END OF AUGUST GARDEN

I cannot believe September is almost here. What a busy month it has been. The veggie garden has slowed down or dried up. The corn was a disaster as we went on vacation and it did not get watered for 10 days. If you like half ears of corn, then we had just the product for you! The tomatoes are still going strong, lucky me. Otherwise, not much is happening unless you want a pumpkin. One of my Crape Myrtle trees has bloomed this year for the first time even tho it was planted at the same time as this one. It never got enough sun before. I had the big gum trees cut down and then someone accidentally cut the Crape Myrtle to the ground and it miraculously came back up. I thouight it was a goner. The fall blooming azaleas have just started.

And my friend Bobbie gave me a whole bunch of treasures! I dearly love Strobilanthes. So does St Francis. And dark coleus. Unusual coleus, and Impatiens. I haven't planted any impatiens for a couple of years. Throw in a few geraniums, some begonias...
Did you know honeysuckle blooms again if you cut it down after the first June blooming? Punkin just loves the smell of honeysuckle. "He like ta fell out, it smelled so good!" And the pansy is still blooming away! I do hope you enjoyed visiting my yard. Anytime you want to help pull some weeds or grass, please feel free to do so!

REDNECK GARDENERS

I stumbled upon this link this morning and laughed myself silly! There are LOADS of wonderful ideas here for sprucing up things in your yard. http://faq.gardenweb.com/faq/lists/midatl/2004081411012463.html.
I haven't decided which one is my favorite yet. Let me know yours?!?!?!?!
For a moment, I thought it might be fun to see some pictures of some of these... then I realized I had been spared. Aren't you lucky?

FIRSTS

Remember your first FIRSTS?

Grandchildren are great for reminding us of the simple pleasures in life, the joy of FIRSTS.

Remember your first day of First Grade? Your first time on a bike???? I think I can.............. YES!!! LOOK AT ME GOOOOOOOOOOO!

How about your first sandcastle?

Or even your first day at the beach?

It is so easy as we get older to forget those simple pleasures, those first joys of discovery. As I enter my old age, I must remember to find joy in life's simple things, the flowers that bloom in their season, the cat rolling over to show me how cute he is, the honk of the geese as they fly to a new pond.

I remember how temporary everything is and am grateful for the moment.

BIRTHDAY ADVICE

A friend sent this to me this morning........ Lots of good advice here. Since a very good friend of mine just turned 60, (I did that a few years ago) I thought I would pass this along to her and anyone else who might need a nudge!

Life is Good, by Regina Brett

To celebrate growing older, I once wrote the 45 lessons life taught me. It is the most-requested column I've ever written. My odometer rolls over to 50 this week, so here's an update:

1. Life isn't fair, but it's still good.
2. When in doubt, just take the next small step.
3. Life is too short to waste time hating anyone.
4. Don't take yourself so seriously. No one else does.
5. Pay off your credit cards every month.
6. You don't have to win every argument. Agree to disagree.
7. Cry with someone. It's more healing than crying alone.
8. It's OK to get angry with God. He can take it.
9. Save for retirement starting with your first paycheck.
10. When it comes to chocolate, resistance is futile.
11. Make peace with your past so it won't screw up the present.
12. It's OK to let your children see you cry.
13. Don't compare your life to others'. You have no idea what their journey is all about.
14. If a relationship has to be a secret, you shouldn't be in it.
15. Everything can change in the blink of an eye. But don't worry; God never blinks.
16. Life is too short for long pity parties. Get busy living, or get busy dying.
17. You can get through anything if you stay put in today.
18. A writer writes. If you want to be a writer, write.
19. It's never too late to have a happy childhood. But the second one is up to you and no one else.
20. When it comes to going after what you love in life, don't take no for an answer.
21. Burn the candles, use the nice sheets, wear the fancy lingerie. Don't save it for a special occasion. Today is special.
22. Over-prepare, then go with the flow.
23. Be eccentric now. Don't wait for old age to wear purple.
24. The most important sex organ is the brain.
25. No one is in charge of your happiness except you.
26. Frame every so-called disaster with these words: "In five years, will this matter?"
27. Always choose life.
28. Forgive everyone everything.
29. What other people think of you is none of your business.
30. Time heals almost everything. Give time time.
31. However good or bad a situation is, it will change.
32. Your job won't take care of you when you are sick. Your friends will. ....Stay in touch.
33. Believe in miracles.
34. God loves you because of who God is, not because of anything you did or didn't do.
35. Whatever doesn't kill you really does make you stronger.
36. Growing old beats the alternative -- dying young.
37. Your children get only one childhood. Make it memorable.
38. Read some good books. They cover every human emotion.
39. Get outside every day. Miracles are waiting everywhere.
40. If we all threw our problems in a pile and saw everyone else's, we'd grab ours back.
41. Don't audit life. Show up and make the most of it now.
42. Get rid of anything that isn't useful, beautiful or joyful.
43. All that truly matters in the end is that you loved.
44. Envy is a waste of time. You already have all you need.
45. The best is yet to come.
46. No matter how you feel, get up, get dressed, and show up.
47. Take a deep breath. It calms the mind.
48. If you don't ask, you don't get.
49. Yield.
50. Life isn't tied with a bow, but it's still a gift.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BOBBIE

A BIRTHDAY PANSY. This pansy is almost year old, almost unheard of... It was probably a birthday present from Bobbie last September. And now it is here to say, Happy Birthday, Bobbie!

POSSUM SEX or "here goes my kid friendly rating."

Possum sex!
I am always amazed at the folk lore that somehow stays alive in spite of the education available today… the things we believe that somebody made up long ago to cover up their ignorance because they were afraid to admit, “I don’t know!” Sometimes these things are called old wife’s tales, probably by an old man who had no idea about something so he blamed the story he made up on his “old” wife.

I am also amazed at the responses and questions I always get about possums. The poor babies have been blamed for so many things that they have never done, cannot do, are not capable of doing… but I have never been asked about their sex lives before. The question put to me in a comment on an earlier post was, “How do possums breed?” My answer - With a lot of noise and absolutely no commitment - much like a lot of kids today, sadly! I have never actually "seen" it, but I have seen the results. Sometime after we tried to release PITA, she went in season, and came home badly chewed and battered. She was so badly hurt, we were unable to re-release her... but she was indeed pregnant. I had never thought much about the sex life of possums before our possum specialist vet told us we would have to have her spayed if we wanted to keep her alive. So, that was when I did some research, since an ordinary vet is normally unable to neuter a possum. Seems they have 2 sets of equipment, and boy possums have a double, or forked, penis. Double the pleasure or double the trouble, I don't know which it is... Anyway, immediately after copulation, the little boy possum moves on looking for his next meal and conquest. The new mama starts looking for a nesting site as she will give birth in less than 2 weeks, sort of... you see, along with having 2 vaginal canals, etc, she also gives birth twice, sorta.
From http://www.wildliferescueleague.org/report/opossum.html:
“The opossum gives birth to 16-20 (often more) babies, only 12-13 days after mating - the shortest gestation period of any North American mammal. Newborn opossums are about the size of a grain of rice. They cannot see, but will scramble from their birthplace under their mother's tail, and wriggle across her hairy belly to the safety of her pouch. Most do not survive the journey, as the youngsters must find a nipple, and there are only 13 nipples. Neonates who do not locate a nipple will perish - each infant opossum must attach itself to one of her nipples.
After just 1 week of suckling, the babies triple their size. In 1 week the birth weight increases ten times. After about 60 to 70 days in the pouch, the youngsters' eyes finally open, they have some control of their body temperatures, and they have grown to the size of a white-footed mouse, weighing about an ounce. At this time they occasionally release their hold on the nipple. Soon they will venture out of the pouch. When they reach 75 to 85 days of age, they are weaned and seldom go back in the pouch. They will stay with their mother until they are about 3 to 4 months old.”
The best account of their reproduction cycle can be found at http://www.opossumsocietyus.org/opossum_reproduction_and_life_cycle.htm, which includes lots of great pictures. I really recommend this site. It also included the folktale about how possum’s have sex.
I was curious what prompted this question and then found out it came from an old “mans” tale, since no wife would have made this up, that goes like this. Maybe we can blame it on Capt John Smith…
Captain John Smith, an early explorer of the Chesapeake Bay, described the opossum as a creature with "an head like a swine, and a taile like a rat, and is of the bignes of a cat." In regards to the female's pouch, he wrote "Under her belly she hath a bagge, wherein she lodgeth, carrieth, and sucketh her young." European naturalists were at a loss for how to classify this new creature. They explained the opossum as being half fox, half monkey and gave it the Latin name Simia vulpa (SimianMonkey, Vulpes-Fox).
These early explorers and naturalists were even more at a loss regarding the opossum's reproductive nature. The penis of the male opossum is bifurcated or forked. This, combined with the female opossum's prenatal habit of licking her belly, nipples and pouch area, led to the folktale that in reproducing, the male and female have sex through the female's nose and she then blows the young into her pouch. Later, it was discovered that the females have a bifurcated reproductive track and all the preening is done to create a moist warm pathway for the newborns to follow. This is from http://www.audubon.org/chapter/md/md/native_wildlife.htm.

What’s worse is, this same afternoon, as I was sitting in a class after a lecture, visiting with some friends, one of the women said she told her husband she wanted a “nose job.” I had just taken a sip of my Starbucks… I doubt the stains will ever come out. I am so glad I did not have to explain my reaction. I was totally speechless.
I am so glad I didn’t spray anyone else.
I know, I am pitiful.

GOT SNOW????? NO?????

THINK SNOW!!!!!!!!!!

I have been told that I have a sick sense of humor, and that may be so. I also have a cat who complains terribly when it is too cold, too windy, too rainy... and now he is complaining that it is too hot. Yesterday the temps broke 100 degrees here as they did in so many other places. Today, I managed to cut the grass since it was only 90. No, I did not use the walk behind - I sat on the Deere and tooled around Possum Lane just like I had good sense. I was soaked when I came in, and covered with dust. It has not rained for a while more than a tenth of an inch or so. I took a picture of the mower's barn before it got to its peak yesterday, and decided to put it on with another picture of the same barn, same thermometer. And a complaining cat. Some folks are just never satisfied!

GOT BOAT?

To be honest, I have learned to value, well, not boredom exactly, but quiet, uneventful days and nights. I guess I never was one for a whole lot of excitement. And in my old age, I have learned the value of, well, boredom, or what passes for boredom for “other” people. Consequently, minor “disruptions” become events sometimes, and as long as no one gets hurt, it is OK.
I have always wanted a boat, sorta. Not enough to buy one, mind you, but if you have one and ask me to go out in it, just give me a minute to shut down the computer and I will be right there. Unless it is to go fishing, I can’t stand to kill anything with the exception of mosquitoes, fleas and TICKS! And I am working on making my peace with them…
They say possession is some important number of the law… guess it depends on what you are possessing, right? But we won’t get into that on this blog. Anyway, I briefly was in possession of a boat over the week-end. Just as we were about to sit down to dinner, a van pulled in my drive with a very upset young woman wrapped in a towel telling me something about a boat in my yard. Boat? In MY yard? What boat?

Long and short of it is – her husband’s boat popped off the hitch and came up into my yard! Now, I have 4 acres, and I know that is an area, not a length, but they are made up of about 8 lots side by side. That is a lot of roadside footage – lots of room to bounce a boat up out of the road and into my yard if that is what you decided to do. What I don’t understand is, this is the second something that has popped its hitch this month out front here. Neither trailer had any other means of securing it behind the truck other than being placed over the ball on the trailer hitch. Now, c’mon! Even I know better! It is a bumpy turtle back road out here! And this boat did not even have a strap on it! Geeeeeeeeeez! Did I mention the bald tires?

By the time I got back in the house to grab my camera, the husband had his truck up over the bank and was ONE INCH away from my baby trees trying to get his boat hitched back up. His wife and I stood and yelled and I held branches back out of the way as he maneuvered the truck and boat down off the bank and into the road. I could just see it falling off into the road.
Fortunately, it did not. The only victim was my bank and drainage ditch and some grass. Maybe his ego, I am not sure. He did not seem too happy about things, but then, I guess I would have been too embarrassed to be happy, too.
I had to be happy it did not hit one of our vehicles or anyone visiting and parked in our turn around – or go off into a vehicle on the other side of the road, injuring someone – or worse.

The GARDEN OF LIFE

A friend sent me this, I thought I would share it with you. You have probably seen it before, but it is one of those things that - well, it doesn't hurt to see it every now and again. Right?

FOR THE GARDEN OF YOUR DAILY LIVING,
PLANT THREE ROWS OF PEAS:
1. Peace of mind 2. Peace of heart 3. Peace of soul
PLANT FOUR ROWS OF SQUASH:
1. Squash gossip 2. Squash indifference 3. Squash grumbling 4. Squash selfishness
PLANT FOUR ROWS OF LETTUCE:
1. Lettuce be faithful 2. Lettuce be kind 3. Lettuce be patient 4. Lettuce really love one another
NO GARDEN SHOULD BE WITHOUT TURNIPS:
1. Turnip for meetings 2. Turnip for service 3. Turnip to help one another
TO CONCLUDE OUR GARDEN WE MUST HAVE THYME:
1. Thyme for each other 2. Thyme for family 3. Thyme for friends
WATER FREELY WITH PATIENCE AND CULTIVATE WITH LOVE. THERE IS MUCH FRUIT IN YOUR GARDEN BECAUSE YOU REAP WHAT YOU SOW. NOT BAD,HUH?!

TAKE TIME TO SMELL THE ROSES, or whatever.

And if you do not have any roses near by, well, go for the next best thing.

This is one of my favorite pictures of one of my favorite critters. This is PITA, world's most awesome possum. Who wouldda ever believed I could fall in love with a possum? But, there she is. Just thought I would share her with you since I have had so many questions from so many people lately who weren't around this site last year when I did the PITA story - see, ummmmmm, July 4th????? last year. Now you know she is cute!

This is the picture I wanted to use on my profile but I have never figured out how to do that. Maybe somebody will help me do that someday.

Sadly many people do not think of possums as "cute" - well, OK, maybe it is an acquired appreciation, but consider this - possums do not get rabies. They do not dig burrows, they do not chew their way into your house. They might go in once some other critter has made a hole, but they will not do the original damage. They do eat a lot of things, maybe even your dog or cat food if you leave it out, but here is what they enjoy the most - insects, especially crickets, grubs, (of course PITA would only eat grubs after we had washed them and promised her some raspberry yogurt for dessert, but that is beside the point - we are talking truly wild possums here, not spoiled rotten possums) SNAKES - yes, possums eat snakes, even the poisonous variety.

I went back to my posting from a year ago http://possumlane.blogspot.com/2006/07/awesome-possum.html and copied this info, in case you are interested.

Here are some links you might want to check out -Links: http://www.opossum.org/ - the BEST site for any possum info you might ever need, includes excellent on and off site links to your possum questions or needs.Another good site is http://www.opossumsocietyus.org/. It has many links but not as much in depth info as the site above. (Just my opinion, folks)Nice info but nothing to help with injured or orphaned possums - http://www.wildliferescueleague.org/report/opossum.html.This 3rd link did include the following:The opossum is omnivorous, feeding upon almost anything that it can find or catch: rats, mice, moles, slugs, snails, shrews, worms, beetles, ants, grasshoppers, crickets, frogs, garbage, fruit (especially persimmons), corns, berries, and even road kill. That habit gets about 8.3 million opossums killed a year. An opossum seeing an object on a road during the night may believe it to be road kill, and may either freeze in the headlight of a car, or try to run away. As opossums run very slowly, they often get killed. Opossums also enjoy eating snakes, and will kill and eat all snakes including poisonous ones. They are immune to the snake venom, and relish copperhead, water moccasins, rattlesnakes, and others. Again, my opinion, the headlights probably blind the poor creature, so he/she just stands there and… well, around here, half the drivers I know will steer right for the poor thing.
Another pic - one I did not use last year, mostly because it is not a great picture in terms of resolution... probably one of my Mickey Mouse disposable cameras... Always keep your best side to the camera I always say. Hmmmm, I could have called this a "Possum Tail Tale"... nah, I will just say, the end.