Sunday, August 9, 2009

Around the House...

Hello there! While I am hoping to get some crafty time today, I thought I'd show you a couple of this *growing* around the house these days.

While I guess I don't like spiders, I'm not freaked out by them. I can smoosh them with no problem. I'm always fascinated by the webs they create and we've been privvy to one rather large one being built by a persistent spider on our carport. He (she?) first built one in a different corner earlier in the week, but we had a gully washer of a thunderstorm and Steve was trying to clear out the gutters so the water would flow out better. In doing so, he managed to destroy the first web. This guy (gal?) wasn't to be deterred from building a web in the same general vicinity and got to work right away spinning another, even larger one. These are my attempts to capture what it looks like. You may have to click on the photos to make them larger to "see" it.



Pretty cool, huh? Well, I'm glad I got these anyway...

Here's a plant or two or three or four that Steve has grown. I might have mentioned a while ago there was this plant growing in a neighbor's front yard that Steve was very enamored with. He would try to get the seeds from the plant and grow them, no luck. He'd try to see if he could get a runner and start it that way. No luck. He put his computer searching skills to work and found the plant name online (I don't know what it is, sorry). To his delight, he actually found the plant last year. He planted it in a pot and nurtured it in the house over the winter. (which actually means, I watered it along with the other houseplants, but doesn't the description sound better?) When the weather warmed up this spring, he put the pot on our deck and waited to see what would happen. It apparently was pretty happy with the loving care (ie watering) it got over the winter and enjoyed the sunlight it received on the deck. We are starting to get blooms now and I thought I'd better capture one while I could. LOL It is rather pretty, don't you think. I think Steve gets a bigger kick out of the fact that the bloom is some sort of opiate or hallucenogenic I believe. LOL He has planted portions of this beauty all around, but the one in the pot has taken off the most.

Lots more blooms in the wings!
And this is a quick shot of my erm...garden. LOL I haven't spent much time out here keeping it in check, but I rather like the sort of wild look, too.

Thanks for stopping by. Breakfast is ready and I must go eat. LOL
Photobucket

9 comments:

Sharli Schaitberger said...

Jeanne,

I love the spider web - I don't get such beautiful, even, ones here . . . the black widow webs and rather chaotic and that's our most common spider. You did a great job capturing the web on camera!!!

I love Steve's flower! It is gorgeous! Of course, we'll be watching for wonky behavior now . . .

Your "wild" garden is perfect - I prefer them that way. I wish we had enough moisture to have such lush green around here. The best I can do is nudge my small patch of grass from brown to pale green. But we must conserve water in the desert.

Happy Sunday!

Anonymous said...

Your "wild" garden looks lovely...so lush and green. And the flower your husband is growing (with some expert assistance from you, it sounds like) is beautiful. What an interesting shape on the bloom.

Great job capturing the web...it's tricy to do. If you want to play around with more photos of it, mist it with a small spray bottle. It's sometimes easier to get the camera to focus on it with water droplets and it makes a cool photo, too.

Brenda

stampmonkey said...

That's a BIG spider web, Jeanne! I'm not too crazy about spiders myself (a few years back my mom was bitten by a brown recluse...NASTY, flesh eating bite), so I pretty much steer clear of all spiders now. Of course I disliked them before that happened too, so I'm not sure what my point was in sharing that little tidbit. lol They do make some cool webs though. ;)

Steve's/your (well, YOU "nurtured" it all winter, right?) flower is really beautiful. It reminds me of an Easter lily, though I know it's not one of those. And your wildflower-type garden is lovely as well. I love colorful gardens, regardless of their prim-and-proper or wild-child look. And since I don't really care to spend hours upon hours doing yardwork, I like the carefree look of yours quite well. ;) tfs!

Hope breakfast was yummy!

Carolyn said...

Your yard & flowers look beautiful! As for the spider web.... YUCK... all though they work very hard to spin there web, I do my part to knock them down. I hate them. They only spin in the same spot a few times, then they move.
I would love more info about your digi scrapbooking. I'm e mailing you. :)

Anke said...

I love these shots, that is my favorite thing to do, just walk around and take pictures of stuff! The spiderwebs are awesome!!! I hope you had a wonderful breakfast

Sarah said...

Great shots Jeanne!
OK I HATE spiders...Snakes I can handle but not spiders ewwwww.
That plant that your hubby wanted and you grew LOL, is gorgeous! I do not recognize it but I LOVE it. My garden looks exactly like this...and I like it and I like yours! more natural.

Kathi Carlson said...

That's a great web, and you are right. They are fascinating. Spiders, creepy as they are, get rid of yuckier bugs, so I leave 'em alone ... have even been known to carry them outside and set them free. Crazy, I know. Love the look of your "wild" garden. The only orderly gardens that appeal to be are Japanese gardens. Oh, and Steve's plant. It's beautiful, but is it legal? Fun.

mE said...

hey chica!

Your spiderweb is beautiful and gross at the same time... gross because it means there's some monster spider attached to it somewhere... lol... and I despise spiders! We seem to be overrun with them this year... I think it's because the weather has not been as hot as is normally would be and we're just seeing them out and about more instead of hiding. The webs are beautiful, but spiders are icky.... I can't even squoosh them, have to get out the vacuum with the long hose and suck them up.... Brent laughs every time. We get some big honkin black widows and "wolfies", and brown recluse and sometimes those really icky "cat eye" spiders around here...

Love the flower! It actually looks like a Vinca flower. The leaves and bloom are remarkably similar. We just planted a HUGE job at work with them... literally HUNDREDS of flats of flowerss. If it IS vinca, it's a good hearty groundcover, but I'm not sure on the drug qualities. LOL!

Inky Smiles!
E.

mE said...

NOpe, I was wrong... not a vinca. They're pretty much only white. Please share the name when you remember it or get it from Steve!