i have an exciting announcement~!~ my daughter has gotten a puppy so i now have a grand-dog~!!~ isn't she cute~!?!~ when people ask me what kind of dog she is i have to laugh and tell them that she is a full bred Honduran Mutt and 100% Sweetheart. her name is Suki. and i can hardly wait until i get to actually meet her~!~ this is a photograph that my daughter sent me.

i've gotten completely into the spirit of things and have made Suki what i'm calling a "quiltlet". (think piglet: sorta cute ugly but definitely more on the cute side)


i purchased a package of inexpensive flannel baby receiving blankets and placed them together right sides facing out and then utility stitched them in a sort of diagonal plaid pattern. no binding and i left the batting out, as in warmer climates fleas and ticks are an issue and the batting would only complicate things. the receiving blankets were not exactly the same size but i decided that was perfectly okay. as a finishing touch i embroidered Suki's name on a twill tape and then stitched it onto the quiltlet.

the one that you see pictured here is already on it's way to Honduras and i'm halfway through making another one. in fact, i'm now thinking i may end up creating a whole line of "Suki wear" . . . maybe some doggy scarves and who knows what else i might think of~!~

Bugs and an Adventure Story from Honduras

the garden is currently plentiful of more than just flowers, fruits and vegetables. when i was out with my camera it seemed like there were beautiful bugs everywhere that i looked~!~ this butterfly was about the size of my thumbnail and the inside of the wings were an electric blue similar to the brightest blue areas on the outside of it's wings. the wind was blowing pretty hard but it was very patient with me and i did manage to get a couple of decent shots although none with the wings opened up. i'm not sure what kind of a butterfly it is. i do know that i used to see many more of them a few years ago than i see now.

not only are the (yukon gold) potatoes in abundance but so are the garden worms~!~ which is supposed to be a very good sign of soil health. are you able to find the worms sticking out from the dirt in this shot?

this mantid was basking in the last of the evening sunshine. i'm pretty sure it was a female judging by her super extended abdomen . . . and i think she's giving the camera the stink eye~!~

this little grasshopper thought it was all about camouflage and so didn't hop away when i was taking it's photograph.
i loved looking at all of the amazing details in this shot (both of the grasshopper and the tree bark it was sitting on)~!~

there are quite a few of these spiders in our garden. i know them to be an orb spider and generally beneficial. i managed to get a photo of both her (i think this one is female) topside (above) and her underside (below). she was accidentally disturbed when weeds were pulled from beneath one of the pine trees and so she is perched here on a tiny pine bough. she was roughly an inch and a half long (including leg span). usually they like to sit smack in the middle of their web and almost always have a zig zag bit of creativity woven into it. i will try to get some shots of one of the better looking webs before the summer is completely over.

apparently the bugs are plentiful in Honduras too, as last evening brought a call from my daughter with tales of a very large (5 to 6 inch) tarantula that came visiting one evening right before bedtime. the one thing that this courageous girl of mine seems to be truly afraid of is spiders. i don't have to tell you that in a tropical environment they thrive (meaning they grow quite large) in many variations and this has been a difficult thing for her to deal with. for the most part she manages to keep herself calm and does her best to ignore them, but apparently this particular specimen was just "too much" and she was forced to run for help. she describes a lot of arm waving and heart palpitations at this part in her story. the family that she is staying with was quick to jump into action with "dad" bearing a broomstick and "mom" at the ready to squash it. in the end, the reportedly large mess of the squashed spider (and all of it's remaining parts) was swept up and deposited outdoors. so other than a restless night of sleep and her host family's gentle teasing, all was once again well. poor kid.