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Pinkiered
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Recent Entries to this Blog My new life is shapping up nicely
Posted: 23 Dec 2006
Busy busy Pinkie
Posted: 29 Oct 2006
Ohhhhhhh Im so sick
Posted: 09 Oct 2006
My space
Posted: 27 Sep 2006
Winterizing your roses
Posted: 25 Sep 2006

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Pinkiered's Blog

Roses, Roses and more Roses PLEASE!


Just remembering my baby Jay Bird

Category: Pinkies LIfe | Posted: Wed Jun 28, 2006 3:50 pm

I told the story when I first got here to this site but yesterday, I saw a huge Blue Jay at the feeder and it made me think of Jay. He entered our lives this time last year.....>sigh< I do miss him. Then this morning, I was looking through some pics and found alot of pics of him I had forgotten about. It just made me miss him even more. For those who have never heard the story of my Jay the bluejay or havent heard the whole story, here it is.

We had a nasty storm move through Jacksonville, Fl this time last year. It came up fast and the wind was really kicking everything up.

After the storm passed, I headed out in to the garden to see how everything fared. I happen to look up towards where we had a honey bee hive and there was a baby Bluejay trying to catch bees. He didnt have much in the way of adult feathers. He was trying his hardest to catch a bee....poor guy was hungery.

Well, I turned my back on him to walk towards the street and when I turned back around, he had made a very clumsy flight to the roof of my truck, barely making it. He sat there watching me, squaking...making all kinds of racket. Suddenly, he just flew right at me and landed right in my hand!

He looks at me and made some very pitful noises, so I took him over to a wooden beam we had in the yard. I turned it over and set him on the ground to eat. He watched the bugs but I dont think understood how to do it so I picked up bugs for him to eat.

Well, That night I called the local wildlife center and they told me they couldnt take him BUT wouldnt tell me how to care for him!!! ARE YOU KIDDING ME!!!??? They told me to just let him go and let Mother Nature take its course. >snort< Yeah, like I was going to let that happen.

I went to the local pet store and the guy there gave me mealworms and wild bird seed to feed him. He also told me to mix some grits with warm water and finger feed it to him along with the worms and seeds.

So, off I went to learn how to take care of a wild bird. I even had a special call for just him...it sounded nothing like a Bluejays call...more like clicking your tongue against the roof of your mouth. He would answer it or come to me.When I fed him the grits , we were both covered in the sticky stuff. He would then ruffle his feathers and shake like a dog and I would have even more grits on me!!! LOL HE would just look at me and chirp when I told him to not do that. I would have it everywhere! Rob had even found grits in my hair after one very messy feeding! HAHA!

Well,every night he would sleep up in the top of my bedroom closet. As soon as the sun would go down, he would make these cute little cooing noises to let me know he was sleepy and I would take him to bed.I had placed a old sheet up there and made like a nest of sorts. I would hold him up and he would just hop into bed. I would awaken throughout the night hearing him make those cooing noises.

He would wake me up BEFORE the sun came up. After the first couple of mornings, he would just squak very loud just once and stand at the very edge of the top shelf and look at me. All I had to do his hear it once and I was up ,ready to feed him his first meal of the day.

After I would feed him his grits, I would place him next to a shallow dish of water and watch him bath. That was the funniest thing to watch!!!

After his bath, I would put him on my shoulder and walk out side to water the gardens. In the early days he was with us, I put him on the edge of my homemade planter and he would sit there and preen himself in the sun. I spent alot of time outside after he came to be with us. I didnt want him to use to being inside a human home. He would go to Rob too so we made sure he was scared of Rob. If he tried to get to Rob, he would make a very loud noise so Jay would be scared.

Well, after a week or so after coming to our house, I notied he was getting quite a few adult feathers.....I didnt know they grew that fast! So, I took to leaving him outside more and more when I went in. I would hear him calling me when he got hungery.

We had this huge oak tree behind our place and the branches overhung the roof. He would sit up there and call me. When I opened the door and walked outside, he would fly down and land where I could pick up and feed him. As he started learning to fly around, I was feeding him less and less, making him learn to catch his own food.

I had started doing it by placing the mealworms in a old metal baking pan and covering them with a few leaves. I had to point them out to him at first but soon he caught on to the "game" and would move the leaves to find them. After a few days of that, I added more leaves. I then started scattering birdseed around the ground so he would have to find them. He was happier with the mealworms and so I ended up with a bird seed garden! HAHAHA!

He was with us,I think about a month, but it seems longer than that so Im not real sure how long he was with us. Long enough that my neighbors thought I was nuts when I would walk outside and start making noises and a bird would fly to me! LOL One even saw me one morning come out and look up and start making strange noises and saw Jay fly to me! LOL Poor Scott thought he was seeing things until he come over to get a closer look. Word spread around the nieghbors pretty fast after that. I would get smiles and comments when they saw me outside with Jay or calling him. Cuz there towards the end, he would sit in his oak tree and call me but not come down for his feedings until the sun came down. Then all I had to do was open the door and he would fly inside.

Then we had another nasty storm move through and Jay was caught outside. I searched for him for weeks calling him.I was so worried that I couldnt sleep for days. I cried so much during those weeks of not knowing. Poor Rob. He didnt know what to do.I would go outside even at night, to listen for his cooing.

Twice, a grow BlueJay would sit in the oak tree right above the door and call. I would run outside and call back. He never came down so Im not 100% sure it was him. But after that last encounter with the BlueJay, there was no doubt it was him. I was outside working in the yard and a large BlueJay came and landed on the little tree next to our gate and called. I watched him and started talking to him. HE then jumped off the tree and hopped along the fence towards me. When I tried to get closer he flew off but spent the day around my yard ,calling whenever I came out or whenever I called to him.

That was the last time I ever saw him. We moved from Jacksonville at the end of Jan so I dont know if he went back come spring. It makes me sad to think that he went back ,calling me and I wasnt there to answer.

Heres some pics of him I took during his time with us.

This was just a few days after he found us. He was a ham for the camera! HAHA! He would strick a pose whenever he would see it. I had set him down to preen after his bath and was going to take pics of my Glads (in the background) and decided to take a pic of him.



Here his first lesson in catching mealworms. I didnt give him any grits for the first time and was trying to coach him into to picking them up. It didnt work too well. Unless I fed him, he would just watch them move around. Youll notice too that he was really starting to look like a BlueJay in these pics. His "mask" was getting darker and his top feathers were turning bluer. Sorry for the bad pics.





These were taken the same week he was caught in the storm and left. You can see he looks like a little BlueJay here. He was sitting in his little tree next to the gate calling me cuz he was hungery. I was purposely skipping his feeds tryng to force him into finding his own food. That day was a big day for him. I watched him catch a fly bug in mid flight! He just flew down from the oak tree and caught the bug as he flew by. I was so proud! I think he was too because he started hopping around ,making little clucking noises! LOL



Thats the story of my little Jay Bird. I so miss him!

This blog entry has been viewed 2238 times


3 week check up on his Highness

Category: Royal Poinciana | Posted: Tue Jun 27, 2006 4:24 pm

I just went back and looked all the pics of him up until now. Let me tell you, if all my plants grew this well, my gardens would be beautiful!!!!

He has a new branch fully openned and a new one growing. Sarah is nicely shaded now! LOL I think Ill need to repot him real soon. Ive taken to looking under the pot of signs of roots! HAHA! I have a feeling Ill be repotting him once a month!!! I am still in awe at fast his is growing.


Wheres Sarah??


Shes chillin in under a shade tree!




This blog entry has been viewed 736 times


Blackwater

Category: Pinkies LIfe | Posted: Sun Jun 25, 2006 5:11 pm

Yesterday Dianne found out she was accepted into Blackwater. Being as she wont go without Rob and Blackwater does, from what I gather, accept the buddy system, I have a constant knot in my chest now.

What can I say or do to stop this without breaking my promise? Do I try to stop this?

Ive been reading the news online and things seem to be rapidly getting worse since they killed Al-Zawkowi (whatever his name was) and the new guy took over. I really shouldnt be watching the news, I know but I cant seem to help it.

I just wish Rob would get back and end this once and for all. The not knowing is killing me. But at the same time, I dont want to know. That will bring even more emotions to the surface.

Im restless. I cant do one thing for too long. Nothing is keeping my attention. Not my painting or gardening. If you knew me well, you would know, if those two things cant take my mind off things , then its bad. I have been fighting a headache since my sister told me. Shes happy. So I say nothing.

This blog entry has been viewed 606 times


Note to self

Category: New Gardener | Posted: Fri Jun 23, 2006 7:01 pm

Keep snap dragon seeds and petunia seed separate when gathering seeds.

This blog entry has been viewed 482 times


I am sad

Category: Pinkies LIfe | Posted: Fri Jun 23, 2006 2:35 pm

Rob left today to his new job as a full time service tech on an new oil rig. He will be gone 2 weeks and home a week. There will be times where he is gone for 3 weeks....thats 21 day! I miss him already and he just left this morning. :`(

I have to keep telling myself that this job will finally to the purpose for the move here to La from my much loved FL. We can get out of debt and buy a house. If all goes well within the next year and a half, we can adopt a child. We want our own house and a small nest egg before we do.

Rob will be 36 the 2nd of July and he told me last night, that he could feel time running short. I thought only women had that clock. He wants to make good money in the housing market and theres tons to be made here in La, esp New Orleans and around Mississippi. I so want it for him. I keep telling him that most adults dont get into a postion that they can make such a huge step until their early 40s. Doesnt make him any happier.

The other night, him and my little sister sat me down.... that should have been my clue something was up. Them two together in something is hardly ever a good thing for the rest of the family.

In case you didnt know, my little sister Dianne (and little brother Jonny) just came back from a year in Iraq..... Army. Well, Rob is ex Navy and him and Dianne are two peas in a pod. Anyway back to the story.

They sat me down and told me that they had both applied to a company called Black Water. If you are here in the States, youve heard of this company through the news. They prove secutiy for high ranking civilins in Iraq. Towards the beginning of the war, some of Black Waters men were killed and it was all over the news. Well, they (Black Water) are snatching up ex military personal and Diannes is a combat medic with the Army so they will grab her faster then Rob. But they are going on the buddy system so one wont go without the other.The pay is $500,000. a year. Three months in Iraq and one month home state side.

I had told Rob at the beginning of our marriage, I would never hold him back from something he wanted to do in his career. That I would put my two cents in and then support whatever decision he made. After all, its his career not mine. So what could I say, when they told me this?? They havent told anyone else in the family and everytime I talk to one of them (the other kids or mom) I feel like Im lying to them. They want to wait until they are accepted into Black Water before they tell anyone else. Moms going to be crushed. But shes the kind of mom that will understand why Dianne and ROb are doing it. Dianne is 24 and will be set for life when she got back(she a smart girl when it comes to her money).She wants to be a doctor and is now struggling to pay for school and live.

We would be completely out of debt, be able to buy the house we want, have our nest egg and be able to adopt ,all with money left over for ROb to start his own busniess and me to have money to invest.

My little brother (Diannes older brother) doesnt know because he will want to go over there to protect Dianne. She was almost kill twice (and has two purple hearts and tons of metals and awards,)while over there with the Army and now state side, there isnt anything she can do or go, that Jonny doesnt know about. Its gotten to the point that we had the house searched twice for bugs..... yeah its that bad. We are now thinking its her roommate telling Jonny so Nicole (roommate) doesnt even know about Black Water. Only me, Rob and Dianne. Well, I should say on my side of the family anyways. In the 8 yrs weve been married, Ive only met one of his sisters and he comes from a very large family.

He has told one of his sisters... I was asked to please talk Rob and Dianne out of going. That it isnt worth it. What can I do?? I cant go back on my word. Its hard tho.

Besides, after the BlackWater men were killed, the company changed their policies. Now, the militairy provides backup for the BlackWater men and women. They arent out there alone. Ive researched the company and everything to do with them that I could find.

But in the end, Im reserving my opinions about all this until they are accepted. I think him leaving today just gave me time to start thinking about all this. I wont tell him no because I beleive its my job as a wife to support his decisions when he comes to his career. Just like he supports me in my art work and my long hard climb to the top.

But for now, he is gone for two weeks and I am sad.

Last edited: Sun Jun 25, 2006 4:59 pm

This blog entry has been viewed 566 times


Wazit??

Category: Roses | Posted: Thu Jun 22, 2006 8:22 pm

This is my Wazit blog. If I dont know what it is, Ill place it in this blog until I figure it out.

This pic is of what looks to be tiny yellow eggs inside the leaf walls. I noticed it because of the dicolortion of the underside of the leaf. It was purple and the closer I looked I noticed a very slight swelling in the area. I touched it and it popped open to reveal the tiny little yellow eggs.

This is what it looked like from on top of the leaf.


Underneath


The eggs between the walls of the upper and lower walls of the leaf.


I think this is butterfly eggs. Looks like it. But the eggs are hatched so I may never find out. If they are butterfly eggs, I never saw the catapillars.


This is puzzling. The white/gray is a waxy ,shiny stuff that you cant scrap off with your finger nail. It feels like wax. Its only on one rose, the Perfume Delight. Now that rose isnt growing very well. It doesnt look sick. But looking at it you would think its a healthy plant but its stunted. Its only on the stem.


This blog entry has been viewed 591 times


Gnome Dome Makeover

Category: Garden Personality project | Posted: Thu Jun 22, 2006 6:31 pm

Whenever I mow, I have to move all my potted plants (which is many) into the middle of the yard. Well this time I wanted to spread them out so my large lot wouldnt look so bare in spots. I moved alot of the planter into new spots. I think I moved every one of the pots to a new spot. I would love comments about it, good or bad.

Keep in mind Im a renter so nothing more can go into the ground. As it is, we are talking about moving into a house (bigger) soon so everything in the ground has to be dug up and potted.

I moved the hot pink Bougianvilla to my front door for color. I moved the mini cannas and 4 O'clocks out of the corner and put the Black Magic there.


The other night I come home late at night and as I turned into the drive, my headlights caught something feeding off my pink Butterfly Bush. It looked like a hummingbird but with it so late at night and when my headlights hit it, it took off, Im wondering if it wasnt a hummingbird moth. Plus theres tons of butterflies that feed off it all day. So I moved them where I could see them from the front door. The pink one sits at the end of my row of plants next to the banana tree and the purple one now sits between my passion vine and fern tree.I added a few potted plants around the purple one to fit it in more in that area.



This is a shot from the bottom step at the front door.


The large orange pot(left) is the mini cannas.The metal thing with the black pot is an tomato stand thingie I used for my morning glorys when all my tomatos died.


To the left in the upper left corner is my wild flower bed. To the right of that is a Ipeomea (SP?) Im trying to get to climb one of the tomato stands thingies, like it climbed the fence last year. In the foreground is the orange canna. To the lower right is another morning glory with one of the stands. The rose area is in the background.


Another morning glory and orange canna. Rose area in the background.Dont mind the floding chair in the rose area....LOL I was talking to my roses!!! :D


other pics








This blog entry has been viewed 622 times


Two week check up on Prince Poin

Category: Royal Poinciana | Posted: Mon Jun 19, 2006 5:56 pm

Yep its been 2 weeks to the day since he has raised his head! HAPPY BIRTHDAY PRINCE POIN!

Heres his birthday pics...He has a new branch with 8 leaves on it!!!


Sarah is nicely shaded now!


This blog entry has been viewed 502 times


My bi-weekly inspection of roses

Category: Roses | Posted: Mon Jun 19, 2006 5:47 pm

It really doesnt seem like its been two weeks since the last bi-weekly inspection. Its because Ive had a daily battle with the beetle thats been munching the roses.

But it was so I chemically (because of the beetles) sprayed the roses and tomorrow I will feed them.

Moving around the roses, everything looked good except for minor damage to some of the leaves (munched on). But when I came to my Climbing Gold Glow, something caught my eye. Its on the only two stems over 4 ft tall...the only two stems that are starting to climb.



I cut one of the stems off (the smallest)to do some investagating into find out what it was.

I first pulled off all the leaves and thorns. I was able to see the tracks better this way. It covered about 14 inchs of stem. I found the point of entry...or could be exit but the fact thats the only place where it went into the "wood" of the rose, makes me think the eggs were laid there. It went up about 6inches above the POE and about 8 below the POE.

Whatever insect it was used the area where one of the thorns had been pulled off or was torn off when I trained it to the trellis.

Point of entry.


I took a smoothed edge knife and gently scratched the area. The skin around the area where the "tunnel" was gave away easily.

Heres the "tunnels"








It doesnt appear that this "borer" fed off the rose stem. The tunnels ran to the leaf stems and every leaf stem had been chewed at the base....but just the base...... puzzling, I know.



I scraped away the tunnel hoping to find the little critter but nothing unless he is just so small I cant see him.

I then skined the rose stems in section to check the wood. Like I said before except for the POE, the wood was clean and free of tunnels. The tunnels were only skin deep.

Here you can see the POE in the one closest to the bottom of the four. Its the dark area at the top..



Heres the skin from the inside...
You can make out the tunnels.



I didnt cut the other one off. I want to see what comes of this as I havent found the insect doing this online.

Lets hope that it isnt a borer that will end up in the crown of my rose!!!!
If you happen to know what this is, please let me know!!

This blog entry has been viewed 709 times


Leaf Beetle on roses

Category: Roses | Posted: Thu Jun 15, 2006 7:43 pm

This is a type of Leaf beetle. Because of the exetreme damage it did to my roses Ive decided to start a blog on just this critter.



Damage done to roses



If you see damage done to the rose that looks like the roses above, pull the petals off and you will see this beetle inside.

I was testing different organic treatments on my roses. The Don Juan wasnt treated and it went through the blooms in a matter of two days.

I treated all my roses with a health does of cayenne pepper spray yesterday. I get up this morning and went to check on them. Not a bug anywhere on my roses EXCEPT for this beetle. Over night , it took out the blooms on my Blue Girl, Knockout Rose (which is pest resistant), Gold MasterPeice , Cyrstal Fairy and all my mini roses. It attacks only the flowers and the results are devasting.

I grabbed a few samples of the beetle and headed to the closest pest control company. I had a good talk with one of the tecs. He said that the leaf beetle, of any sort, will destroy anything with a leaf or bloom. But this kind is just on the blooms and he says that he nor his co workers have ever seen this beetle before (he kept the samples). I told him about trying to use only organic treatments and he only shook his head. He says that the only thing that will wipe these guys (leaf beetles) is Melothion Liquid.

Sadly, I will have to chemically treat my roses.

Below is a link to leaf beetles with pics.
http://www.uga.edu/vegetable/beetles.html

The closest I could come to IDing this beetle was the Sweet Potato Flea Beetle and the Bean Leaf Beetle.

Warning! They do bite!

Last edited: Thu Jun 15, 2006 9:21 pm

This blog entry has been viewed 7712 times




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