Beauty and the Beast

So this morning I hunted for more green caterpillars,

I found a few and took some pics of the beasts.

Miniscule

Tiny

Small

But then I decided I needed pics of the beautiful things in my garden.  I love looking at my garden and seeing the plants have grown and are thriving. There is a great satisfaction in growing your own food.  The girls love to see the progress too, they get SO excited when a tomato starts to turn red. They picked cherry tomatoes this morning and I showed Aeryn a green bean that was ready to be picked, she plucked it and promptly took a bite. 

Carrot Stems

Bush Bean Blossoms

Beef Steak Tomatoes

Green Bell Peppers

That's why I love organic gardening. Nothing tastes better than homegrown, and from stem to mouth, it doesn't get much fresher than that!!!! LOVE IT!

Stinking Caterpillars

So organic gardening has it's frustrations, mine currently happens to be little green caterpillars and inch worms. I returned from girls camp to find the pesky little green inch worm had eaten almost all my romaine lettuce heads, a few were spared, but the carnage they left was ugly.  I got down on all fours and plucked them one by one from their leafy green feast. Some were smaller than the tip of my fingernail.  I thought I got all the ones in the romaine only to find a few more the next day. Persistent little buggers! I think it's under control but I will keep a watchful eye on the developing leaves.  Today, I took a closer look at a pot of geraniums my in-laws gave me for mothers day, they were gorgeous when I got them but have been struggling since the first wave of flowers dropped. They have begun to bloom again, but only a few, and the ones I thought would open, have not.  As I looked closer what should I find, but nasty little green caterpillars that seem to bore holes in the undeveloped blossom buds and eat the insides. I am SO irritated, I went on the hunt and found several caterpillars of various sizes and what I think are eggs on the leaves, I squished the eggs and took the green guys hostage for the girls to look at.  The war is on!!!

Taking The Time

So I've wanted to start a blog for quite a while, but there were too many other things that had to be finished first, and I was stuck on figuring out a name, lame I know, but hey these things are important right? So here I am finally jumping into the world of blogging. I hope to be able to share anything half as useful as what I have taken from many other blogs. But mostly I am looking forward to having a place to document life happenings, (I'm not a great journal keeper, maybe this is a good substitute) fun creations, things I'm learning and anything else I happen to be just making up.