Uninvited Guests

No, I am not talking about house guests. I am talking about garden guests.

What, or who, would you think had come to visit when you notice these little pellets on your tomato plants?



Meet Mr. Tomato Horn Worm.



And look! Here he is with his spouse, Mrs. Tomato Horn Worm.



Enjoy your new digs on the bird feeder. I'm sorry for my choice of relocation areas, but you've heard of the circle of life, haven't you?

Oh, and consider yourself lucky that we don't have a pond. When we lived in New Jersey, that's where Grammy would kindly relocate the rose munching Japanese beetles to. ;)

Terrific Thursday~Clouds

We've been terribly busy lately, but we wanted to share something we think is pretty terrific, and free for the visual taking.



Sigh. Aren't they lovely?

Look upwards towards the sky when you have the time. You'll thank me later. =)

Snow!

No, not in Georgia.

Well, we did have a dusting last week, but it was nothing like what we were often surprised with when we lived up in New York.

What has surprised us here in the peach state are pretty bone chilling temperatures. I think it is true when they say that your blood thins as you move south. It's either that, or just the simple fact that none of us are liking this weather very much at all!

To remind myself that I should be thankful that we don't have two feet of snow on the ground, I decided to go back and take a look at some of our old photos. I was totally shocked when I found the evidence of a snowstorm exactly five years ago today!



Ahhhhh, it's so pretty, isn't it? Even the brook that ran behind our house looked lovely all covered in snow.



And when you are five years old, snow is like, so totally fun!



There's sledding and sliding...



and when you've had your fill of that, look at all the snow there is to eat!



Time for a little break.



Yay! Daddy's truck is full of snow! What kind of trouble can I get into here?



Snow angels! Woo-hoo!



One happy little girl.



Look! It's an elf house!



So, we all know that the kiddo had fun in the snow. What about the parents?



Do you see that driveway? It was long and steep. See for yourself...



Fun times. That's all I have to say about that. Can't you see the joy and happiness written all over Mark's face?



And when we were through clearing the front of the house, we still had to shovel the deck off.



Georgia's 20 degrees and no snow on the ground doesn't seem too terrible after taking that little journey back in time.

Sigh...I do miss the sunsets, though.



Guess you can't have it all, can you? ;)

Nekked heads need hats!

Sorry about the lack of blogging in the land of the Badelves. Between chemo treatments, blood and platelet transfusions, and everyday life, it's been hard to squeeze in time for our extracurricular activities. Blogging would be filed in that folder of our lives, but we hope to be spending a little more time with you all very soon.

Anyway, we just had to pop in to share a little bit of our morning with you. Today, on the 18th of October, the thermometer read 30 degrees when I grabbed my first cup of coffee. When I took this next photo (probably on my third cup!), it had risen to a balmy 40 degrees.



When I peeked in to check on Mom, I found her sitting with a cup of coffee in her hands and a woolly hat on her bald little head. She's been anti-wig from the moment her hair started to fall, and except for wearing a scarf when we go to her doctor, she chooses to leave her noggin bare. Well, except for today. Her little nekked head was cold!

Since we don't call her Wilson for nothin', here she is posing with a pretty pot of sunflowers and her bud, Wilson Jr.



After all, someone needs to follow in her footsteps, right?

Hope it's warmer in your neck of the woods today!

Flashback Friday-The Hillbilly Lawnmower

When we bought our home in Georgia 3 years ago, we still hadn't sold our home in New York. This created a huge problem. I had almost 3 acres of yard that needed to be taken care of in the South and almost 2 acres up North. Our New York house had been on the market for a year and a half and needed to be kept in 'showing' condition. I bet you can figure out where my trusty Toro stayed parked?

The folks who we bought our Georgia home from had kindly mowed the lawn for me before they moved, but it only lasted for so long. I don't even think we had time to blink. The next time we looked, the lawn was up to our knees! In all honesty, we are all pretty short, so it became a must solve situation.

It also became the hot topic of conversation. Everywhere. Mark even mentioned it at work one day, and one of his drivers shared that his Dad rebuilt old mowers and sold them.

For $25.00!

Bingo!

I figured, how bad could it be?

Pretty bad.

Say hello to the 'Hillbilly Lawnmower'.



Don't worry. The little Miss was just posing with this amazing piece of machinery. Her Mommy did all the work, and I am absolutely serious when I say that.



Power driven by mismatched, uneven wheels, this beauty drove like a ton of bricks. She even came equipped for mulching those blades of grass cut by an extra dull blade.



If you look closely, you will see the removable mulching accessory. Some of us like to call it-duct tape!



Look at the surprise on our lovely model's face. She just couldn't believe our good fortune in finding such a gem!



Let's just say that the 'Hillbilly Lawnmower' didn't last long at our house. Although she will remain close to our hearts and the subject of a really great story, she wasn't very good at her job. I think 3 acres was just too much for this old gal. Hopefully she found a home with someone on a nice, petite plot of land.

Oh, and I sure do hope they have a roll of duct tape on hand!

Wacky Weather

We've been having some wacky weather here in Georgia. Tornado watches and warnings, hail the size of softballs, and rain. Lots of rain. Considering we were in a drought situation, this has been a good thing.

Early Monday morning, we learned what a high wind warning means. It means winds will blow bunches of pine needles to embed themselves into your siding.

It means branches will snap from your trees and be sent spiraling downwards to stab their sharp pointy ends into your garden beds.

It means a debris filled driveway, just waiting to be cleaned up.

It means you will count your blessings when you hear (and feel!) the sound of a tree falling thisclose to your home.

It means you can tease Grammy about the fact that she wished way too hard for the demise of a particular tree/shrub which graced our front lawn.

Psssst...I don't think she planned for a big tree to take it out!

It means there is a chain saw in your future.



It means that you might lose more than one tree.



It means that your sweet, animal loving daughter will worry about the little birdies that once made their home in this nest.

Oh, and one last thing--it means that Grammy will definitely make Mark sweat a little about moving us to Georgia!