Here we GROW!

WOAH! My little Luna Moth caterpillars are growing SO fast! 



Okay, so I took this picture last night.
















And I took this picture this afternoon!










I SWEAR they tripled in size overnight! I am so excited! I can't wait until they spin cocoons. 

Fresh Mango Salsa

Ahhh... SO fresh! Almost all of the ingredients in this salsa are fresh with the exception of a few spices.

  
1 Large or 2 Small Mangos
2 Tomatoes
1 Jalapeño
1/2 Vidalia Onion
1/4 cup Fresh Cilantro/Coriander
3 Cloves of Garlic
3 tbls White Vinegar
5 Whole Peppercorns
2 tsp Sea Salt
2 tsp Garlic Salt
1/2 tsp Whole Cumin

Squeeze lime juice into a medium sized bowl. Chop the remaining fruit, veggies, cilantro and garlic and toss into the bowl. Add vinagar and mix. Grind salt and spices with mortar and pestle and add to mixture. Presto! Fresh Mango Salsa!

I ate mine over some white tortilla chips with melted Red Rind Hoop cheese and a dollop of sour cream.

Which can lead to this. . .

. . . and eventually this.

Little Tiny Caterpillars

        A few weeks ago I caught a Luna moth. And then a few days later I caught another one! And BOTH of these moths laid a batch of eggs before passing away. I pinned, spread, and preserved each of these little pretties and left their eggs on a tissue.

       The eggs were laid in little clumps and stuck fast to the tissue. BUT, as you may have noticed, several of the eggs are, in fact, EMPTY in this photo. To my HORROR the first bunch of eggs hatched sooner than I had anticipated. Unfortunately, I only found about half of those caterpillars. So, I put them in a jar. I also un-stuck the rest of the unhatched eggs and placed them in the jar. 
        After a few days the rest of the eggs hatched. I gave them a piece of lettuce, but they hardly touched it. Once I discovered, by reading my book on Coleoptera (moths and butterflies), that Luna Moth Larvae eat only pecan and walnut leaves I marched out to my front yard and picked some young pecan leaves to feed to my little crawlies. 

        As you can see, the caterpillars have been eating with quite an appetite! It is a little hard to see the caterpillar in this picture. It is about 0.7centimeters long. This seems very tiny, but the day before yesterday they were only about 0.4 centimeters long. These little ones have newly doubled in size in the last two days! I can't wait to see how well they do in the next few weeks. They should end up being about 2 inches long before they are ready for metamorphosis. I'll update as they grow.

Pretty Pasta Salad

        Time for a creative dish. I was hungry and decided to throw together whatever I had in the house. A little of this... a little of that. And... TAD-AH!

Pretty Pasta Salad


1 cup of whole wheat penne pasta
1 tbls of bacon grease
1 tbls of balsamic dressing
2 tbls of creamy ceasar dressing
1 tsp garlic powder
1/2/ cup of fresh spinach
1/2 of a chopped gala apple
4 onces of edamame 


Boil pasta until tender - 12 to 14 minutes. Heat bacon grease and balsamic dressing in a small pan and add garlic powder and spinach leaves. Cook until leaves are wilted. Mix the rest of the ingredients and toss. ENJOY!

The Thrift Queen Scores Again!

      
        I have done it once again. Found this perfect little white framed bathroom mirror at a garage sale for $5. Now, I know what you are thinking... "Five bucks! That's a lot for yard sale junk!" But, wait! This mirror was new with the price sticker, which was marked on clearance for $14.99, still on it and the little plastic carrying handles had never been removed. So it was basically new and never been used. When I asked the seller about the condition of the item she informed me that she had, indeed, bought the nifty little mirror new and on sale and never even mounted it on a wall. What a find!

        So, I gave the mirror to my mother-in-law. She has been looking for the perfect little mirror to go on her newly re-modeled bathroom wall for about a year now. The bathroom is very simple - almost a minimalistic style, but also very vintage. Also, I absolutely love the color on the beadboard walls. It is hard to tell in the pictures, but the room is lovely, light aqua. It's like a crisp, refreshing spring fountain. I think the new mirror really adds to the room.

Luna lux nox

        The night of the Moon. . . tonight the Moon is closer to the Earth than it has been in 18 years. In addition to this it is also full to the brim with an almost eerie brightness.

        To add to the excitement I also captured a Luna Moth in perfect condition. I took this picture of her (yes it is female) with the enormous Moon in the background. Once upon a time I studied Entomology quite seriously and went to "Bug Camp" every summer when I was in high-school. So, as soon as I caught the beautiful creature I quickly paralyzed it so it would not flutter about and ruin it's lovely wings.

        I took a picture with it in my hand for scale. It's a little small, but it is probably one of the first Luna Moths of the year. Hopefully I will acquire a massive sized male this year. I only have only ever had a few small or average sized females.


      

       
        I plan on spreading, pinning, and preserving the insect to place in a shadow box. Like the one pictured on the right. These two moths are actually just about the same size. Anyway, once placed in the shadow box I will sprinkle a little bit of moth ball dust inside to keep tiny microscopic bugs from eating the delicate wings. Then I will probably give it to which ever one of my sisters reads this first and claims the specimen.


        After capturing the moth Lath asked me what their purpose was. As in - what do Luna Moth's do? I said that they hatch, eat, live, breed, lay eggs, and then die. So he replied, "Oh. So all they are for is lookin' pretty?" To which I replied, "Yes."

Hello Totoro ~ in Watercolors!

        Hooray! My sister, Lizzie, made me a DVD copy of our old VHS video of "My Neighbor Totoro." This is one of my very favorite childhood films. This film was originally produced by Ghibli Studio films in Japan in 1988. It was then dubbed in English and released in the US in the early 1990's. The reason I am so excited is because the original English dubbing of this film cannot be obtained on DVD. In 2006 the English was re-dubbed with the voices of Dakota and Elle Fanning as the main characters. IT IS AWFUL. Maybe I just feel this way because I LOVED the original, but I am also greatly bothered by the fact that they changed some wordage and even the names of a few things in the re-dub of the movie.


          So, I decided to draw on the DVD because my sister, Megan, also drew Totoro pictures on Lizzie's DVD copy of the movie. And who wants to look at a plain silver disk with plain lettering of just the movie title? I wish I had a picture of the other one too. For comparison. Well, here is my design.





        I also decided that since I have lots of empty DVD cases I would make a cute slip to go in a case. First I drew the picture in ink. Then I decided that I would like it in color, so I watercolored the picture. It's not really very professional looking, but I think the home-made look is kind of cute.  
         Now, I will sit and enjoy the movie and think of the days when we were little girls sprawled across the living-room floor, looking up at the TV, and counting our collections of acorns.

Fishing in Flip-Flops

       


        Yesterday afternoon, after Lath arrived home, we decided to go fishing. So, we loaded up the fishing gear and headed to Lake, MS to fish at Buckas Taylor's pond. Buckas is Lath's cousin-in-law. Yes. In Mississippi people have names like Buckas - or they at least go by these types of names. Buckas's real name is James. I know! Isn't that cool? James Taylor! Anyway... We went to James "Buckas" Taylor's pond to fish.

      
        I really wanted to catch a "mess" of fish, as it is referred to here, for dinner. The water was a little rough when we arrived. The weather was beautiful - warm and sunny. 






        We each felt a few bites and even caught just a few fish. But for the most part we caught a lot of small or medium sized Mud Cats. The few fish that we did catch we took home and placed in our Pond. It was a nice day to go fishing. And at the very least I was able to bathe in the lovely sunshine and soak up some Spring.

A Time to Plant & Transplant

Herb Garden

        So, here are the humble beginnings of my herb garden this year. I purchased this 15 gallon galvanized tub for just $14 at a Hudson's Salvage Center a few weeks ago. Now on to the plants! I purchased the Oregano (left), Cilantro or Coriander (top), and Sweet Basil (right). I also transplanted a cutting of Lemon Thyme (front) from a cutting off of my mother-in-law's plant. I also planted some Parsley seeds in the top left corner, some more Oregano in the middle, and some Rosemary in the top right corner.

                       Lucky Bamboo

        I also transplanted my poor, little Bamboo plants today into a pot. Last fall I accidentally let them get too dry and one of them died. I am down to only two plants, but after letting them sit in a bowl of water all winter I hope they continue to improve.

Back to Blogging!

Now that I have the internet at my home I can once again Blog what I've been up to! Which is exciting since it is now planting season. Pictures of my gardens and projects soon to come!

Tab