It is the truth universally acknowledged that if you don’t have a green thumb you should stay away from any and all plants. I have finally, somewhat belatedly come to accept my shortcomings as a caretaker of plant life. This is what brought on my revelation:

One day DH came home with this little Juniper bonsai tree from a little old man who was selling them on the side of the road. I have wanted one for as long as I can remember. So I bought a book on bonsai and did what it said to do. I guess I’ve had it about a year… and now it’s dead. I killed my little tree! It was eight years old when we got it. I don’t know what I did to it. I didn’t forget to water it, or overwater it. I made sure it got plenty of sunshine, but one day last week it started looking sad and a little brittle so I took it out for some fresh air, like the man said to do occasionally. Within a few days it looked like this so for the sake of plants everywhere I am giving up any and all aspiarations to gardening. Thank God for our landscaper. Maybe I’ll send my tree with him and see if he can work some kind of miracle.

While I was out there I took a few pics of my antique roses. These are called “Maggie” and they are a deep beautiful pink-red with a gorgeous spicy smell rather than sweet. It smells like citrus and pepper if that makes any kind of sense. These are one of the few things I haven’t been able to kill which is part of the reason I love them so much. I have probably moved them at least half a dozen times, pruned them to within an inch of their life, left them uncovered the one time in my life it ever snowed, and I forget to feed them like I should but they always bloom beautifully. Of course antique roses are one of the hardiest plants out there. Evidently they find them at  old abandoned homes and down forgotten backroads blooming gloriously when no one has taken care of them in years. That is definitely my kind of plant. 

I’m not sure whether you noticed the caterpillars in the pictures? Well I don’t know about other parts of the country but Spring in Texas means 2 things: #1- yellow-green pollen that coats everything from your car(gross) to the lawn so that walking in the grass results in shoes that look like they’ve grown mold, and the plague of caterpillars will invade, affixing themselves to anything that moves or stands still. I despise the little creeps. They fall from the trees or the roof onto you without your knowledge and before you know it they’ve managed to creep onto your neck or ear or other some such “caterpillar-unfriendly” place resulting in a get-it-off-me, get-it-off-me dance that could win a million dollars if only someone were around to catch the embarrassing moment on tape.

Speaking of the little devils- I think I hear their demise overhead. I just heard a low flying plane, and went out to check things out and sure enough someone (another creep hater, I suppose) has taken the liberty of having planes spray for the little beasts.

You can’t see my happy dance but I assure you I am doing one.

Charli is happy they are leaving too. Can’t you tell?

Before I get too carried away I wanted ask a favor :

The Breast Cancer site is having trouble getting enough people to click on their site daily to meet their quota of donating at least one free mammogram a day to an underprivileged woman. It takes less than a minute to go to their site and click on “donating a mammogram” for free (pink window in the middle). This doesn’t cost you a thing. Their corporate sponsors/advertisers use the number of daily visits to donate mammogram in exchange for advertising.Here’s the web site! Pass it along to people you know.

http://www.thebreastcancersite.com/