Trust me!! I am not laughing at your plight aubade, but "(you can see it pooped right on my glove as I was taking the pic!) just struck me funny, because of what happened to me. After a spring and summer of fighting more kinds of vegetable eating bugs than I ever knew existed, I feel your pain. jimster, in case you were wondering where the tomato horn worms are- they are here eating my tomato, pepper and potato plants. I spent about 2 weeks trying to remain calm as I looked for them each day. That turned into yelling "Alright where are you? You miserable little B#%!!!D, I know you're in there!" The final straw was when I was deeply buried in a tomato plant looking for them only to turn my head just a fraction. One of the biggest ones I had seen so far was about 3" from my face. Startled me so I yelled and went over on my butt. I ended up putting row cover over my broccoli, cabbage and cauliflower as I didn't want to have to do battle with cabbage worms too. Glad you figured out what they were aubade.

Actually, wesley, that IS a 3" pot, believe it or not... the poor AV is nothing but an empty stem with tiny green leaf buds on it. That's the original pot it came in... you know the type... small plastic, with an outer cashe pot. I will re-pot it into a smaller container. I think I have some 2" pots with drainage holes. That's how I feel about them, too... I keep getting them occasionally because they're extra indoor color, and because they're cheap at a dollar, or a dollar and a half apiece. You can't beat that! I get sucked in by the beautiful flower colors they have, and the next thing I know, they jump in my cart and come home with me! I just can't pass up the colors and price! Not everyone is a "dog person"... some are "cat people", or maybe fish or birds... and some people aren't really pet oriented. It's a personal thing... so, thanks for complimenting Maia and the babes! You know, wesley... I was almost convinced that I couldn't grow Phals... but I finally got the hang of it! They like good light, to be watered when they first get dry, and I mist them daily... mainly because we have very dry indoor air. And I keep them all grouped together for humidity's sake. Something is really working... because they're actually alive and blooming! Thanks, Alana! Ya... I have better luck growing pups than AVs, I guess! I need the room for hippis, so it wouldn't be a huge tragedy if the AV didn't survive... but I'll keep trying. Maybe it'll grow those little nubs into new leaves.

The flea beatles ate mine full of holes like buckshot last year. This year it mush be snails. Looks like their handywork. I was so happy to get rain the other night but it must not have been as much as I thought. I sat out a big bucket to catch rain water to use on my houseplants and when I went to look in there to see how much was in it guess what bone dry, lol. It evaporated overnight if there was any.

She likes to get out and go places- not senior centers, though. My own Mother took her around to several and they were "full of old people!". She would love nothing more than to go shopping every day, but won't use her wheelchair- insists on walking with her walker. Which would be fine if she could go better than 0.001 inches per minute. So from the front door to Wal-mart and back takes something like two hours for a bottle of shampoo I could have picked up in 15 minutes by myself. I am most decidedly not a shopper as I hate leaving home. I am also restoring a older home by myself and do have other duties around the house so have limited time for this sort of thing as well. I take her where she needs to go but recreational outings are between her and her son (my husband) on weekends. That was the deal when I took this on- I do the caretaking necessary but I am not a paid companion, nor am I the entertainment committee. Her mind is plenty sharp and I do expect her to take some responsibility for finding things to stay interested in. I'm harsh, I know. I watched my Mother throw away her own life in order to take care of other people and I will not do that. There's a limit and this is it. Wow. I got really aggravated there. That alone tells me I need to think about it! Great resource, this venting thing!