ANTS, ANTS , ANTS THEY 'RE EVERYWHERE!

(Instead of pics of ant carnage, I decide a couple of nice ladybugs would be better. :0))

Help! I'm being invaded!
I came down this morning for coffee and opened a cupboard door, and oh my word!
Several ants scattered into the dark recesses of the cabinet. As I opened more doors, it became apparent to me that I had been invaded overnight.
Yes, I'd seen what I now believe were a few scouts the past few days, but chalked it up to the annual parade of a 1/2 dozen ants that we usually get. Nothing like this.
Before I was even able to have my coffee, I went on an ant rampage. After nailing as many as I could with Kleenex, my shoe, and and hot water, the floor and counter was littered with ant carcasses. Not a pretty site. They were in my spice cupboard, in with my raisins, examining my amaretto that I use for cooking. They were even wandering around my dish cupboard, but only a couple of less than enthusiastic ones.
I hate to kill anything, but ants or spiders...well, it's them or me. I am thankful that they were ants and NOT spiders. I would have run screaming from the house and not come back without an exterminator!!
I dug out my Ziploc storage bags, and bagged anything that I thought they might like, and put it in the fridge for now. Then I wiped out the inside of the cupboards with Clorox wipes. That oughta do it, don't you think? Oh, and I need to mop my floors. Any residue on counters and floors will attract ants, even the garbage cans. I'm a clean person, but I guess I need to step it up a bit.
In a panic, I ran for the garage, hoping that the ant bait I had last year was still there. I found some ant bait with borax and proceeded to set some out. I shoved Max, my cat, into the garage (where he is howling to come back in) , then sprayed with Raid around the perimeter of the kitchen (house and garden variety), and outside around the french doors.
Then I read the directions on the ant bait which says not to contaminate the baits with Raid.
Too late. Oh well.
So I am finally sitting down for a minute with my coffee before I tackle my foodstuff again and resume my hunt for more ants. I need to go outside and powder the perimeter with more ant killer, but since it's already 80F, going on 96 today, and humid, I think I'll wait until it cools off this evening.
Then, watch out!

Fuzzy Festival!

“Come one, come all, to our annual Fuzzy Fest! For about one week only, during the week of April, you will be entranced by the number of fuzzies floating delicately on the breeze, drifting, drifting, into small clumps, lining the edges of one’s driveway, deck, flower beds.

"These fuzzies are a mystery, no one knows from whence they came.

So come and dance among these mysterious floating fuzzies, celebrating Spring…”

Ok, LOL. Yes, we are having our annual fuzzies this week. I don’t know what tree or bush they are from, but they do arrive every year, floating in the air, gathering in clumps along my driveway. Kind of like having a giant dandelion field near by, except these fuzzies are smaller and denser.

I like them better than pollen. At least it isn’t sticky and coat your windshield. And really, I don’t mind if you dance among the fuzzies. If it really makes you happy. Hey, I might even join you. :0)

90F in the first week of April?

It was 90F yesterday. Yup. You read it right. Quite unusual for CT this time of year. Seems we broke a record set back in 1963 or so. It's going to be cooler today, thank goodness, only 78. I don't believe we got below 60 last night, maybe even warmer. We will be in the low to mid 60's next week, much more normal for this time of year.
Some people will have loved this. Not me. It's just too weird having mid summer weather without all the flowers, leaves on the trees, etc. Just plain weird. I mean, I don't mind 70's. Nice enough not to have to wear a jacket, but not hot enough for swimming. The greening factor has certainly sped up. Leaves are popping out on the trees, forsythia is nearly done blooming, along with the azaleas. My clematis, columbine, and tulips put on several inches yesterday. I can't wait to see them blooming.

I went shopping yesterday, since it was such a beautiful day out. So I spent it in an antique shop and gift shop. I spent more in the antique shop, of course. I love antiques, especially 50's stuff, Fireking, juice pitchers, enamelware, kitchen scales, kitcheny stuff, etc.

So what did I get? I bought this nice juice pitcher with great color, red and green flowers.



A very large enamelware pan/tub, not sure what it was used for, but I was thinking towels rolled up or magazines perhaps.

I also got a 1950's red and white sewing basket. I have a green and cream one that was my mothers, and I thought this would display nicely next to it.

I got some smaller things, like a sweet black velvet evening purse, with pink silk ribbon flowers and bead work on it. It needs to be cleaned up some, I see a few pet hairs and spots on it. I plan to display that on an antique dresser with the white church gloves stashed away.

Hmmm, let's see. A few little odds and ends, like the orange pitcher, turquoise mug and orange glass pitcher.

A small Boyd's Bear - she was asking to go home with me. :0)

I'll feature photos of these items in future posts. Perhaps that will encourage me to post more, you think? :0)

HAPPY EASTER!

A blessed Easter Morning, celebrating the resurrection of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.
Wishing you all a wonderful day!

Happy 100th Post!

(Max snoozing in one of his favorite places.)

Is this really my 100th post? Wow. I should have planned something to celebrate it. What could I have possibly rambled on about for 99 posts? I'm sure it must have been important stuff, right? Like, how tall my flowers are now. And now. How about now? Ok, maybe not quite that bad.
It's been a long slightly depressive winter for me. I didn't get out much. Well, that's probably my fault. So the day before yesterday, my hubby jigged work for the afternoon and we went for a drive to look at a house about an hour from here. (Jigged is probably too strong of a word - he did get permission) The interstate portion wasn't so bad. But the next 30 minutes through rolling woods on narrow roads wasn't quite as fun. Did I mention I get carsick? Oh yeah...
We finally came to the farmhouse. They never look as good as the pictures, it seems. We were a bit disappointed. The lot seemed smaller. Not much for pasture. In fact, maybe a big garden and a couple of apple trees would be about it.
Oh well. And then last night, a notification came in my email that there was a sale pending on the property. I guess it wasn't meant to be anyway.
We also decided it's just too far from work for him, especially through the winding woods. Kind of pretty over there though.
I have such hard time with property here, because, number one: it's so darn expensive!!
And, you get so little for your money. Especially if you want any amount of land. I was down to just one acre. That was all I was asking for. One acre. Like I could be happy on one acre. I was willing to try. Oh well. Sigh...
So we are back to the drawing board.

(This picture is of vole and/or mice tunnels in the snow beneath my bird feeders last month. We don't have any snow left now. Yay!)

It's hard to choose between the security of a good job, and living the life you really want. Since that life can't seem to be found here. My hubby keeps saying that if it wasn't for the job, he wouldn't live here. Not that CT isn't a beautiful state, it surely is. And I love the climate here. It's a wonderful growing season,

especially when one was used to to 3B and 4A gardening zones. 5B/6A just has so much more to offer. Did I mention
how much I love flowers? I just love to grow things. Must be that midwest farmgirl thing.



I visited a couple of new blogs today. I found one, Tales from the Coop Keeper, that I really enjoyed. She seems like a kindred spirit, living next to my old hometown, Hebron. I loved her video of the chickens. She talks to her animals like I do mine.

I started raking part of the front lawn (read: hill) yesterday, and realized that the overabundance of acorns from last fall have nicely embedded themselves in the soil. We had raked some up last fall, but ran over a lot with the lawn mower when mowing. Since we've never really had an acorn issue before, I didn't realize what that would do. Now we have more acorns in the topsoil than grass in some parts. Not cool.
SO....what do you think I was out there doing yesterday? Raking, and digging some of them out by hand. I know. The neighbors must really be wondering about me. That just isn't something one does here. At least, I haven't seen anyone else doing that. Of course, they all have lawn service which pretty much that takes care of stuff like this.

Not us. Nope. We are do it yourselfers. Much rather buy our own second hand lawn tractor and mow this hill ourselves. Besides, it was more cost effective this way, and we do a much better job than they do. They go too fast, miss parts, and do burn outs in the lawn whenever they turn. And they would probably just run over the acorns too.
Plus, I needed the exercise. I felt it last night, too, with aching arms from raking. An Advil did the trick, and I slept better than I had for a long time.
I think there are more acorns out there that need me. By for now!