The Fake Tomato Worm!

I was out gadding about the garden late this evening after a long day's work of cleaning house.  It was time to escape from that distasteful job and get a breath of fresh air.  This summer has been hard on the garden what with all of the bugs, lack of water and intense heat.  Nothing wants to grow!  This is the first year in many that I did not have lots of tomatoes.  Most of the plants met their demise early in the year leaving only a few of the cherry tomato types to supply my needs.  These were planted in the Rose Garden of all  places!  Here they did well and in spite of the drought have been clinging to life by a thread!  I decided to lop off a few of the plants to see if perhaps they would send up new shoots and start anew.  Sure enough, the new branches looked fine!  Until this evening!

During my walk in the garden, I discovered that something had stripped the nicest leaves from my rejuvenated tomato plant!  Overnight it seems that some critter was quite hungry and by the looks of it, had an extreme liking for the leaves of this particular plant!  I knew immediately what to look for and soon found the culprit!  Aha!  A tomato worm!   A HUGE one at that!  This guy was nigh on four inches long!  I knew just how to rid the plant of this critter..I would just flip it off and smash it!  I looked at the tomato plants..they were all but dead.  There was not much hope in reviving them again.  I pondered..do I kill this lone tomato worm or do I let it go free?  Will the critter enjoy the rest of my plant or was this its last meal?  I pondered the question as I peered at the worm..err..caterpillar.

In reality, this was not even a tomato worm!  First..it is not even a worm, it is a caterpillar.  Yes, there is a difference!  Worms do not turn into moths or butterflies..they turn into nothing..they stay worms.  Caterpillars are what we see chomping away on our plants and they will usually turn into a moth or butterfly at some point.  My tomato worm on the other hand was not a worm nor was it even a "tomato worm".  Even though it was devouring said tomato plant, this was a tobacco worm..err..caterpillar.  These two are so similar that it is difficult to distinguish between them.  The best way is to look closely at the sides of the caterpillar.  If there are whitish stripes that go diagonally then it is a tobacco worm.  Tomato worms have V shaped markings.  Another sure way is to look at the "horn" on the tail of the caterpillar..tomato worms have green or black horns while tobacco worms have red!  Now about that horn..it is misleading, too!  It is fake!!!  That horrific-looking horn is nothing more than an appendage to scare off predators!  It will not hurt anything!  So..my fake tomato worm is not a worm and has a fake horn!  That means....I have a tobacco worm! ....caterpillar!  Which will soon make a cocoon and bury itself in my garden while waiting for me to plant a new crop of baby tomato plants.  Then it will crawl out of the ground turn into a moth and lay eggs all over the leaves! That way, when I walk through the garden, I can inspect the plants and ponder whether to smash the tobacco worms that are riddling the plants!  ooops....Smash!  Next year, I will make sure to plant my dill weed and basil in with the tomatoes.  Tomato worms and tobacco worms both love dill weed!  Not that I want to lose my herbs but finding that lunker of a caterpillar in the fine, wispy dill leaves will be far easier than hunting among the tomato leaves!

Morning Glory..A Faerie Tale

When I was just a wee tot, there were many nights that I would spend at my grandparents house.  It was always fun but the least bit scary to be away from the security of my own home.  My grandparents were very doting and would never fail to see that I was well cared for and most pleasingly entertained.  One of the nightly traditions was a bedtime story.  After I was all tucked in under the covers, either Granddad or Grandmother would sit in the rocking chair next to the bed and recite some most interesting tale.  Grandmother's stories were usually some romantic little faerie tale while Granddad's always had a moral hidden in there somewhere and he always..always..made sure I remembered it!  One of the tales from Grandmother was a lovely story about the Morning Glory vine.

~It seems that there was a clan of faeries that lived in the garden.  One of these faeries was a frail, little girl named Glory. She was so fragile that her parents would not let her wander in the gardens except in the early morning hours as the hot sun would surely harm her.  This made the little faerie very sad.  She could never see the lovely flowers that would bloom later in the day after the bright sun made its appearance.  She only viewed the buds before the sun unfurled the petals of the roses, daisies and lilies.  Because of this, all of the other faeries started calling her Morning Glory.  They loved the little tyke and tried to think of ways to make her happy but to no avail.  Early one morning as she made her way back to the door of the little faerie house down under the Day Lilies, she began to weep.  She so wished she could dance among the beautiful flowers like the other faeries did!  Her tears fell to the ground and unseen to anyone, they turned to seeds.

The next morning, the little faerie started her walk as usual but this time she was in awe!  Every inch of the garden was in bloom with the loveliest trumpet shaped flowers!  Blues, purples, pinks and whites..everywhere she looked the blooms smiled down upon her!  The little faerie was elated and started dancing in the garden!  Every morning after that, she would race to the garden to play in "her" flowers and soon with all the happiness and active play, the frail little faerie was growing stronger. Before the end of summer, she was healthy and no longer needed to be sheltered from the sun's rays.  Still, the little faerie would rise before the sun was up just so she could walk amongst the Morning Glories and appreciate their short bursts of beauty that was meant just for her!~

I, too, like to rise before the sun and stroll through the gardens.  It is a quiet time when I feel that the gardens are just for me.  This morning, I noticed the lovely Morning Glories had taken over the Bridal Wreath bush and had turned it into a sea of purplish-blue! I smiled!  I was enthralled and felt a bit like that little faerie in Grandmother's tale.  I wanted to dance in the garden..to play among the blooms..to love life and cherish all that the Bayou has to offer.  I am glad those little Morning Glories made me recall Grandmother's bedtime story..it, too, makes me smile.

Flower Power!

I have always loved Zinnias!  Back in the day, Dad always had several huge beds of these flowers in the front yard!  The bright colors would always bring a smile to anyone who saw them.  There is just something happy about Zinnias..they literally brighten the day!  With that in mind, it would not seem right if I did not have Zinnias planted in my yard as well.  Clumps of the plants are dotted throughout the flower beds and also in the vegetable gardens.  The oranges, yellows, purples and whites all add a bit of cheeriness to every corner of the yard.

Zinnias are an old-style flower.  Years ago, most cottage gardens would have multitudes of this plant mixed in among the more exotic plants.  Zinnias were (and still are) of the favorite of all home garden bedding plants.  Their rapid growth along with their hardiness makes for easy gardening.  Just plop a few seeds in the ground and more or less forget about them.  In a few weeks, bright blooms will appear and beautify the area.  Care is as simple as bit of fertilizer now and again, a good dousing with water when dry and a bit of dead-heading when the blooms become spent.  Zinnas also make wonderful cut flowers as they have the ability to stay fresh looking in a vase for quite some time.  And, trust me, there is nothing more charming than a canning jar filled with multicolored Zinnias sitting on the kitchen table or a bright windowsill!  

Now I find that perhaps Dad was a bit smarter than he let on to be!  These same Zinnias have quite a protective effect on the vegetable gardens!  Not that the plant itself does the job, but rather these blooms call in all sorts of wonderful critters that are beneficial to the garden.  This is especially so if the garden is infested with Whiteflies!  Little known to most folks, Whiteflies are the culprits behind the awful leaf curling in tomato plants.  If you have ever had a perfectly healthy tomato plant literally "curl up and die" then most likely the Whitefly is in the garden.  These are tiny critters that really take a trained eye to find in and amongst the leaves but their damage is clearly evident!  The leaves will curl and within a day the plant starts to wither and turn brown.  No matter what action is taken by the gardener, the tomato plant dies.  Enter the happy little Zinnia plant!  Zinnias intermixed with vegetables that are susceptible to Whitefly attacks will attract hummingbirds, bees and wasps!  These predators dine upon the Whiteflies and thus save the tomato plants!  (Yes!  Hummingbirds do eat tiny insects contrary to most folks ideas!)   Just to throw it in here at this point..another good flowering plant to mix in with the veggies is the Nasturtium!  It works in quite a different way as it provides certain root chemicals that can deter the Whitefly!  Plus, with the Nasturtium..you can always add the flowers to your meal!

So...Zinnias..those bright, happy flowers pull a double duty!  The task of keeping the veggie garden free of some pests falls nicely on its list of positive characteristics.  Oh..and as an extra bonus..the plant will usually reseed itself!  In early spring, just watch for the tiny plants to start sprouting and make sure to not hoe them out when preparing the beds for planting!  Zinnias..one of my favorites!

The dreaded Dead Man's Fingers strike again!

Dead Man's Fingers!  Those sound like something from our worst nightmare!  Dead Man's Fingers..ahh..yes!  Those creepy, grey and shriveled digits that come crawling after us as we, for some reason, have become paralyzed with fear and cannot run!  Those fingers that are no longer attached to any hand or body but still have a life of their own and those same ones that have ill intent in our dreams.  Zombie fingers! No?  Well, perhaps these are just some prop from an old Abbott and Costello movie.  Some Egyptian mummy's fingers are chasing Bud and Lou around a haunted museum! Bud and Lou must defeat the fingers before solving the mystery of the missing jewels of some pharaoh!  Dead Man's Fingers!  I do believe many a story could be written with that as a title!

Dead Man's Fingers or gills of a crab can be clearly seen once the carapace or shell is removed.

Actually, the Dead Man's Fingers were found in my kitchen this morning and I do not live in some haunted museum!  Nor did these fingers chase me or scare me in the least!  Dead Man's Fingers are organs found in Blue Crabs.  To be a bit more precise, these "fingers" are the gills of the crab.  They are elongated, spongy-looking organs that enable the crab to filter air from the water.  Their name comes from the shape and appearance.   Being slightly grey, shriveled and long, they actually do resemble the fingers of a dead human...if you have a great imagination!  As a matter of coincidence, there are five on each side of the crab!  The Dead Man's Fingers are located right below the carapace or hard upper shell of the crab.  Once that is removed, these gills are the most prominent feature of the body of the crab. They sit there in all their glory just waiting to scare the bejeebies out of some poor soul!  Not really..most folks who eat crabs are fully aware of what they will see once that shell is removed!  Although, some folks do believe that these organs are poisonous and will kill you if you eat them.  This is erroneous and probably just derived from the said appearance of the gills.  Although, I have not tasted them (they look yucky to me!), others have and say they taste as yucky as they look!   Perhaps that to has lent some bearing on the myth that they are toxic.  These are part of the crab that one discards when picking or eating!

Blue Crabs with their..ummm..blue and green hues.

Just to throw another interesting fact about crabs at you..since I have been bombarding you with excessive crab lore..Blue Crabs do turn red when cooked!  Most know this but some do not realize why!  It has to do with pigments in the crabs shells.  The red pigment is wrapped in proteins which give it the dark coloring.  When heated the protein "unravels" ( for lack of a better term) and the red color that is underneath becomes visible.  Heat destroys the darker bluish or greenish pigments leaving behind the bright red!  Although this change is definitely related to heat, it is not a test for "doneness"!  Crabs and all seafood should be thoroughly cooked!  That brings me to another point!  Most folks do overcook their seafood!  With Blue Crabs "doneness" has nothing to do with safety!  That safety all comes with cooking live crabs!  Never use dead crabs as bacteria forms rather quickly on seafood and I am sorry to tell you, that is what makes people sick!  Live Blue Crabs can be plopped in boiling water, the water returned to a full rolling boil and cooked within six to ten minutes depending on the size of the crab!  Each of those shells sort of turns into a mini pressure cooker and will fully cook an average size crab in just minutes.  The importance of having that crab live and the water in a full boil cannot be stressed enough but time wise ten minutes is usually enough!

The same Blue Crabs boiled and showing their "redness"!

Ok..so now I have ventured far from the original theme of this post!  To summarize..Dead Man's Fingers are not movie props or zombies..are not poisonous..and taste lousy! Dead Man's Fingers are not fingers at all but are gills. Crabs change colors due to heat demolishing certain proteins.  Never use a dead crab..it will make you ill.  Always keep the water boiling but never overcook your crab!  Also, never miss a chance to view an Abbott and Costello movie..that is pure entertainment!

Dental Care?

Have you ever seen something some many times without really noticing it?  Or maybe it would be better to ask, have you really examined everything around you?  I mean really looked at your surroundings.  I have always thought that I am rather observant.  I view things in a bit different way than most folks and see some of the smallest details that otherwise go unnoticed.  While we were fishing, Michael caught a nice size stingray that entirely swallowed the hook.  The job of retrieving that hook was not going to be pretty.  Surgery would definitely be necessary.  

I grabbed ahold to the pincers that are used to twist a hook free when good ole fingers are too large.  If the hook is merely snagged onto a bit of skin, no problem..the hook can be backed out of the flap and the fish usually is none the worse for wear.  If that hook is far down in the stomach like this one was, the fish is pretty much a goner.  Being a stingray, this one would be used as crab bait.  After the stingray settled down a bit, I cut off the barb so I would not have to be in danger of getting a nasty wound.  Flipping the fish upside-down,  I, again, smiled at the alien-like face that stared up at me.  I tugged on the line..the mouth gaped open and I could see practically all the way to the stomach!  There was Son's hook!  I slipped the pincers into the huge mouth..scrape!  The metal grated against the tooth plates of the stingray's jaws.  As many times as I have caught stingrays, I never really looked at those teeth!  I twisted the hook loose and then examined the tooth plate a bit closer. 

Stingrays do not have sharp pointy teeth like most other fish.  Instead they have flat plate-like teeth that are set in a "pavement" arrangement.  It sort of reminded me of a "honeycomb" arrangement, to be honest!  Each "paving stone" or tooth was a flat six-sided tooth.  Do not get the notion that these teeth are harmless just because they are flat and not pointy!  The jaws of a stingray are strong enough to crack clam shells and those flat teeth are the "armor" that allows the jaws to do their work!  Rubbing the metal pincers across the tooth plate produced a grinding sound which made me thankful that my fingers had not come in contact with that mouth!  Yep!  I had never really examined the mouth of a stingray before..I guess I can mark that one off my bucket list of things to do during my lifetime! 

Little Snowy!

When I am on the pier catching bait for fishing, I usually have several visitors drop by to grab a meal.  Three Little Green Herons and one Night Heron will make their appearance almost as soon as I  pick up the cast net.  Once the net is thrown into the water, these birds will come running up the pier with great expectations of a free meal.  If the net comes up empty (which does happen occasionally), the birds will either dart back about twenty feet from me and wait for the next cast or follow me around like some puppy dogs!  Most of the time if there is a full net, all four birds will happily scoop up fish after fish all the while ignoring Ms. Ez, the dog.  She will snatch her share of fish right along with the birds!  There has never been any squabbling amongst the birds and dog.

Lately, however, I have a new visitor coming by for a bite to eat!  A little Snowy Egret has taken to following the Night Heron and Green Herons in their quest for a free meal.  The Snowy is a bit leery of me yet and has not taken to Ms. Ez either.  It will keep its distance and only snatch up the minnows that I toss to it at a distance of a good twenty feet.  The herons will literally take the food from my hands!

Yesterday, progress was made with the Snowy.  Not a single heron showed up for breakfast and the dog stayed back at the house.  It was just me and Snowy!  I caught a mess of menhaden and waited.  Sure enough, the Snowy glided in and settled not far from me.  I sat..still..very still..just waiting.  After about five minutes, I think hunger got the best of the bird.  Looking at me warily, the bird edged in close enough to grab a fish.  Snatch!  The bird darted away to eat that one!  I sat..not moving..just waiting.  Snowy slowly slipped closer and closer...snatch!  It had another fish!  This kept up until the bird had eaten about a dozen small fish.  Finally, its tummy was filled and it flew off over the marsh.

This scene made me happy!  I missed the herons but was so glad to have a bit of special time with just the Snowy.  Perhaps after a few more visits like that of yesterday, the bird will feel comfortable enough to venture as close as the herons.  Hopefully, it will get used to Ms. Ez's presence as well. The other birds already sense that she will not hurt them and they will eat right along side of her.  They all share the fish which keeps me quite busy!

The Washington Monument or the Capitol Dome? That is the question of the day!

The Bay is full of the fattest Blue Crabs this summer!  Early this morning, I headed to the pier to check the crab pots and found that there were thirty-eight of the nicest crabs!  These were all dumped in a bucket and hauled to the house to be boiled!  All except the females, that is!  These were either put back in the crab traps or released,  Most folks would say that I am a tad loco for this action as they relish the eggs that are found inside the female crab this time of year.  I have no taste for those but I do love these crabs!  I use them as "bait" for the others!  I suppose that gives a new meaning to the term "jailbait"!  I have found that as long as I leave a lone female in each pot, the males come flocking!  The male Blue Crab is generally much larger than the female thus supplying me with more meat!  Besides..I want that female to lay her eggs around the Bayou so I will be assured of a healthy crop of crabs again next summer!

The apron of a Blue Crab that is shaped like the Washington Monument indicates a male crab.

This brings me to the question that I get asked by a lot of the visitors to the Bayou.  "How do you tell the difference between the male and female Blue Crab?  How do you know which to toss over?"  Anyone who lives near the coastlines can easily spot the difference but folks who are never around the crabbing process might have a problem.  The difference is in what is called the "apron" of the crab.  To find this, the crab must be flipped upside-down.  There on the underside, is a flap which is the apron.  The shape of this flap is what determines the sex of the crab.  If the apron is pointed, the crab is a male..if it is rounded, it is a female.  Older females have a looser and darker apron while those that are immature have a tight, almost white apron.  This apron is where the mature female will develop a "sponge" that will hold the eggs as they grow into tiny crabs.  The sponge takes up to several hours to develop and can hold up to several million eggs at one time!  One strange fact about female Blue Crabs..they only mate one time in their life but can reproduce several times after that!

If the apron resembles the Capitol Dome, it is on a female Blue Crab.  This dark colored apron indicates that this is a mature female that is capable of reproducing.

Back when I was young, I used to go crabbing with my cousin, Margie.  We would sit for hours on the end of their pier with a string, a dead catfish and a long-handled scoop net.  That is all the "equipment" that is needed for hours of entertainment and all that is needed to catch a bucket of fat crabs! The catfish would be tied to one end of the string and tossed over into the water.  The catfish was allowed to lay on the bottom where the crabs were located. The other end of the string was tied to a pier post.  The string would be watched and once it was being tugged on by a crab, it was gently pulled to the pier.  As the crab came into view, it was scooped with the long-handled net!  It took a good bit of practice by the "puller" to get that crab up within reach of the "scooper" but it was well worth the effort.  After a morning of catching the crabs, my Aunt Marie would boil the critters.  Later in the afternoon, we would all sit around the kitchen table and pick out the crab meat.  It was here that I learned the fine art of picking crabs.  To this day, I still use the same process that I was taught at that early age.  I do remember that it was there that I learned how to distinguish the difference in the crabs but I am not sure just where I heard a simple comparison that made remembering it easy. (It could have very well been either my Uncle Alfred or my Aunt Marie that taught me this bit of information!) The male crabs have the "Washington Monument on their undersides while the female has the Capitol Dome!"  What an analogy of the sexes of the Blue Crab!  I can clearly see the resemblance but would have never thought to make the comparison to national landmarks!  Geez!  Whatever works, I guess!

A face only a mother could love!

Every morning and then again in the late evening, I fish.  Not only am I trying to get my supper in the form of a nice redfish, I try my best to catch a few "trash" fish for my crab traps.  Regardless if I do not catch as single fish, I enjoy my time spent on the pier..it is my time..it is relaxing.  Lately, however, we have been hooking a lot of stingrays.  These are used as crab bait if I am running short.  The stingray is quite an unusual fish in all aspects.  What comes to mind first is the fact that even though they are flat, the rays are kin to sharks!  Unlike sharks, though, the rays do not use their jaws as defense, they use their tails.  Those barbed spines in the whip-like tails can inflict dangerous..even deadly..wounds.  However, the stingrays do have powerful jaws!  With their mouths located on the bottom of their bodies, the rays tend to hunt for shrimp, minnows, crabs and even mussels and clams!  Those jaws can crack the shells of the toughest of shellfish!  Those same jaws are highly adept at stealing my bait!

In this closeup view of a stingray, it is easy to see the large eyes and spiracles .  The spiracles help the ray "breathe" in water when it is laying on the muddy bottom.  The water is breathed in the spiracles and force out the gills on the bottom side of the fish!

Yesterday while I was on the pier, I caught yet another of those flat critters!  For any of you who have never hooked into a stingray, let me tell you that they will put up a fine fight on the end of the line!  Mark tells me that they will bury themselves in the mud making it nigh on impossible to pull them to the surface of the water.  I think he must be right!  I heaved and heaved on that fishing pole but to no avail!  I was beginning to think that I had hooked a snag instead of a fish!  Finally, the critter decided that I had aggravated it enough and it headed away from the pier.  That move made it easy for me to turn the fish and get it near enough where I could see just what I had hooked.  Oh, my...another stingray!  It is rather dangerous to try to unhook one of these fish so most folks have the good commonsense to cut the line..I, perhaps, lack that commonsense.  Invariably, I will remove my hook and either toss the stingray back into the water or chop it up for crab bait. This one was lucky.  Having two other poles out, I merely tossed this fish (with hook still in its mouth) up on the pier to let it settle down a bit before I attempted hook removal.  The fish landed upside-down and soon settled where I could start my "doctoring".

In this picture of the ventral side of a stingray, the mouth and nares are easily seen.  The nares act  a lot like a nose in helping the stingray find its prey in murky water!  They have a great sense of smell when hunting for my bait!

 That is when I saw the "face"!  Even though the eyes and spiracles are located on the top of the stingray, the mouth, nares and gills are on the bottom.  It was the arrangement of the mouth and nares that appeared to be some strange face gaping at me!  As I stared at my stingray, I began to think that this potentially deadly fish was rather cute!  Ok...enough of that but it was that momentary lapse that made me toss the critter back into the water even though I was in desperate need of crab bait!  Be free, stingray, be free!

The Purple Pond!

The Frog Pond is just your every day normal pond but with a few plants added for aesthetic value.  Each year some odd plant will come into my possession and if it is able to withstand soggy roots, will wind up in the pond.  The small pond has Irises, Elephant Ears, Water Lilies, Water Hyacinths and a bunch of Blue Pickerels.  I like the assorted plants and usually there is a vast variety of colors.  Not this summer!  For some odd reason only one yellow Water Lily has bloomed..all the rest of the plants are blooming in shades of purple!  My Frog Pond has truly turned into a Purple Pond!

Earlier in the spring I had taken a picture of the Wisteria blossoms that had fallen in the Frog Pond.  Those floating petals had coated the entire surface of the pond.  It looked like a carpet of purple!  Now the blooms are higher but still in shades of purple!  The Water Hyacinths are taking over the pond but the blooms are so beautiful that I hate to discard the plants.  It is rare that I see these blooming so profusely and I am quite sure that a good many will have to soon find their way to the compost pile.  Hopefully, none will be blooming at the time as I will absolutely never be able to trash such a pretty plant!

The Blue Pickerel, itself, is multiplying like mad and I am beginning think that I am going to have to "share" a bit of this or it will be destined to the compost pile as well.  Mark bought me one tiny root earlier this year but now the stuff has outgrown its section of the pond and is spilling over on top of the water lilies!  This is the plant of choice of the dragonfly nymphs as they climb from the water to make their transformation from water bound critters to those that have freedom of flight.  The stems of the Blue Pickerel are tall and fit the bill well as a hanging spot for the nymphs.   Obviously, the bumblebees and honeybees like the Pickerels as well as the dragonflies!   

I keep thinking that it would be a beautiful sight to have the pink, yellow and white Water Lilies, the deep violet Irises and the yellow Elephant Ears all blooming amid the Water Hyacinths and Blue Pickerels but for some reason, they are not.  None but one..one lone yellow Water Lily made its debut and that is it!  Still, I am happy with my Purple Frog Pond!

Making Progress!

Several months ago, I wrote about a Maine Coon Cat that had suddenly appeared in the woods behind the peach orchard. This cat was quite wary and stayed a good distance from us.  The slightest of movement would send it scooting under the palmettos or back between the ferns of the creek.  I was determined to befriend this critter and kept a bowl of food handy for it.  Each day the food bowl moved closer to the house until finally I noticed that the cat was climbing up on the porch to eat at the back door!  Progress had definitely been made but I still could not say I had made friends..the cat still did not trust me.  I was determined and had now recruited Michael in on my quest.  He had far more patience than I and was a bit more tolerant of the swarms of mosquitoes that hovered near.

Ms. Put in the foreground with Boo behind her!  Boo has finally gotten brave enough to come eat!

Today was a good day!  I wandered out to feed Ms. Put, our sweet little kitty, when I noticed that the Maine Coon Cat was right at the edge of the porch.  The cat was waiting for me!  This excited me to no end!  It seemed far more trusting of me now! The time had come to name this critter!  Not knowing if this is actually a male or female, I decided to go with a gender neutral name.  "Boo" came to mind since the cat was so scary of me!

The stray Maine Coon Cat that I have named "Boo".  I am hoping to  befriend this one soon!

Boo is quite a large cat..nearly twice the size of Ms. Put.  She seems to like this one since she has not torn it to pieces!  Normally, Ms. Put is quite fickle about her friends and has a tendency to tear into any thing not the size of a black bear!  She is one feisty cat!  Boo seems to be acceptable as Ms. Put will even go so far as to share her food bowl! Wow!  Progress has been made with her as well! I am so in hopes that soon Boo will feel secure enough to let me pet him (or her!).  This seems to be such a nice cat!  I guess I have just adopted another stray animal.  My menagerie is growing!

The Grasshopper Dance is still a fad!

Several times, I have mentioned how the Eastern Lubber Grasshopper strips the garden of anything edible.  This critter's voracious appetite leaves nothing safe!  I have seen where a once healthy, eighteen-inch tall squash plant would be eaten down to a mere stub in a few hours!  Every April and May, I wage war against these critters!  I receive no help from my bird friends with this job as the Eastern Lubber Grasshoppers are poisonous to most birds!  There is little in the way of insecticides that proves useful in this battle which is probably just as well as I have problems dumping toxic chemicals in my yard and gardens.  The most effective method of elimination is the good ole foot stomp!  When they were younger, my kids called this the "Grasshopper Dance"!  It was sort of like a grasshopper smashing variation of the "Twist"!

While I have told you how devastating these critters are to my gardens, I have never had proof..until today.  This morning I saw something wiggling around in the petunia bed.  The plants were wavering around more than usual in the slight breeze that was coming from the north.  Some creature had to be eating my petunias!  I was right!  I found six Eastern Lubber Grasshoppers munching my purple petunias!  Six!  Immediately the foot started stomping!   Each critter had to be handpicked from the branches of the petunia plant and thrown out onto the hard ground where it could be more readily smashed.  After getting rid of five grasshoppers, I watched the final one for a few minutes.  It seemed oblivious of the tragic end of its friends..perhaps it was thinking that it now had the entire garden to itself!  The competition had been eliminated!

The grasshopper was making quick work of one of the petunia blossoms.  It had started munching at the tips of the petals and within thirty seconds had already devoured the entire two-inch bloom!   Those are some powerful jaws and one healthy appetite!  After taking several pictures, this one met the same fate as its five friends.  Now before anyone decides that it was a cruel fate for a critter, let me assure you that I have not compromised the Eastern Lubber Grasshopper's population one iota.   Even though each year, I probably kill a zillion or so of these critters, the mass reproduction always insures that there will be zillions more the following spring.  Unless I find some better way of ridding the yard of these pests, my gardens will never have a chance to grow.  My yard will be a barren wasteland of dirt..no healthy greenery at all will be left untouched!  Yep, the foot stomping will continue as long as necessary!

Beauty in the Marshes!

Over the past decade or so, our marshes have become dotted with a number of plants that have made themselves quite at home.  Sedge Grass, Cattails, Wool Grass and the dreaded Cogongrass now reside right along side of the marsh grass after being washed in by hurricanes and tropical storms. Some of these, such as the Cogongrass, I do my best to eradicate as they will soon take over and ruin the marsh and everything in the area.  Others, I allow to just do their own thing as, even though they are new to this area, they are not quite as invasive.  One of these is the Wool Grass.  I am not certain as to the identity of the grass but some of the old-timers in the area have assured me of the name..so Wool Grass it is!

The tall reed-like grass is quite attractive at any given time but I particularly like its looks when it is blooming and seeding.  The tall, graceful heads dance in the Bay breeze and give a bit of interest to the usually mundane marsh grass. The plant can grow to six feet tall and will clump at the root base as it multiplies.  The seeds spread by being blown on the winds to sprout in new areas.  Many birds, especially the Red-winged Black Birds love the seeds and can often be seen hanging upside-down from the clusters of seeds. That in itself is enough to make me like this plant but the Marsh Wrens also nest in these clumps of reeds.  They build a domed nest that is woven of sedges and lined with soft grasses.  A side entrance hole is made and the nest is suspended between reeds.  These wrens do not usually eat the seeds but feed basically on spiders and insects found in the surrounding marshes.

Now comes the exciting part about the Wool Grass!  I have been told that these grasses can be used in weavings!  The artist in me hopes that the seed pods will drop and create more plants so I can perhaps some day harvest enough to attempt a project!  I am always interested in renewable resources to use as mediums in my creative endeavors!  According to all I can find to read about the Wool Grass, it should be durable enough to be used in making not only mats and rugs but also pliable enough to use in weaving handbags. These fibers can be colored with any number of the natural dyes that I currently use.   In my mind's eye, I can envision all sorts of wonderful items made with dyed Wool Grass!

An Odd Catch!

As if some of the critters I find on the Bayou are not strange enough, occasionally I come across something that is so out of place that it causes a bit of a stir.  Mullet were out in droves the other day so Mark headed out to get a mess for our lunch and a few extra to give to other folks.  It is a common practice of most true Biloxi folks to share the mullet or "Biloxi Bacon" that they catch.  This seems to make the fish taste all the better!  When there is a mass run of the fish, hundreds are caught and cleaned then given to those who are unable to go fishing themselves.  Mark will catch a bunch, he and I will clean and bag the slabs of fish and then most are given away.  It is just a Biloxi thing!  Anyway, he was out throwing the net when suddenly he caught two fish that were not recognizable.  We discussed the matter and took a few pictures to use as reference then tossed the fish back into the water.   I did a quick search on the internet to see if I could identify the fish. To me, the fish looked a lot like a Pompano but something was a mite off about the fins.  Our fish had yellow fins..the Pompano did not.  Plus the shape was just not the same.  The search was not helping so I sent the picture to one of Son's friends.  This young man runs his family's local bait shop and he has a lot of knowledge about fish.  Whenever I am in doubt about the identity of a sea critter, I call on Taylor!

Two days went by before I heard back from Michael's friend and when the reply came, it was not much help!  To quote Taylor, my local fish expert, "Ok, this one was tough!"  He gave me several leads to check against the pictures and our memories.  Again..close but no cigar!  None were an exact match!  I was just about to declare our unknown fish as a freak of nature when suddenly, at the bottom of one page,  I spied a name..."Butterfish"!  Just out of curiosity, I researched Butterfish and the mystery was solved!  There as clear as a bell, was our fish!  A Butterfish!  Only problem with this..there are seventeen different Butterfishes!  Go figure!  Taylor believes that our fishy is either a Chinese Pomfret or a Japanese Butterfish..both are types of Butterfish.  Again out of curiosity, I peeked to see if Butterfish are related to Pompanos..yep, sort of like distant cousins!  Now came the conundrum..why was this fish all the way up in the Bay! The article claimed that these fish stay offshore a bit and don't venture up in the brackish waters of bays and bayous.  Taylor and I discussed the matter a bit further and neither of us had an answer.  It does seem that this fish is a mite off course of where it belongs.  Are there more Butterfish in the Bay?  Did a storm throw them off course?  Did these just get caught up in a school of mullet that were migrating into the Bay from the Gulf of Mexico?  I suppose we will never have all of the answers but at least we know a bit more about these strange visitors to the Bayou area.  Butterfish..just imagine!

Unwanted Visitors!

I love being on the pier!  It makes me happy to just observe the different critters that live in or around the Bayou.  I have a hard time finding reasons to dislike any of the creatures as I learn from each of them.  There is always some survival tip that I can pick up from watching the animals and I figure that if I ever need to have that knowledge I might as well learn from the best.  These critters know how to survive!  They can find food during the bleakest of times and have no problem creating a shelter when necessary.  I watch...I learn.

Lately though, I do believe I have discovered one critter that thoroughly irritates me!  For the past week or so every time I go fishing,  I am surrounded by Yellow Jackets!  Those nasty, ill-tempered, stinging wasps that come to feed upon my bait or fish, irritate me to no end!  It seems that these things can smell a fish from miles around and will hone in on it with the precision of the finest of GPS systems! They also hone in on my hands when I have been handling said fish.  I know it is not wise to flail around when in the vicinity of wasps but instinct sets in and my arms start waggling around above my head like a windmill in a hurricane!  All of this movement just riles the Yellow Jackets into a frenzy then I instantly regret my moment of panic!  Luckily, I have not been stung...yet!  The wasps dive bomb my head and will hover threateningly around me for a few minutes before settling back on some piece of fish or ick stuff left behind when hooking a bait.  I suppose they are more interested in eating than attacking a crazy lady!

Yesterday, Mark decided to clean a few of the fish while on the pier.  The Yellow Jackets were crawling about in all of the fish scraps and even getting on his knife.  He would shoo them off and just continue with his job!  Me?  I would have had to smack those critters to pieces before cleaning another fish!  I am positive that the Yellow Jackets have a nest somewhere near the end of the pier which is right where I should be cutting grass in the morning.  Knowing my luck, I will find that buried nest the hard way!  Invariably, my lawnmower will be shoved directly over the small, one-inch diameter hole which is the doorway to the nest.  Those angry flying torpedoes will most likely swarm around me in a instance causing me to abandon the mower and make a mad dash towards the Little Bayou House and safety!  This is not something that I relish so perhaps I should make a survey of the area before I start cutting the grass....or....I could just leave the grass grow taller and taller and call it a meadow!  Yeah!  A meadow full of tall grass just blowing in the wind and buzzing with honeybees....ummm....Yellow Jackets!

Fish Detail!

The blue crabs have been moving into the Bay and into the Bayou area for the past few weeks.  This makes me happy since my freezers had just about been depleted of all the delicious (and free!) crab meat that I use so often in Gumbo and Po'boys!  I needed to replenish my lost stock!  Mark made me six new crab pots and all I needed to do was bait them and wait!  The crabs would come and I could set to work picking out that succulent meat!   I was jumping the gun, though, as I needed to catch some bait in order to set those traps.  Mark and I went to the pier this morning with the idea of snagging a few Hardhead Catfish.  Using these as crab bait is about the only useful purpose that I have found.  Sure enough, the catfish were biting!  We started pulling in one after another!  I needed at least six large ones for the traps..or some other "trash" fish that could be used.

"Stumpy", the tailless stingray!

Suddenly, Mark hooked something large!  His line went whipping out like nobody's business!  He would pull and the fish would pull!  We both had the same idea that this was a large redfish!  I grabbed the scoop net while he played the fish.  Back and forth went the battle!  Finally the fish was in range of my net but when it surfaced....aacck!..I was not about to scoop that thing!  There on the surface of the water was a large stingray!!!  Oh, no!  That was one large stingray!  For anyone that may not know...stingrays are not the most likable fish in the water!  These fish have a large barb on their tail that is capable of inflicting a potentially deadly wound!  Still, Mark landed the fish (without the help of my scoop net!).  He and I, both, will unhook the stingrays and either use them as crab bait or release them to go on their merry way.  Once this one was on the pier, though, we noticed that there was something a mite unusual.  The stingray was missing its long whip-like tail!  Someone had "de-tailed" this fish!  The stump of the tail wiggled back and forth.  This whipping movement would have been a danger if that whip and barb had been intact but now it was almost comical.  Poor stingray..try as it might, it could not achieve the threatening stance that it would normally have.  Suddenly, my heart went out to the poor fish!  Yep..I felt sorry for a stingray!  Once Mark unhooked the critter, I took a few pictures and then we shoved the fish back into the water!  This was one lucky fish!  Obviously, it has been hooked at least two times and both times, it has gained it freedom!  Go fishy!  After settling down from that bit of excitement, I caught a smaller stingray.  This one, too, was released..I am not sure why since they are potentially such a danger but I figured if we let one go free, the other deserved the same treatment!

Another large stingray..this one with the dangerous tail intact!

This evening found us back on the pier and yet another stingray was landed! Mark pulled in another huge ray and again he unhooked it and flipped it back off the pier. What was with today's fishing expeditions?  There must be a lot of stingrays swimming around in that murky water!  We did manage to catch enough catfish and ladyfish to fill the crab traps!  By late this evening, we already had nineteen nice, fat crabs!  Tomorrow, if all goes well, I will be boiling crabs!

The writings...errr..pictures on the wall!

Have you ever noticed how if you stare at something long enough, you can began to see all sorts of things in a picture?  Or in my case, I stared at a blank wall and saw all sorts of things!  The other day, it was raining like nobody's business so the house was rather dark inside if we had the lights off.  Son had been down in the kitchen with me but meandered upstairs for a bit.  When he was at the top of the stairs, he quietly remarked that there was a "face",  "There is a face?" I questioned.  All I got as an answer was a "Yup"..no explanation.  Well, curiosity got the best of me so I grabbed the camera to investigate this face he saw.  The walls at the top of the stairs are painted an ecru color..sort of drab white with no pattern nor texture. There on that off-white wall WAS a face!  In fact there were several faces!  I took several pictures even though I was not sure if the faces would show up on camera or not.  After taking a number of shots from different angles, he and I tried to figure out just what was creating the illusion. No lights were on upstairs..the only light was ambient light from the next room's windows.  Those windows were a good twenty feet away AND the window blinds were all the way closed.  Being as there were no "stripes" on the wall, we decided that the light was not a filtered effect from the window (blinds).  Try as we might, we could not find anything that might be reflecting a weird pattern on the wall.  The light from the window most likely would not be bright enough to be reflective anyway.

Image captured on a dreary, rainy day with no added lighting other than  what was coming through closed window blinds from the next room.  It is on a plain off-white wall.

When I transferred the photographs to the computer, I was amazed at how well the shadowy figures were picked up by the camera.  My first "face" was that of what I imagined to be a little girl.  She appears to be in bed and perhaps holding a blanket or toy up near her face.  In my wild imagination, I feel that the little girl with the long curls is having a bad dream.  She is frightened.  Or perhaps at some point she witnessed something evil and was having nightmares because of the sight.  Poor baby girl.

Circled is what I see as a face of a little girl.  In my imagination, she is in bed  and is holding a toy or blanket near her face.  She has long curly hair and a sweet face!

 The second figure above her is a man.  This guy looks a bit angry to me.  Perhaps this is villain in the little girl's dream?  With his long hair and mustache, I feel that he is from a time many years ago.  His eyes appear "shifty" as if he is guilty of something.  Yes, it is a stretch but hey..this is my imagination!

In this small circle is what I see as a man's face.  He does not appear to be too  happy making him be cast as the villain in the little girl's nightmare!

 Behind the little girl is a shadowy figure of a woman.  This lady looks kind.  Perhaps she is the little girl's mother who is there to calm the fears of a nightmare about someone evil that scares the little girl.  The lady is wearing a long dress..again suggesting that the story took place many, many years ago.  I wonder...

Unless you can enlarge the picture, it will be hard to see this one.  The outline shows the figure of a woman.  Perhaps this is the child's mother who has come to comfort her after a vivid nightmare!

Ok, ok...so I know that I am going a little strong here!  I have warned you before that I have an overactive imagination!  But enlarge those pictures and stare at them a while...you might just start to see faces, too!  If you do...dream a bit!  Imagine and create your own story behind the faces!  I see the faces..I am just a bit confused at how the image was formed!

The grass is always greener....

All of our lives we are taught that the sky is blue, apples are red, the sun is yellow and leaves are green. There is fallacy in that teaching! I am here to argue that point with evidence that leaves are yellow!  Lately during my walks, I have come across numerous seemingly healthy plants that have a very bright yellow leaf or two! I am beginning to panic that there is some dreaded disease that is infecting all sorts of plants here on the Bayou! At first with my bad eyesight, I was excited as I thought a camellia leaf was some rare yellow bird!  Sorry to say, it was more of a disease ridden leaf than a bird. Even though the leaf was quite pretty with its lemony yellow coloring, I do not want every plant on the hill to become infected.  It would take a lot for me to get used to seeing yellow where green should be!  That yellow camellia leaf made me take notice of a lot of other yellow or discolored leaves on otherwise healthy plants.

The lowly Dollar Grass had a most unusual coloration.  Being a more or less round leaf, the mottled yellow and green coloring made it resemble some surreal space photo!  This bright yellow orb was easy to spot in a sea of dark green circles!  Something strange had happened to that one leaf to make it stand out among all the others.  I have to admit, this one is quite lovely!

Then down by the marsh, one of the plants that I have not been able to identify as of yet, had the entire top half of the plant affected by the discoloration.  This was the palest of yellows but was far more widespread on the plant than just a single leaf.  Whatever had caused the pigment change, did not discourage the insects, though!  Withing just a few days, this plant was munched to the ground!

Then the discovery that hearts could be yellow as well!  On the back of the old shed, a rather large vine twirls around the exposed boards.  This vine had wonderfully heart-shaped leaves and there..right in the center, was a bright yellow heart!  It was nearly aglow with the reminder of how we should love one another.   Don't ask me why, but that is what raced through my mind when I saw the yellow heart high above my head!

I am sure there are more of these around the hillside and it does cause me a bit of angst.  What if these are all infected with some sort of fast-spreading disease that will soon wipe out most of the plant life on the Bayou? I wish I knew and if it is something dreadful, I wish I knew what to do to preserve my "green".  The sun is yellow, bananas are yellow, lemons are yellow...my leaves are supposed to be green!

On a wing and a prayer...

A long time ago, my sister-in-law gave me a tiny plant.  She told me that it was just because she was thinking about me when she was in the store and the plant looked like something I would enjoy.   Susie is one of those people who always does the most thoughtful things..things that lift a person's spirits to the greatest heights.  Just the small sprig of a plant brightened my day immensely!  This plant is a small specimen of a Maranta or Prayer Plant.  The Prayer Plant has an unusual habit of folding its petals up at night just to open them back in the morning light.  This action resembles hands being folded for nightly prayers and gives the plant its common name.

I was out after one of the rain showers and noticed that my poor Prayer Plant had been attacked by some leaf-eating critter!!  Some of the leaves had holes chewed in them while one was cut clean in half!  Something  evil was attacking!  Oh, my!  I looked high and low for the culprit but never saw a thing that might devour my plant! Is there some demon critter out there that is adverse to prayers? (Sorry, I just had to throw that in there!)  Anyway, I looked up possible pests to the Prayer Plant and found that there are several but the one seeming to be most likely is the dreaded slug!  Even the name sounds disgusting..slug..ugh!  At least I know how to do battle with this plant demon!  A dish of beer will call all in the vicinity to drink the night away.  The slugs will drown their sorrows away in my dish of alcoholic beverage!  An open bar will get rid of the slugs!

My Prayer Plant has had such a rough time ever since I received it.  When Susie gave it to me nearly ten years ago, it was a healthy little thing but since then one disaster after another has plagued it!  Several times it has frozen back to the ground,  Hurricane Katrina flooded it with saltwater and tossed it under a debris pile, Ezzy ate it when she was a puppy and now slugs!  Still..it lives.  Maybe it is because of the kindness in which it was given..maybe it is because of the hardiness of the plant..maybe it is because it says its prayers every night!  After ten years of neglect, I have now vowed to make life better for my little plant!  I shall fight the demon slugs!

The Fence Post Family!

There are days here on the Bayou, that I find some of the most amusing things.  Living on the water, you have a never-ending supply of unusual finds that have been washed in with the tide.  Where these oddities' journeys began is anybody's guess but where they end up, is all my say!  Over the past few years, I found a variety of toys..some relatively new, others seemingly a bit older.  These toys always wind up taking residence on one of the fence posts around the garden.  The first was a little plastic doll.  I believe she is actually a "Mrs. Santa Claus" or at least that is what I dubbed her.  She is a very grandmotherly-looking molded plastic doll that is about three inches in height.  Mrs. Claus rode in on the waves of Hurricane Katrina and I found her in the mounds of debris.  I thought she was just too cute to discard even though I had no little ones to play with her.  She started the fence-post-dwelling collection!  Over the many years that she has sat on the fence post, the weather has caused her colors to fade but otherwise she is intact and still stands proudly amongst the rose vines. But...Mrs. Claus grew lonely..she needed a friend and what better friend for her than a little girl doll!  Years later, we were still clearing hurricane debris when I stumbled across another little toy doll.  This little no-name sweetie was given the moniker "Dora".  Although she is not the real "Dora, the Explorer", I figured she had done enough exploring in the mounds of hurricane discards to earn a fantastic name.  So, Dora came home to keep Mrs. Claus company on the fence post.  I am happy to report that they became fast friends and still to this day are never far from one another!  Dora now explores the Rose Garden and has even made a new friend as a Green Anole lizard has taken a liking to her.  She obviously does not mind having this huge dragon-like creature resting his head on her shoulder occasionally and has never shown one iota of fear in facing his beady eyes!  Dora is brave and calms Mrs. Claus whenever the dragon lizard wanders by for a visit.  Still, dragons are not always the best pets for little girls.  Dora needed a soft, furry pet..or at least a hard plastic dog!

My Little Fence Post Family is growing!

Enter..Spot!  Spot, the dog, came to the Bayou just recently!  One day while I was on the pier, I noticed a small dog struggling to stay afloat!  Oh, my goodness!  I must rescue this puppy!  I grabbed the scoop net and made a swash through the waves!  GOTCHA!  I managed to rescue the critter on the first try!  From the bouncing waves, a small hard, plastic dog was brought ashore!  I looked at Spot..he was covered with mud and grime!  Poor little fellow! If ever a pup needed a home, it was Spot!  He was brought into the house, given a good washing and then introduced to Dora and her adopted grandma, Mrs. Claus.  The little family was growing!  The fence post was becoming crowded!  I do hate to separate the trio so I am pondering if I should build a small shelf to house my small plastic fence post family.  I know most folks will find it a bit silly that I hang onto this group but in a way, they symbolize the endurance of our place.  Against all odds, they have survived just like us.  We are here in spite of several disasters in our lifetime..a house fire, several smaller hurricanes and then Katrina.  Plus..these little toys make me smile.  Perhaps it is my inner child or perhaps there is something more...but they make me smile.

Of Boots, Raindrops, Black Skimmers and Liberty!

I am missing my son and daughter-in-law!  This past weekend, they came for a visit and I enjoyed it so much that I hated for them to leave!  Their visits are always too short and far apart for my liking!  I know this cannot be avoided but that does not help the little twinges of heartache as I watch them drive away.  One evening during this visit, Joanna had slipped off her boots after a trek to the pier.  Come time for us all to retire, she asked if I minded that her boots sat in our living room over night. Of course not!  Later, I pondered that question and thought to myself..those boots can stay at my house all of the time!  Not that I fancy wearing boots..but I know if the boots are here, Joanna and Mark are here!  Yep..those boots can stay right here in the living room!

After the five-minute rain shower this morning, I headed to the gardens.  There my interest was captivated by a tiny lizard creeping on one of the leaves.  The little guy was only about three inches long so he could not have been more than a few days old.  I noticed how thin the lizard seemed to be..almost too thin.  This little guy has had a struggle for survival.  I guess when you are that tiny and on your own, life has to be hard.  I watched as the lizard drank from the droplets of rain that were clinging to the leaf.  He seemed to be appreciative of those tiny pools..that life-giving rain!

Some of my favorite birds have been putting on quite a show as of late.  The Black Skimmers are out every morning and evening scooping up the menhaden that have filled the Bay.  It always thrills me to see these large birds in their graceful flight just inches above the water's surface.  They have a tendency to fly so fast that it is difficult to get a really clear picture so when this shot turned out well, I smiled with a bit of smug satisfaction!

Today, a song brought tears to my eyes.  My sweet niece, Eva Black has released her new CD titled "Liberty".  It is a patriotic collection of songs that includes the National Anthem.  Throughout my many years, I have stood hand-on-heart every time it was played or sung.  I have always been touched but never once have I been so moved as today.  Eva sings it like no other! But as moved as I was by the "Star Spangled Banner", it was not the one that brought the tears.   The the last song on the CD is one written and sung by Eva after a conversation with her little boy, Evan.  In the title song, "Liberty", she explains what true love for our country is..what liberty is and how it is obtained.  Hearing this song and knowing that here is a young mother teaching her son patriotism made me realize that even if the country seems to be in dire straits, there will always be those that will stand to defend it!  God Bless America!  And God Bless Eva for sharing her amazing talents with the world.

Just Dilly-Dallying!

Wandering about aimlessly has become an enjoyable hobby of mine.  I roam the hillside and marsh edge nigh on every day just observing whatever I stumble upon during my hike.  Sometimes, nothing out of the ordinary is seen but then I am good with that as well.  Things do not have to be extraordinary nor spectacular to be interesting to me.  Some of the things that most people find mundane fascinate me, to be honest!  I suppose that comes with the overactive imagination that I have kept since childhood.  I feel that most folks have lost that spark which makes life interesting.  They have come so caught up in the hullabaloo that is called living to actually have a life!  To many..life is all about going here and going there, it is never about "just being".  I can find pure satisfaction in just being.

Today right after a nice rain shower, I headed to the gardens.  The fresh smell of wet earth and washed plants is one of my favorites!  Seeing the foliage washed clean after the dust and grime of the drought, makes me happy.  Seeing the plants reaching for the sky after being withered and almost crispy is quite refreshing!  Life-giving rain rejuvenates not only the plants but also the spirit!  In my ambling today, I noticed the herb garden is multiplying.  The Dill plants have bursts of seeds on top of each plant which fully reminded me of the recent fireworks from the Fourth of July!  Their heads waved gracefully in the Bay breeze and wafted the heady scent of Dill Weed through the air.  That blended with the aroma of Sweet Basil was most refreshing!

I pondered the uses of the Dill plant.  Those seeds are quite aromatic as are the wispy leaves.  Both are used in culinary dishes and as herbal medicines.  Dill is probably most recognized as the flavoring for pickles but is great when used in salads, soups and casseroles.  It marries well with fish and/or rice dishes. In herbal home remedies, try using it for upset stomachs, flatulence and indigestion.  Dill is also great for use in calming colicky babies as it has a way of relieving stomach and intestinal spasms!  To make a tea with the Dill seeds, use about two teaspoons to a cup of boiling water.  Let steep for about five minutes then sip slowly.  For baby, make a much weaker tea using only about a teaspoonful of seed to a cup of boiling water.  Let this steep for five minutes and then cool to lukewarm.  As an added note, ALWAYS check with your Pediatrician before trying any herbal remedies on children!  The dill should not cause any problems but it is always better to check with the professional!

After "Dilly"-dallying around in the herb garden for a while, I decided a cup of tea was in order!  Since I was not suffering from indigestion, I opted for a lemon/ginger root tea!  Ahh, yes!  I love my herb garden!  I love the rain!  I love a good cup of herbal tea!