I observed this Knight Anole outside my kitchen window while having my morning coffee. When you see a creature such as an anole stalking around your house, you wonder if your backyard has become a setting for a sequel to a Stephen King novel such as The Mist and his sinister imagination.
The Knight Anole is a diurnal predator (only active during the day). It is territorial and aggressive. As an adult it eats larger prey like other anoles, geckos, baby birds and mice.
You get up one bright and shining morning and decide to go out and pick some fresh tomatoes only to find a horrific sight. Your beautiful tomato plants have been ravished by giant, four inch long caterpillars–the Tobacco hornworm and they are everywhere. And I thought my plants were suffering from soil depletion. The only thing more disgusting than their size is their appetite. The hornworms feast on your plants overnight and leave their equally large droppings everywhere. It makes you rethink a farmer’s market.
or feed him for a lifetime!
Pompano caught off Jupiter Beach on March 27, 2011.
Snowshoeing is not only good cardiovascular exercise but it’s a great way to get outdoors and stay active in the winter. Our latest trip to Vail Mountain included hiking up the mountain on snowshoes. We had the added pleasure of family and friend. It was a challenge but worth every minute! Here is our journey.
Amateur sand sculptors at work but we are getting better at hand stacking and compaction–two well documented tips on building a great sandcastle! If you are looking for your 30 seconds of fame, build a sandcastle the next time you go to the beach. We were amazed by the beachgoers (all ages and sizes) that came by to inquire and photograph our work. There is something very gratifying about creating something others enjoy.
I built a sand castle,
I thought it would stand.
Because after all,
It was built from the land.
From all of it’s windows,
For miles I could see.
Each day a new vision,
From there was for me.
Jeannie B. Cook
There is lots of laughter going on in my backyard!
I watched Food, Inc and finally read the book and particularly enjoyed the chapter by Joel Salatin on Declaring Your Independence– “How can we help and what can we do to impact the problem? ”
As Michael Pollan so succinctly states in his chapter Why Bother? “We can …turn (our) lives upside down, start biking to work, plant a big garden, turn down the thermostat….forsake the clothes dryer… (get) a hybrid, get off beef, and go completely local……when (we) know fully well half way around the world there lives (our) same evil twin, (our) carbon foot doppelgänger in Shangai…who just bought (his/her) first car and eager to swallow every bit of meal (we) forswore….so why all the trouble?”.
It is simple–better intelligence. There is a reason we need to opt out. When you buy local or plant a garden, you gain a better understanding of food and the life cycle. The USDA approved, industrial produced foodstuffs laced with preservatives, dyes and high fructose sugar syrup are problematic.
Buy organic, local or better yet plant a garden.
It has been an eye-opening experience for me when I pick a strawberry in my backyard. Although I have always been conscious about where I buy and what I eat, I have learned so much more about life this year from my garden. I eat what I grow. You have never tasted a better green pepper!
It is my darling’s 50th birthday. Celebrate! We started early with a sampling from Cupcake Couture including Cocoa Channel, Mond olo Blahnik, Coconut Klein and Red Valentino. The decadent butter cream and cream cheese frostings have your sweet tooth begging for more!
You do not have to go the workplace to see this productivity. It is happening right in my backyard. 
There is one queen in a hive and her main goal is to make more bees. She can lay over 1,500 eggs per day and can live 2-8 years. The drones are males and have no stinger. They live about eight weeks and their function is to mate with a new queen.
The Worker bees do all the different tasks needed to maintain and operate the hive. They are all sterile females. When young, they are called house bees and work in the hive doing comb construction, tending the queen and drones, cleaning, temperature regulation and defending the hive. The older workers are called field bees. They forage outside the hive to gather nectar, pollen, water and certain sticky plant resins used for hive construction. My yard is full of the field bees.
As the field bees forage for nectar, pollen sticks to the fuzzy hairs which cover their bodies. Some of this pollen rubs off on the next flower they visit, fertilizing the flower and resulting in better fruit production which is one of the reasons for my bumper tomato crop! Although the tomato plant is considered a self-pollinator, they benefit from the bee’s activity.
When a bee works a tomato plant, it pulls the flowers down into a vertical position and puts its fat belly against the stigma and buzzes. Pollen is released. It falls by gravity (since the flower is now tilting down) directly to the bee’s fuzzy (and statically charged) belly. The bee’s work below on a tomato blossom.
Love:
Today, I will renew myself by letting go of all expectations.
Today, I will consider the priorities in my life.
Today, I will know that love is the only reality.
Love is the most important priority.
When the truth takes root in my heart, I will not be tempted to waste so much time on trivialities. When this truth takes root in my heart, I will not be tempted to waste time on the trivial and banal. Today, I will stake my life in what is timeless.
Today, I will be redeemed through love.
Deepak Chopra
Happy Valentine’s Day!
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