Creeping

Hey bloggers, I cant believe it's been 5 months since my last post, shameful! Can I still call myself a blogger?

I'ts been a really tough second half of the year for me, working full time took it's toll on my mental and physical health, and to top it off I went and got myself pregnant!............................... yup, let that soak in for a while, I'll wait.













So right now I am about four months along, due some time in May, thank goodness my job has finished earlier this month, I needed the rest so badly, although I will miss the money and is actually looking foward to working in the new year should something come along, the money was really great and will be missed, lol.


So how are you guys? I must apologise and of course be thankful to you who visited my blog and wonndeered where the heck I was, well I was in morining-sickness-land for a few months now I am in anticipation and exitement land about my new baby.


I am home full time again and will be blogging regularly, I would love to reconnect with all of you!


Merry Christmas, I love you guys!!!

Fertilizer Friday my third!!

Hello and welcome to another edition of Fertilizer Friday. I love Fridays!! I get too feed my planties and it's the end of the week!! woohoo!!

Our host today is the greenest of the green thumbed Tootsie, after looking at my blooms feel free to hop over and visit, you'll see some amazing blooms by other gardners and wanna-be gardners like myself.

Ok so, what's new in my neck of the woods as far as plantings go? Well I did manage to pot a few new planties this week and caught some suprise blooms too:

Ornamental Pepper, I bought this plant at a local Farmer's Market, and now after 2 weeks of regular fertilizing I see two new peppers! They start out purple, then turn orange, then red!

This is a 'common duranta' it was called in the garden shop

This is my 'green corner' of my porch, all these were potted on Wednesday, I love potting plants, it relaxes me, and hurts the knees but I dont mind at all, I am loving gardening so much

A mexican petunia, I just love these blooms

This is a bougonvilla I just potted yesterday,

I dont know what color it is and I did not ask, just waiting to be suprised,

I like the way the leaves are arranged, very flower like

crotons are plentiful and common here,

and the varieties available are many,

I still think no garden should be without them

potted lantanas,

I put this out into the sun because it was not blooming in the porch

Extra:

I had my SIL and her husband over for a BBQ lunch on Sunday and decided to try my had at a porch tablescaping, this is my little attempt, I did not quite get all the cutlery out because as you know when the hubby BBQs the wifey does EVERYTHING else, I was quite busy, my guests liked the table though

Happy Fertlizer Friday everyone and have a wonderful weekend!!!!

MICHAEL JACKSON

By now we all know that Michael Jackson is dead.

This is the way I choose to remember him.

Goodbye Michael, you were an unbelievable talent.

My Second Fertilizer Friday!!

This fern rests on the bannister of my covered porch, or 'gallery' as we say in Trinidad

It's Friday, that means one thing, Fertilizer Friday!!! I love to fertilize, I feel like I'm giving my planties, yes I call them that a special treat!!

Our resident garden guru Tootsie is our gracious host, hop over and see all the other participants!!

I bought a few plants since my last Ferlizer Friday, and I also transplanted the large plantersinto smaller pots, I think they look better

Guess who is the proud owner of a rose plant!!

As for this beauty, he was suffering in the backyard, under the mango tree

at first I thought it was a ficus

then it started flowering, I then realised it's a thornless 'crown of thorns'

these are early morning shots of my transplants

in new and shiny pots

lantanas growing wild on my back fence

not quite a flower, but I dont know

the name of this plant, anyone?

also I wonder how it grows, up or across like ground cover

Hey Tootsie, do flowers of a mango tree count?

I actually bought two rose plants this is the pink

and this is the red they are both on my patio in full sun, is that Ok?

another planting taking full sun

Ladies, I am trying so hard, my passion for container gardening grows daily, I even started a diary! Tomorrow I am going on a long drive to the south of the Island by my MIL's sister, we never met but I was told she is a fantastic gardner, I am going to hopefully pick up a few pointers from her and also some free plants (hopefully)!

Enjoy Fertilizer Friday!! It's a holiday today!! wooohoo long weekend and boy do I NEED IT!!

WHY I LOVE BBQING

BBQ RULES We are about to enter the BBQ season. Therefore it is important to refresh your memory on the etiquette of this sublime outdoor cooking activity. When a man volunteers to BBQ, the following chain of events are put into motion:

Routine...
(1) The woman buys the food.

(2) The woman makes the salad, prepares the vegetables, and makes dessert.
(3) The woman prepares the meat for cooking, places it on a tray along with the necessary cooking utensils and sauces, and takes it to the man who is lounging beside the grill - beer in hand.
(4) The woman remains outside the compulsory three meter exclusion zone where the exuberance of testosterone and other manly bonding activities can take place without the interference of the woman.
Here comes the important part:
(5) THE MAN PLACES THE MEAT ON THE GRILL.
More routine...
(6) The woman goes inside to organize the plates and cutlery.
(7) The woman comes out to tell the man that the meat is looking great. He thanks her and asks if she will bring another beer while he flips the meat.
Important again:
(8) THE MAN TAKES THE MEAT OFF THE GRILL AND HANDS IT TO THE WOMAN.
More routine...
(9) The woman prepares the plates, salad, bread, utensils, napkins, sauces, and brings them to the table.
(10) After eating, the woman clears the table and does the dishes.
And most important of all:
(11) Everyone PRAISES the MAN and THANKS HIM for his cooking efforts.
(12) The man asks the woman how she enjoyed ' her night off ', and, upon seeing her annoyed reaction, concludes that there's just no pleasing some women.

Camping on the beach and giant leather back turtles

Welcome to my second Outdoor Wednesday as usual our hostess is Susan at 'A Southern Daydreamer' after reading my post, head on over and see more!

Hey guys, I had a doozy of a weekend and right out of the blue! My husband's sister and her husband and kids visited on Saturday evening on their way to view giant leather back turtles that come to our shores during March to May to lay their eggs in the sand.

I always wanted to see it but never made the time, then hubby suggested that we tag along, they (the in-laws) had packed a tent, and told us there would be room in the tent for everyone, so I pushed all thought of my weekend responsibilities out of my housewife's head and decided what the hell!? Let's go!

My MIL (80yrs) decided she wanted to go as well, what a sense of adventure)

After hurriedly packing we were off, we picked a few coconuts from our tree, you know, to go with the rum,................ after the kids fall asleep.

We left home about 7pm and drove for a hour and a half, the turtles usually show up between the hours of midnight and 4am, yup it was gonna be a looooong night!

We got to the beach and worked on putting up the tent,

Kiddies played in the sand

After the tent was up,

The played in the tent!

I do not know where they got the energy, but they played until well after midnight! I went in to the tent and took a short nap, my BIL, took a walk along the beach to look for turtles, he hurried back and said that one is on the sand right now!! I was soooo exited, I began jumping up and down with the kiddies!

Just as we zipped up the tent, and headed off, a heavy shower came down! we hurried back into the tent, but it was just a passing cloud, thank goodness!!

With camera in hand and kids in tow we set off along the beach, ..............................

...............and there it was in all it' glory the magnificent, ancient, beautiful, Leather back Turtle!! Oh bloggers we were just in time! she had just come up to the beach and was digging a hole with her back fins, she dug and dug and dug for about 10 mins and then settled over the hole and the eggs began falling out of her, it was amazing to witness!!

Here she is, I was told that she is actually small compared to some that come up, there are leather backs as big as sedans!

These two photos were taken before she started digging, I really did not want to disturb her with my annoying flash from my camera so I just took these two.

One sad thing though, apparently where this turtle chose to lay her eggs, there were already eggs buried there, so , while digging she unearthed a few eggs and even some baby turtles, one of the eggs landed at my feet so I took it away from where this turtle was and snapped away! It is amazing how perfectly round the eggs are

After the excitement of viewing 3 turtles, especially exiting was to see them actually come ashore! we settled the kids into the tent to sleep, mind you, this is 330 am!

At this time we busted out the coconut water and we had one or two drinks, under the stars, kiddies asleep and we just 'limed'.

We too settled in about 430am, the next morning Keith had to go to work, we got up at 7am, and bundled a sleeping Gabby and granny into the truck, Isaiah asked to stay and how could we refuse, it was just so pretty there in the morning!! Here are some shots of the beach in the early morning

This group just slept on the sand!!

Gabby and granny all bundled up to go home

Hello everyone! Welcome to my first 'Sunday Favorites' hosted by Chari at Happy To Design, I think this is a great idea, because we all have our favorite posts that we may want to share again!

This post is one that actually happened to me and to this day I still find it funny, hope you enjoy, those of you that read it before,.................... well enjoy it again! lol!!

Check out Chari's blog to read great past posts from other bloggers!

On Sunday last I was at home alone with the kids. Keith (the hubby)had gone to a football game. it had just gotten dark, and I was preparing the kid's clothing for the school the next day, when out of the corner of my eye i noticed a creature moving from the washroom into the kitchen/TV room area.

My heart sank and rose at the same time!! When i looked over i saw it was a huge frog IN MY HOUSE and believe me folks these things ALWAYS HAPPEN WHEN KEITH IS NOT AT HOME!! Now my fear of frogs is immense to say the least, i will run screaming if i see them in the yard much less in the sanctuary of my home! I immediately hopped up onto the chair where i was folding clothes and started trembling, the frog at this time was hopping and stopping, hopping and stopping. And all i could think was why me lord why now??

I managed to come down from the chair grab the phone and get back on the couch, i called Kieth to see how close to home he was, he was approx 20 minutes away. 20MINUTES! did you not hear me A FROG IS IN THE HOUSE!! He then calmly instructed me to get a bucket and cover the frog with it until he comes home, that way he will know where it is and will get it out sounds reasonable right? except for the fact that to cover the frog i would have to get CLOSE to it! Not going to happen!

By this time Mr frog is in the TV room and heading for the corridor towards the bedrooms. that is when knew I had to do something!
I instructed Isaiah to keep his eye on the frog, I decided i would go out into the street and any of my neighbors I saw walking by or driving by I would ask them to come and deal with the frog for me. So i open the front door and go through my gate and stare into the street. It was completely deserted! Where were the pesky teenage boys when you need them?

MONSTER FROG

All this time i am telling Isaiah to keep his eye on the frog so that i would know where it is when Kieth or a neighbor gets here. I stand there for what seemed like an eternity, still no nieghbor, still no Keith, Idecided to head back into the porch where I can look out for a neighbor and avoid shouting to Isaiah from the street

"WHERE IS THE FROG NOW?!"

So i go close to the front door and I ask

"Isey where is the frog"

"I dont know mummy" he replies

I get dizzy.

The frog could be ANYWHERE in my house!!

I stand at the door and ponder my next move, I cant ask someone to come in and search for a frog!! I should at least know where it is! Good Grief!!

A million thoughts are racing through my mind as i stand my front door, only to catch movement in the corner of my eye again,

THE FROG!!

it calmly hopped out the front door, onto the porch and into the yard! Shaking like a leaf from fear and relief, I calmly go inside close the door and breathed for what seemed like the first time in 20 minutes of agony!!

He could have at least dressed for the occasion!!

Fertilizer Friday

It's fertilizer Friday and my friend Tootsie is our hostess! Tootsie is our resident garden guru, and she has brown thumbed folks like me hitting the commercial greenhouses buying up plants because of her passion for plants and mind boggling talent for growing them from seed, so after viewing what I am feeding on this Fertilizer Friday, hop on over to Tootsie;s blog and see what everyone else is feeding!

I love petunias, so recently I went over to the garden shop/greenhouse and purchased a few, when I got there they were watering the plants with an overhead mister and it looked so pretty I just had to take a pic

Petunias just wating to be taken home and loved

I bought about eight petunia plants and a few lantanas, I have to take the planting slowly and build my confidence being new to planting and all, I took my plants home and waited a day before transplanting I wanted them to become acclimatised to their new home.

Lantanas

While at work I had an ambitious idea, why not make two giant planters like Tootsie does with the petunias? I thought why not? I got really exited at the idea, I already had the pots and I remembered Tootsie gave step by step instructions about making her planters and as luck would have it there was some syrotex hanging around the office that day because of a new printer that was purchased, I pounced on them before the cleaners did! The syrotex is needed for stuffing the plant pots so that less pro mix is used.

All bagged and ready to go home

And now without further ado, my plantings, remember they are recent transplants and have some growing to do, since planting this pot I have added four impatiens to the pot for a fuller look.

Begonias hoping for the best here

Then, my ambition got into warp speed and I decided to plant some seeds!! They actually sprouted, and no, Tootsie I am not fertilizing them, lol!!

If these pots work out I'll probably do some in ground planting!!!