Bring on the smoothies!

I know it's still a few days before Mother's Day but I received my mother's day present in the mail yesterday and I'm so excited! Excited over a Blender/Food processor!  Yes, you read that right, a Blender/Food processor.  What can I say, I'm a simple person who likes simple pleasures!  And besides, it's been a couple of years since I've had a blender so I'm ready to start making all kinds of yummy shakes and smoothies and whatever other concoctions I can come up with.  So here it is, and I'll share some photos later on of the little gems I whip up with it.

Caterpillers

They are cute huh? Yes they are. And some of them morph into beautiful, gorgeous, playful butterflies! But, did you know that some can also be poisonous?  Gasp! Yes, it's true.  And like a lot of poisonous creatures, most of the ones that are poisonous are usually very pretty, (sometimes not so pretty) and colorful. 

This last few weeks I've been reading up on some that I've found out in the yard.  The one I was familiar with is the monarch caterpillar.  I caught two on one of my new plants in my garden.   Another one is called a Eastern Tiger Swallowtail.  See image below:

Now before I researched on what exactly this was, hubby had already killed a few of them.  One of their defenses is to emit a very foul odor when it feels threatened.  So he thought it was some bad bug. (snort snort)  I have to admit it freaked me out at first as well.  Those spots on it's back are not eyes but just made to look that way to scare off any predators like birds.  At this stage they are at the fourth instar phase.  When they move to the fifth instar phase they turn brown.  Then they change to the Chrysalis at which point it hangs by a silk thread around it's thorax (top upper half) and a silk pad from it's very bottom tip.  Here's a pic of one of mine in this stage :

Notice that little thing hanging off the back?  That's the outer skin layer it shed while morphing to this stage.  Now I'm waiting for it to complete this stage and become a beautiful Eastern Tiger Swallowtail butterfly!  Isn't this interesting?? C'mon you know you think so.  haha 

I'll update when it decides to make it's debut!  

Here's a link to check out how pretty it's going to be....  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eastern_Tiger_Swallowtail

Update!!!  April 29th.

Okay, I said I'd update when he made his debut! This isn't the exact one above but another one  that just came out today! I'm so excited!  Yes, I'm easily excitable. lol  So here he is! (Not sure if it is really a male but they tend to be the more colorful ones.)

Don't worry, it's hanging out up in a tree now, free to roam the countryside and make more beautiful butterflies!

Countryside

I've been meaning to take some shots of this barn that I pass near my house for quite some time now and today I finally did it.  Isn't it just so neat?  Yeah, I thought you'd think so. 

 Which version do you like best?

I thought I'd snap this cow too...she's purdy.

Hanging Herb Garden

So I've been wanting to plant some herbs and really wanted them to grow inside somewhere in pots where they would be easy to get to when I needed them for cooking.  But then I thought,  that's going to take up a lot of room that I don't have.  So I put it off.  Then while visiting my sister-n-law Wendy in San Antonio during spring break, she gave me the idea of planting a shoe holder herb garden!  What a great idea!  I could still have them close and up and away from any pests that might try to nibble on them (hopefully). Here's mine, check it out....

So, what do you think?  Easy enough huh?  Here's the link for further instructions.

Hanging Shoe Herb Garden How-to