....

These guys are kinda cute and kinda scary, but I do like that they eat mosquitoes and gnats!

I never expected such a variety of "wildlife" in a city type yard.

I'm linking to Pam over at Sidewalk Shoes.