Around Home

We had a little road trip to Charlotte, NC this weekend for a 60th birthday party but otherwise we have just been homebodies.

Rosie is getting braver, coming out of what has become "Rosie's room", on cautious forays now and then. She holds her ground when the dogs come to sniff her with only a hiss or two, but when they bark she is back under the couch to hide.

 

 

 

 

 

She emerges low to the ground, one carefully placed paw at a time.

 

 

There is always something to watch outside. The anoles who live on the deck and back porch provide constant entertainment. The babies are especially cute and this guy is eating ants out of the hummingbird feeders.

 

 

 

Say hello to the deck toad, another welcome insect-eating resident. I hope he eats chiggers (called Red Bugs here) because they are fierce this year.

 

 

"How do you open this thing? I want to go out!"

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mrs Corn Spider has been busy. She had a husband an eighth her size for a bit but she ate him and produced two more big egg sacs you can see in the background. Here she is wrapping a grasshoppery snack for later.

Remember, this is her third egg sac and there are up to 3000 eggs in each sac. See what I mean about busy?

 

 

 

One last deck-dweller here. Meet the Leaf-Footed Beetle that hangs out on the porch screen. I don't know what he eats but whatever it is, it apparently lives in the screens. See that big foot on his last leg? It looks like a dried up old leaf.

He is a big guy, about as long as my thumb.

We do venture forth now and then, mostly to the dump and the grocery store. There are no garbage trucks that roam the neighborhood at 6am waking everyone up here. You are responsible for disposal of your own stuff at the local dump. Sadly, way too many people can't seem to find their way to the dump and the roadsides are littered with fast food detritus, furniture, and whatever else the user is done with.

In town there is a one-woman campaign on to solve the problem. Her signs pop up here and there and usually express exasperation. The poor woman's pretty yard is less than a block from McDonald's.

She is one of my heroes!

 

 

This is "The Pig," or the Piggly Wiggly, the store where my mom shopped when I was growing up. We haven't had Piggly Wigglies Up North for probably 40 years so it was a big surprise and a bit of nostalgia when I discovered they still existed down here.

 

 

 

 

Shopping is somewhat of an adventure. There are different kinds of fizzy drinks than I'm used to. You know, like Coke and Pepsi and 7-Up?

This is the most unusual so far, funnel cake flavored soda! I didn't buy any, but I'm imagining it tastes something like ... fried donuts?

 

And then there is corn meal. Up North you would find two options, white or yellow. Here the possibilities cover 20 feet of shelf space In a small store!

Who knew there were that many things you could do to cornmeal to make people buy your brand over, say, 30 others?!

 

 

 

 

 

I'll leave you with one last thought for the day.

Whee! Have a little fun today, okay?

 

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