How Addicted To Blogging Are You?

72%How Addicted to Blogging Are You?

Actually, I believe it's more like 99.9%!

OUCH!!!!

Got a bit of a boo-boo at work today :o( Hurt my shoulder when some heavy boxes fell on me. It's only bruised-having that extra body fat comes in handy sometimes.

Raven's a little mad 'cause she can't have "walkies" tonight but she'll be thrilled when she learns that I'll be home tomorrow. She knows when Momma's home we share a bagel and cream cheese for breakfast. And weather permitting, we will be doing this outside in the backyard, enjoying the summer morning. This is something we don't do too often, since I'm usually at work before the sun comes up.

And speaking of "walkies", I never noticed the effect of having a large dog walking me for the past twelve years or so had on my shoulders. At first the doctor thought my right shoulder was swollen until she compared it with the left one and noticed they were pretty much the same size.

Seems I have managed to build some muscle in that area- unfortunately the rest of me has not benefited as much from these doggie workouts. Looks like I may need to upgrade to a St. Bernard to get a total body makeover

A Dark And Stormy Day

Big boomers here today. They've let up for a while, but my cat, Jeter has yet to emerge from his hiding place. Not to worry, for he has a way of magically appearing like clockwork every day at 5 pm. Hey, what do you know; guess who just walked into the room? Scram kitty cat! You're 25 minutes early for din-din!

There's a few power outages around here. Luckily it hasn't affected us, not yet anyway. Many of the traffic lights are out. Should be a most interesting evening.

The humidity has broken a bit, but the rest of this week we can expect pretty much of the same kind of weather. Looks like it's going to be another hot, sticky, and buggy August in the state of NJ.

My veggie garden has gotten so dense I can barely get in there to search for hidden squash and cucumbers. Looks like I overdid it with the Miracle Grow again! One of these years maybe I'll get it right.

Well, I'm getting "feed me" faces from the furry ones so I'll stop my rambling here. They can get pretty persuasive when they're hungry. Maybe I should send them into the garden to hunt for cucumbers.

Show And Tell

Kelli is hosting a Show and Tell Friday. If you would like to join the fun, please visit Kelli's blog and leave a link to your post.

My show and tell for this Friday are these photos of some of the pretty winged visitors to my butterfly bush.

This first one is of a red admiral butterfly. These are probably my most frequent guests. Sometimes one will actually land on me for a few seconds.




This painted lady wouldn't let me get too close. Her wings are so pretty when open, but she was a bit camera shy.




A pretty tiger swallowtail stopped by for a visit:




And this majestic monarch kept teasing me by landing close by and then taking off as soon as I would try to take his picture. Don't you just love his spots?



I love sitting on the front porch in the summertime and watching what stops by. I'm still waiting on my favorite black eastern swallowtails to pay me a visit.

Thank you for looking at my show and tell and thank you Kelli for hosting.

A Summer Afternoon On The Porch

One of my favorite places to spend a summer afternoon is on our front porch. I like to read there or just watch whatever comes to visit the garden that day. Here's a photo of some of the flowers on one side of the porch:



I was attempting to take some pictures of butterflies, but it was pretty windy outside and most of the photos were blurry. However, Mr. Bee was kind enough to pose for a shot atop this purple coneflower:



And this black-eyed Susan:



Apparently Mr. Bee was on some kind of top-secret mission, for he chased me after I snapped his photo!

Who can this be, hiding behind the flowers?



I also recommend that if you are trying to take pictures of butterflies, for best results leave your chubby kitty cat with the tiny head indoors.



That's Jeter, enjoying the show at the butterfly bush.
I took this picture while lying down on my stomach to get the best angle to show off my cat's unique physique. And wouldn't you know it, at the same time my postman was coming up the front steps. He did look at me rather strangely as he handed me the mail.

Thank you for looking at my pictures. Hope everyone is having a wonderful summer.

Sgt. Pepper's Magical Mystery Mushrooms

Hey, I don't remember planting these! Look what's growing in the same containers with my peppers:



And this mysterious fungi is just downright scary:



And here's a more psychedelic photo of the "mystery mushrooms":



I do like peppers and mushrooms on my pizza, but I don't think it's a good idea to eat these.

Funny thing, about two summers ago in this very same spot, I had planted a Beatle garden (I LOVE the Beatles). It featured a mini "Strawberry Fields", a "Pepperland", an "Imagine" stepping stone, and a walrus. One day I noticed that a certain illegal drug was also growing in my little garden. I have no idea how it ended up there, but I thought it was a fitting tribute to the Fab Four so I "Let It Be". It was a bit of a novelty for us that summer, until my hubby pulled it out. I guess that was the smart thing to do, but I wish I had taken a picture of it.
So now it appears the mystery gardener is at it again. I am thankful this mischievous little sprite has kicked his naughty habit. Or perhaps he has a secret garden yet to be discovered.

You Are What You Read....

I'm slowly cataloging my home library on line. I love to read and have an extensive book collection and for some crazy reason, I'm exposing it for all the world to view. Yes, many of the books I own are downright embarrassing and some are from past lives (oh those crazy college years), but you can tell a lot about a person by what's on their book shelves. I wouldn't be surprised if some of you run for your life and never visit me again! And I haven't gotten to the really weird ones yet.
Seriously, I am having some fun with this. I've barely scratched the surface of my collection, this is going to take some time. I use our extra bedroom as a library and I still have books in other rooms. This is helping me to organize my books better and I've also rediscovered a few old favorites. There's also several that I no longer have a need for, so I'll be finding new homes for them.
If this sounds like something you'd be interested in doing, check out Library Thing. You don't have to put your books on your blog if you don't want to, but I figure if someone came to my home, they would see these books out in the open, so why not display them on my virtual home?
I also found this site: Gurulib, where you can catalogue your books, music, games, software, and movies. Something to do on a rainy day perhaps?