"HUH?" AGAIN AND TIRE GARDENING, ROUND 2!

Heidy-Ho, Blogging Pals!! Well... you may have read my previous post, "Things That Make Me Go 'Huh?'" The item described there was a real head-scratcher to me. I thought there wouldn't be too many that gave me pause... but I have found another. Thanks to the spousal-unit for capturing the "proof" of the existence of a "specialty" market I am having some trouble understanding.

If you are having any trouble reading the smaller signage, there is a small sign to the left (under the covered area) that says "We accept food stamps." That doesn't really concern me. The other sign, over the door toward the right, is what makes me go "Huh?" The large sign indicates this is an Oriental Market... and I'm assuming the characters to the far right are some Asian writing. If I enter the white door in the center of the photo, however, it appears I will find "Hispanic Food" there. Okay. I'm going to take the word of the signage... and move on. Anyone with enlightening information is welcome to let me in on it!! I guess we have colliding cultures. So... Spring has sprung here in southwest Louisiana... and the tire garden has been refreshed and prepared to accept planting! YAY!! I love this time of year. Here are the latest photos of this year's babies! The Flamingo Boyz are glad to have new plants to oversee! The lettuce plants in the "double-decker" tire garden are volunteers. I allowed the lettuce to bolt last year and obviously some seed made it to the dirt! How nice to have this lovely surprise. This is one of MANY reasons gardening is so much darned fun!! The home for the little Jalapeno plant is currently undergoing some "work", if you call killing stinkin' fire ants "work!" Those little suckers continue to plague the tire garden... but we have chased out all but this one tough mound. I trust my Amdro. They will be gone soon and the Jalapeno baby can join the rest!! Finally, we had planted two very small Meyers Lemon trees last year. They did fine through the winter and there is actually one flower bud on the smaller of the two! Might have a one-lemon harvest this year! Since they survived without much trouble, I decided to expand the "citrus orchard" and purchased a Persian Lime tree. It is LOADED with itty-bitty lime babies. If only half of them make it, it will be necessary to make a lot of Bloody Marys to use them up!! :)

That's pretty much all I have for you today. Just wanted you to know I haven't been slacking since the weather has improved!! Until next post...

HUMMERS, NESTERS, AND THE TIRE GARDEN!

Heidy-Ho, Blogging Buddies!! Welcome!! Nothing exciting to report. Have a few things to tell you about to update you on my world.

My friend, Jo B., and I went to the Southwest Louisiana Gardening Festival in Lake Charles on Friday the 25th. It seems my expectations (as usual) were a little high. It was nice... but much smaller than I had expected. Three of the vendors (out of perhaps 25?) were from where I am living!! At any rate... I did pick up a few things there along with an entire flat (12 pints) of fresh, Pontchatoula strawberries. I have given away 6 pints and will selfishly keep the remaining 6 pints to freeze for future smoothie enjoyment!! Yummy! The best part of the day was spending time with a friend I don't get to see a lot of due to her job and her involvement in her daughter's high school activities.

So... as the weather began to warm and the flowers began to bloom, I figured it was nearly time for the hummingbirds to return. I kept an eye out on a hanging basket I have with red flowers hoping to see one arrive. That would be my sign to immediately stir up a big batch of hummer juice and fill those feeders!! The spousal-unit and I were out in my shed getting some tools to do some work on the tire garden when he spotted one hovering at the door. He alerted me and I dropped him like a rock to go mix up that lovely nectar!! :) After all, my wonderful next-door neighbor has a gazillion hummingbird and other bird feeders in her back yard and I wanted to get mine out before they all moved over to her place. LOL!! So, after making a quick batch and sticking it into the fridge to cool it down a bit, I filled and set out my three feeders. Sure enough, within less than about an hour, I had a ruby-throated hummer drinking away. Since then, we have spotted the standard "fighting" for feeders that these birds seem to do so there are clearly many of the little guys and gals planning to stick around. I am so glad. I love to watch them.

Another little bird that is around here pretty much all the time is the Bewick's Wren. These cuties were in my back yard in Texas and I was very happy to find they are here, also. They are just the cutest little things although it amazes me how such a tiny little bird can have such a BIG voice!! In Texas, a pair of them set up housekeeping (nested) in one of my watering cans so I know they will nest VERY close to the house. I was looking out the back window one afternoon here when I noticed a couple of these little critters hopping in and out of the "mini-BBQ" we have on a table on the back patio. The BBQ is a mini-sized drum-type with a stack vent and a venting device on the end. The spousal-unit had left the stack vent and the venting device in open positions. These little birds are so tiny, they had no trouble zipping in and out of the darned thing. When I noted they were carrying small twigs and nesting material, I headed out immediately to bring this to a halt. I love birds... but I love grilled dinners more!!! I just had to shoo another pair off of the free-standing swing we have on the back patio where they had found a place they thought was "covered" enough (there was a bag sitting on the seat that had leaned over to one of the arms) to settle in. Sigh. I really hate not letting them do their nesting... but we are in the world of multiple trees!!! Find one!! Build there!! Geez!

Finally, there is good news in the tire garden that was created last year. :) We have emptied some dirt and refilled some of the tires with new dirt in preparation for those heirloom tomatoes I love so much. The little veggies have been purchased and are waiting patiently to be planted. So far, there are three Cherokee Purple tomatoes, two Juliet grape tomatoes, one Valencia orange bell pepper, and a Jalapeno pepper plant needing to go in the ground. Oh... and I had let some lettuce bolt and seed last year. Guess what is popping up in the two-tier tire? Yep. There are at least 6 small lettuce plants quite happy and growing away. Looking forward to enjoying some soon. So, I'm happy it's time to get out and get dirty!! I have added some plants to the landscape and have begun the annual assault on weeds and on fire ants. It's fun. Really.

I will remain with dirt under my fingernails until the next post...

WOODPECKER HEAVEN!!!

Heidy-Ho, Blogging Buddies!

I just have to type up a quick post for you all as I had a wonderful nature experience this morning. (If you're not into nature, move on as this will not be of interest.)

I was on my morning walk when two VERY large bird figures caught my eye. There are crows in the area so I thought perhaps there were a couple of them flying in the trees. Fortunately, I kept my eye on them and was rewarded with a wonderful view of two Pileated Woodpeckers!! They seemed to be a pair and I'm betting they are in the process of scouting out a nesting spot. Spring has sprung here, for the most part. They were only about 2 blocks from my house and on my daily route so I will keep an eye out for signs of nesting. There are certainly plenty of trees available here!

I have also seen many Red-Bellied Woodpeckers around. They spend a lot of time on the utility poles and have really wrought some havoc on one at my aunt's house. They are also great fun to watch.

Finally, I spotted a little guy in my back yard a while back. A second sighting provided enough detail to look him up in The Sibley Guide to Birds which is my Bible of birds! He is a Northern Flicker, a variety of woodpecker that spends time on the ground eating ants!!! I love to see him back there chomping away at those pesky little creatures! He can stop by anytime!!

So... that's all I have at the moment. I was just really excited to see the pair of Pileated Woodpeckers and wanted to report to you all. :)

Until next post...

LIPSTICK ON A PIG...

Heidy-Ho, Blogging Pals!!

Well, I can't really say the title is accurate. The house itself has pretty good bones and isn't really a pig... but it was definitely "dressed" like one!!

So... for the HGTV addicts, I have a few "before" and "after" shots. They aren't great as it is quite difficult to photograph the tight spaces called bathrooms. :) Hope you can get the gist of the changes anyway.

A change that was made a while back (as I cannot stand to cook on electric!) was the switching of the white electric range for the black gas one. So...

The kitchen sink was a nightmare! It was fiberglass (although the inspector said it was porcelain... uh-huh), stained, and had seen its best day the day it rolled off of the assembly line. The faucet was awful, leaked, and incurred my wrath on more than one occasion! So...

Those were fairly easy although the kitchen sink plumbing was wrong to begin with thus the difficulty factor of correcting that before installing the new sink.

The fun really began when I decided to have the most awful wallpaper removed from the half-bath and utility area. We selected a nice shade of tan to lighten it up and the games began. I will tell you about the painter in another post. It was interesting. At any rate... the half-bath had its "Hollywood light bar" and ginormous mirror removed, the horrific beige cultured marble with swirls of gold replaced with a lovely white cultured marble with light gray swirls, got a new faucet, got a new coat of paint, even got a new "chair-height" toilet (!), and looks 1000% better. Really. Yes, I mean to have 3 zeroes after the 1. See for yourself...

Apparently there was a really good deal on that horrific cultured marble in the beige tone with the golden swirls (and I neglected to mention the mega-stains!). It was in the hall bath, too!! That simply would not do... so the hall bath got the same makeover the half-bath received. The blue painters tape was for my use to determine the appropriate sized mirrors for this room.

Now then... there is more to tell you about the Big Box store we dealt with for the countertops. I will save that for the next post detailing the painter situation. :)

I guess that's probably all you really want to see. Maybe more than you had in mind. But I have to tell you that a few small changes can really make a HUGE difference in not only appearance but in how you feel about a room!! Trust me!

So... I will bid you a fond farewell for now. Until next time...