Arachniphobia

I hope their lives were ended before they mated. Why is it in nature the female is usually the bigger and uglier of the species? Now, yes, I understand that the world needs spiders and insects. I once read an interesting novel called "Dust". This told a story about what happened when the world's insect population died off. It wasn't pretty. I guess I will put up with bugs, just not in my house. I'm not one of those kind and gentle souls that catch and release them outdoors. Nope, if it is where it shouldn't be, crunch!
As I mentioned to John, Sean put in a new front lawn and I am in charge of turning off the underground sprinklers. The only thing is that the shut off is in the crawlspace of our basement. I can only imagine what is lurking in the darkness. We have these black spiders down there that we don't see often, that we call "Fuglies" Figure it out, it is a combination of two words. When I see a fugly I call Sean. He knows what I want just from the tone of my voice. He comes down and gets the fugly stick (an old golf club) and uses the business end of it on the spider. Last night I go down to do laundry (a never ending job) and low and behold; a new kind of fugly that I've not seen before. I don't know where these creatures come from. For the most part our basement is partically finished and bright. If this is what is out in the open, imagine what must be in the crawlspace. No, on second thought, don't imagine it. You will be as freaked out as I am. Back to the story. Sean isn't around so I ask my 16 year old if he would kill this thing. He comes down with a kleenex. I tell him you need a hell of a lot more than that, get a shoe. I can't find the fugly stick. So down he comes again with one of my flip flops. Ugh. I ask him, "is that the best you could get? Your brother has size 13 feet, go get one of his sneakers!" Long story short, he's my hero, he slayed the spider. So on that note, here are some beautiful garden pictures to get the spider out of your head.



This climbing vine is called Mandevilla. It's really beautiful
and usually does well for me. Right now it seems to be dropping

the buds. I will have to do some research to find out the problem.




















A bumble bee on our Spirea. Sean hates bees and wasps. I don't like any insects but they seem to love me. What it is they love, I don't know but they love to bite me. There can be 6 people together and only one will get biten by something. It will be me. Then it swells up and hurts for hours. Last week on the playground I got stung on my wrist by a bee, it swelled and then was stiff for a few days. Better me than one of the kids I guess. One morning I step out the door to walk to school and an orange ladybug (the only bug that I used to let crawl on me) lands on my hand. I thought to myself, this is my lucky day. I'm walking and watching it when suddenly, ouch! The damn thing bit me! Who knew they would bite. So I had a red, sore, swollen hand for the day. I researched it and yes, these bugs do bite and they are not your friendly ladybug that we know and love. This is some sort of beetle from Asia that has immigrated here and is taking over the population of ladybugs. Think of when the last time you saw a red one. Long time I bet.

This is Verbeena. I picked out purple and red to plant together.

I have a tendancy to choose colors that clash to plant in my

garden. I think they compliment each other nicely.