A larger-than-usual cricket has found a home near our walkway and I guess I should be thanking my lucky country stars that it's nothing worse than a cricket. He is there every night without fail, nestled between the wrought iron ears of a decorative horse-head that's near the driveway. This cricket is about as long as my index finger and just about the same size in circumference. My hands are not huge and my fingers aren't big, but still, this is a cricket and that size just seems ridiculous.
When we had chickens, we hardly ever saw crickets at all except for the ones that the hens would jump up to clench in their beaks and then proceed to swallow as a mid-morning snack. We never saw crickets any larger than a small paper clip back then because the hens gobbled them all up before they had a chance to grow. (I do miss the chickens for their insect-eating abilities even though I did think that habit was disgustingly gross.)
And now, we have Jiminy Cricket himself perched outside near our walkway and he seems to have found a home that he likes. Lucky me. I wouldn't have noticed him out there at all had it not been for my new schedule of puppy-walking. I take Savannah out for a walk along the road before it gets dark and there's that cricket, sitting there inbetween the horse's ears and I can even see the cricket's head moving as his eyes follow us as we go down the walkway then along the driveway towards the road.
There is plenty of room on that horse-head for more than one cricket. One of these evenings, I know I'll be walking out there and instead of one cricket there will be two and soon after that there may be an entire cricket family between those wrought-iron ears. Well, as I said... I should be thanking my lucky country stars that it's only a cricket.
Monday, September 28, 2015
Friday, September 25, 2015
Hiding out...
There is a baby gecko somewhere in my kitchen. And how do I know this? Because I saw it last night, crawling on the tile back-splash behind the sink... small and with pink skin that was nearly see-through in its infancy.
My husband would have taken a plastic container, placed it over the gecko, then used a piece of paper to slide under the open part of the container so the gecko would have been captured within the plastic and then he would have gone outside and let it loose in the flowerbed. Well, that method is just not for me. I'm not a capture-and-release sort of girl... I don't want to capture anything... and to release it just gives the critter another chance to get back into the house. I got the Dust-Buster thing out, planning to just scoop up the gecko.
And that's what I tried to do... except when I had that little vacuum-thing in my hand, the baby gecko turned his head around and looked me square in the eyes, seemingly pleading with me to spare his little gecko life. Oh, give me a break... for a second there, I got a little soft. Then I thought of how many places in my kitchen that gecko could hide and one day I'd be holding a fragile plate of cake for our tea parties and the gecko would pop his little head out and scare me to death and the plate would go flying and shatter into a zillion pieces and I'd be cleaning up bits of cake for days. (My imagination tends to run wild at times.)
So I turned on that Dust-Buster will all intentions to scoop up that gecko... and he ran... with that disjointed and lightning-fast pace of geckos the world over. He managed to run right across the back-splash, behind the little television that's in the corner of the counter-top, and from there, I have no idea where he went. He went into hiding last night and he's nowhere to be found this morning. And he's little enough to fit just about anywhere, and right now I don't even want to take the lid off of the butter dish that I left on the counter because what if the baby gecko is in there, licking up the soft butter and instead of having pinkish skin he now looks like a tiny flat buttercup with four legs and a tail....
There are just too many species of insects out here, not to mention the wildlife that walks all over our property after the sun goes down. We either have a big skunk or a small raccoon that's been visiting the yard every night for the past couple of weeks... and I know he's been here because he leaves his 'calling card' at the edge of the driveway every night and I pick it up so we don't step in it.
Honestly, it's always, always something. The hardest thing to keep around here is one's peace of mind.
My husband would have taken a plastic container, placed it over the gecko, then used a piece of paper to slide under the open part of the container so the gecko would have been captured within the plastic and then he would have gone outside and let it loose in the flowerbed. Well, that method is just not for me. I'm not a capture-and-release sort of girl... I don't want to capture anything... and to release it just gives the critter another chance to get back into the house. I got the Dust-Buster thing out, planning to just scoop up the gecko.
And that's what I tried to do... except when I had that little vacuum-thing in my hand, the baby gecko turned his head around and looked me square in the eyes, seemingly pleading with me to spare his little gecko life. Oh, give me a break... for a second there, I got a little soft. Then I thought of how many places in my kitchen that gecko could hide and one day I'd be holding a fragile plate of cake for our tea parties and the gecko would pop his little head out and scare me to death and the plate would go flying and shatter into a zillion pieces and I'd be cleaning up bits of cake for days. (My imagination tends to run wild at times.)
So I turned on that Dust-Buster will all intentions to scoop up that gecko... and he ran... with that disjointed and lightning-fast pace of geckos the world over. He managed to run right across the back-splash, behind the little television that's in the corner of the counter-top, and from there, I have no idea where he went. He went into hiding last night and he's nowhere to be found this morning. And he's little enough to fit just about anywhere, and right now I don't even want to take the lid off of the butter dish that I left on the counter because what if the baby gecko is in there, licking up the soft butter and instead of having pinkish skin he now looks like a tiny flat buttercup with four legs and a tail....
There are just too many species of insects out here, not to mention the wildlife that walks all over our property after the sun goes down. We either have a big skunk or a small raccoon that's been visiting the yard every night for the past couple of weeks... and I know he's been here because he leaves his 'calling card' at the edge of the driveway every night and I pick it up so we don't step in it.
Honestly, it's always, always something. The hardest thing to keep around here is one's peace of mind.
Sunday, September 20, 2015
And along came a spider...
This must be the year of the banana spiders. I've not only seen way too many of them, but I've also tolerated their huge webs in places where they're not in my way. These spiders are black and yellow, and I don't know what their actual textbook name is, but everyone around here calls them banana spiders because of their yellow coloring. The webs of the banana spiders are usually very big, and they make a zig-zag design in the center of the web, as if it's their signature on an original work of web-art.
There was one web last month by the steps coming up to the back porch. It wasn't in my way but the web was so huge, and it was right behind a wisteria bush that the birds happen to love. I think the birds kept flying in and out of that wisteria and destroying part of the spider's web every day because the spider was constantly in a state of frantic renovation. After a couple of weeks of daily re-building, the spider finally moved its web to the side of the wisteria, out of the flight path of the birds.
Another banana spider web is near the spot where we keep the trash cans. I know the web is there, so I'm careful when I put trash in the cans, and also when I wheel the cans out to the curb. I don't want to be trailing a sticky web behind me which would probably upset the spider a great deal. Last thing I need is a spider with a vendetta against me.
Yet another banana spider has made its web by the front porch steps, and one part of the web is attached near the faucet to the water hose by the side of those steps. I have to be very careful turning that faucet on and off when I water the flowers out front, because that web is in such a place that my chin could easily land in the web if I wasn't paying attention. When I turned on that faucet to water the marigolds this morning, that spider was sitting in the middle of the web and its legs were curling towards me in a come-hither sort of way. I literally said out loud "Do I look like a fly to you?" (That's what country life has led to... talking to spiders.)
So there I was, watering the marigolds... and I happened to look down because our outside cat Gatsby was sitting by my feet.... and I saw a banana spider on the stones of the front courtyard, calmly making its way up the path and coming towards me. Now... this is where I draw the line.
First of all, I credit myself for not screaming. One banana spider moving along the ground just seems much scarier than three others tucked up in their webs, and even though I didn't scream, I did yell out "What in the hell.....?!" And then, with hose in hand, I created a tsunami of water that sent that blasted spider skidding along the stones of the courtyard and I didn't stop the deluge till he had tumbled under the fence and into the pasture.
So there. Let that be a lesson to all banana spiders who don't stay where they belong (in their webs). If any spider, banana or otherwise, happens to get in my path and mess with my somewhat limited peace of mind that has been consistently shattered with wildlife and insect encounters, let it be known that I will do everything in my power to regain control of my little country bubble of sanity.
There was one web last month by the steps coming up to the back porch. It wasn't in my way but the web was so huge, and it was right behind a wisteria bush that the birds happen to love. I think the birds kept flying in and out of that wisteria and destroying part of the spider's web every day because the spider was constantly in a state of frantic renovation. After a couple of weeks of daily re-building, the spider finally moved its web to the side of the wisteria, out of the flight path of the birds.
Another banana spider web is near the spot where we keep the trash cans. I know the web is there, so I'm careful when I put trash in the cans, and also when I wheel the cans out to the curb. I don't want to be trailing a sticky web behind me which would probably upset the spider a great deal. Last thing I need is a spider with a vendetta against me.
Yet another banana spider has made its web by the front porch steps, and one part of the web is attached near the faucet to the water hose by the side of those steps. I have to be very careful turning that faucet on and off when I water the flowers out front, because that web is in such a place that my chin could easily land in the web if I wasn't paying attention. When I turned on that faucet to water the marigolds this morning, that spider was sitting in the middle of the web and its legs were curling towards me in a come-hither sort of way. I literally said out loud "Do I look like a fly to you?" (That's what country life has led to... talking to spiders.)
So there I was, watering the marigolds... and I happened to look down because our outside cat Gatsby was sitting by my feet.... and I saw a banana spider on the stones of the front courtyard, calmly making its way up the path and coming towards me. Now... this is where I draw the line.
First of all, I credit myself for not screaming. One banana spider moving along the ground just seems much scarier than three others tucked up in their webs, and even though I didn't scream, I did yell out "What in the hell.....?!" And then, with hose in hand, I created a tsunami of water that sent that blasted spider skidding along the stones of the courtyard and I didn't stop the deluge till he had tumbled under the fence and into the pasture.
So there. Let that be a lesson to all banana spiders who don't stay where they belong (in their webs). If any spider, banana or otherwise, happens to get in my path and mess with my somewhat limited peace of mind that has been consistently shattered with wildlife and insect encounters, let it be known that I will do everything in my power to regain control of my little country bubble of sanity.
Saturday, September 19, 2015
Country yard sale...
A friend of one of our tea ladies had a yard sale yesterday morning... their property is up on the main highway so it was just a short mile-and-a-half drive. I went up there wearing flat shoes... big mistake. The tables for the sale were set up underneath a huge tree, which seemed to have been dropping branches here, there, and everywhere. I think me and my flat shoes found 88% of them.
I used to drive around to yard sales every weekend when we lived in Clear Lake. On any given Friday or Saturday, every subdivision had at least a dozen sales, and sometimes the entire subdivision got together and had a community-wide sale. Haven't gone to many yard sales out here because of the distance one has to drive to get to just one sale. There were so many times when I would see a sign stuck into the ground on a corner, with an arrow pointing one way or another... I'd follow that arrow, and keep going and going, and maybe six miles down the road, I'd see another arrow. That's when I'd turn around and tell myself that the time and the gas wasn't worth the trip. So now I only go to sales given by neighbors, and yard sales within the center of town where the streets are a block long, not miles long.
I did go back to that yard sale in the afternoon, though--- wearing boots. Better for stepping on branches, and also better for walking around in that high grass. Seems to me that it would have been better for everyone had that grass been cut down before setting up for a yard sale. But that seems to be the country way.... grass is grass and it's always growing, so why keep cutting it. I have to laugh when my husband mows our lawn here and then takes out an edger to give the concrete along the driveway a much sharper look. He likes to make it perfect.... I just don't think it's worth the time and effort out here in the Hills... no one is handing out "Yard of The Month" awards here in this country bubble.
The second stop at that yard sale resulted in an armful of books and boxed note cards, plus a few accessories for possible Halloween costumes next month. I look around my house and see paintings and porcelain and decorative items that I bought at yard sales years ago... and all of my vintage wicker furniture came from moving sales. I miss all those great yard sales back in Clear Lake, especially since going to them provided 95% of my inventory for my spaces in an antique co-op store.
I used to drive around to yard sales every weekend when we lived in Clear Lake. On any given Friday or Saturday, every subdivision had at least a dozen sales, and sometimes the entire subdivision got together and had a community-wide sale. Haven't gone to many yard sales out here because of the distance one has to drive to get to just one sale. There were so many times when I would see a sign stuck into the ground on a corner, with an arrow pointing one way or another... I'd follow that arrow, and keep going and going, and maybe six miles down the road, I'd see another arrow. That's when I'd turn around and tell myself that the time and the gas wasn't worth the trip. So now I only go to sales given by neighbors, and yard sales within the center of town where the streets are a block long, not miles long.
I did go back to that yard sale in the afternoon, though--- wearing boots. Better for stepping on branches, and also better for walking around in that high grass. Seems to me that it would have been better for everyone had that grass been cut down before setting up for a yard sale. But that seems to be the country way.... grass is grass and it's always growing, so why keep cutting it. I have to laugh when my husband mows our lawn here and then takes out an edger to give the concrete along the driveway a much sharper look. He likes to make it perfect.... I just don't think it's worth the time and effort out here in the Hills... no one is handing out "Yard of The Month" awards here in this country bubble.
The second stop at that yard sale resulted in an armful of books and boxed note cards, plus a few accessories for possible Halloween costumes next month. I look around my house and see paintings and porcelain and decorative items that I bought at yard sales years ago... and all of my vintage wicker furniture came from moving sales. I miss all those great yard sales back in Clear Lake, especially since going to them provided 95% of my inventory for my spaces in an antique co-op store.
Wednesday, September 16, 2015
Farmyard in the kitchen....
I was beginning to wonder why the kitchen got to smelling like the outside fields.... and then I realized that the odor wasn't coming from the new puppy Savannah, but from the blanket in her crate. Savannah is in and out of that crate all day long, and sleeps in it at night.... so of course any little bit of odor that's on her fur or her feet will end up on the blanket.
Solution: Wash the blanket more often, and buy extra blankets for her. Which is what I did this morning. Savannah is getting a wardrobe of blankets: red and green polka dots, gray with white flowers, bright pink, and light green. All of them are long enough to roll up an end into a pillow-shape for her, being that Princess Savannah likes a pillow under her chin for long naps.
Savannah is also getting a good selection of toys, which I've put into a basket.... and which she diligently takes out. The blue monkey is her favorite, but she has a pink pig, an orange fish, a brown monkey, a pink 'Peep' bunny, and a blue fish. So many choices.... if I can get her to put the toys back into the basket when she's done, it would be a big accomplishment.
The property across the road with the goats... the neighbor has been repairing the low spots in the fencing over there, and the goats haven't escaped lately. Savannah knows they are over there, and when we walk down the road, she stops to watch them munching on the grass. I thought she would be pulling on the leash to get over there to the goats, but she's been exceptionally good, content just to watch the goats, not herd them.
All is well out here in the hills of the countryside... and Savannah has brought a whole new dimension to this country bubble.
Solution: Wash the blanket more often, and buy extra blankets for her. Which is what I did this morning. Savannah is getting a wardrobe of blankets: red and green polka dots, gray with white flowers, bright pink, and light green. All of them are long enough to roll up an end into a pillow-shape for her, being that Princess Savannah likes a pillow under her chin for long naps.
Savannah is also getting a good selection of toys, which I've put into a basket.... and which she diligently takes out. The blue monkey is her favorite, but she has a pink pig, an orange fish, a brown monkey, a pink 'Peep' bunny, and a blue fish. So many choices.... if I can get her to put the toys back into the basket when she's done, it would be a big accomplishment.
The property across the road with the goats... the neighbor has been repairing the low spots in the fencing over there, and the goats haven't escaped lately. Savannah knows they are over there, and when we walk down the road, she stops to watch them munching on the grass. I thought she would be pulling on the leash to get over there to the goats, but she's been exceptionally good, content just to watch the goats, not herd them.
All is well out here in the hills of the countryside... and Savannah has brought a whole new dimension to this country bubble.
Sunday, September 13, 2015
New Puppy = New Blog
So much to write about this new puppy... so of course I couldn't sleep last night and came downstairs after midnight to type. I've started a new Blog which will be all about Savannah. To get to the link, click on 'View My Complete Profile' and all of my Blog links will be there at the top of the page.
A Puppy Named Savannah.... sounds good to me for a title. Speaking of 'sounds,' we haven't heard her bark yet... but she's just getting used to us and to the house, so maybe she doesn't have much to say right now. Sweet Pea (our inside cat) has had a lot to say since we brought Savannah home yesterday.
Note to self: Do not (do NOT) pick up Sweet Pea when Savannah is in the room.... I now have skid marks on my neck and back, as a result of Sweet Pea trying to get away from Savannah, whose only insult to that cat was to look at him with a big sweet puppy smile.
A Puppy Named Savannah.... sounds good to me for a title. Speaking of 'sounds,' we haven't heard her bark yet... but she's just getting used to us and to the house, so maybe she doesn't have much to say right now. Sweet Pea (our inside cat) has had a lot to say since we brought Savannah home yesterday.
Note to self: Do not (do NOT) pick up Sweet Pea when Savannah is in the room.... I now have skid marks on my neck and back, as a result of Sweet Pea trying to get away from Savannah, whose only insult to that cat was to look at him with a big sweet puppy smile.
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