Aloha Friday - Sleep

Hello!  I'm participating in Aloha Friday, where I ask a simple question for you to answer in the comments (if you want to).

Every now and then I have trouble sleeping.  Not for any reason I can pin-point.  Not for caffeine or worry or my husband's snooring...none of that.  Usually my mind is just full...won't shut down and be quiet.  Night before last was like that.  I couldn't sleep and couldn't sleep and finally it was  5:00 in the morning and I just gave up because the alarm would be going off in a couple hours anyways.

So, my question this week is...

Do you ever have trouble sleeping, for no particular reason?

Limeaides for Learning - Free Limeade for Voting!

Sonic’s Limeades for Learning is here again, and I almost missed it!  And it's such a cool program! Teachers submit projects--things they'd like to see happen in their schools and classrooms--and you can vote for your favorites to win money to turn their plans into a reality. In return you get a Free Cherry Limeade! How cool is THAT!

By the way, do they have Sonic's in California now, or just out here in Texas?

Dear Rain...

Another fun conversation with facebook friends:

TEXALINAN FRIEND (Texas friend who moved to North Carlina):
Dear rain; I am breaking up with you, please go away. I hear Texas is pretty desperate for you. Skedaddle over there where you might be more appreciated.

TEXAFORNIAN FRIEND:  I will take some of that rain!!!

TEXALINAN FRIEND:  See rain!? Texas wants you. Texas thinks you are hawt.

TEXAS FRIEND:  Thanks for letting the rain know! LOL!

ME:  Dear East Coast, I've heard rain is getting on your nerves...hanging around, loitering, ect. Please feel free to send him down here to us. I think rain needs to attend Texas bootcamp!


By the way, if you'ld like to hear more of Texalinan's wit and opinions, she has a blog you can check out!


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How My Garden Grows...

My garden...

 

I've got chives, basil, various peppers, a tomato plant, and one onion 

(it was a pearl onion that started sprouting in my pantry, so I stuck it in the

ground).  Though my tomato never got tomatoes, and the one bell pepper I got 

so far matured at about ping pong ball size, I still consider this a success...

especially considering this summer's heat!

I've read that bush beans shouldn't be planted by peppers or alliums,

so I had to find a new place for these.  I had a little plot cleared from 

an old garden, and stuck these in it.  The flowers are fake, put there

to protect the new plants from the hot Texas sun...and it worked!  This 

was taken earlier (the plants have now outgrown their faux flower shade

and I've moved the flowers over to protect the radishes and lettuce I

planted next to them.  Already got a few sprouting, too!!  Yeah!

Side Note: Didn't think I had enough material to do This is Whatever Wednessday, when I realized that this Garden post was perfect for it! I mean, THIS IS TEXAS GARDENING, isn't it? Trying to find shade so your plants will survive and being overjoyed when they do!






The Monday Garden Club   Throwback Thursday

Green Spider

Found this in my yard.  It's a Green Lynx Spider.
If you're shuddering at these pictures, you're not the only one! 
This spider was about an inch long!  Pretty though, in it's own way. 

I'm now selling some fun gifts with this spider on it
at my Texifornia Zazzle shop here.

Aloha Friday - Disasters

Hello!  I'm participating in Aloha Friday, where I ask a simple question for you to answer in the comments (if you want to).  This weeks question:

Have any of the recent natural disasters affected you?

The only one that really affected us directly has been the drought/heat wave in Texas.  Our kids spent most of the summer indoors, and it contributed to the fire which spread from our neighbor's yard to ours (but only damage our fence) Wednessday.  Small potatoes compared to what some people have experienced.

Fire...in OUR yard!

I've been talking on this blog about the fires in Austin, and today I experienced one much closer to home.  Luckily no one was hurt and nothing was damaged except our fence.

One of my boys said, rather calmly,"Mom, why is there a fire in our backyard?"  I 

looked out the back window and could see flames coming under our fence from our  neighbor's yard.  I grabbed the boys and we headed out the front door, then ran back with a hose and started dousing the flames.

Almost immediately, Stella, our neighbor to the right showed up with her hose in hand (her 8 year old had told her...Way to go kids!)   I then took my kids and neighbor's younger girls across the street to another neighbor, who's husband joined us while she watched the kids.  When we got back to the yard Stella's teenage daughter was out there helping too...(and in our back neighbor's yard where the fire had started, a police officer who had seen the smoke was helping their kids hose it down).  The fire was out before the firefighters came.  They weren't able to determine what started it.

That was the lid to a sandbox.  I was trying to kill

some grass in that corner to put a bush there.  Guess

that won't be a problem now.

You can see how far along the fence it burned.   You can see how far along the fence it burned.  That big green spot it missed?  That's where my strawberries were.  To keep them alive this hot summer I watered them more than the rest of the yard, and the little green circle where the sprinkler reached was exactly the area the fire missed.  That shows the difference  a healthy well watered lawn makes during a fire (and what a hazard a dry one is).  But we've been on watering restrictions this summer, so you do what you can do.