Friday, May 17, 2019

If I Had A Hammer


I have quite a few of these caterpillars eating their way through the crinum lilies in the little bed by the kitchen porch. I am not worried about the lilies. They never bloom anyway. But what are these caterpillars? I thought that it would be so easy to ID them with the help of google but so far, not at all. Do any of y'all know?

Here's another nature picture.


This is a clerodendrum specisossimum which I dug up from the yard next door when no one was living there. It is related to the stupid shit clerodendrum bungei, aka glory flower, which has taken over my yard. I have been watching the yard next door for many years and have not seen any evidence of this version of the clerodendrum taking over so I hope I haven't done a very bad thing in introducing it here. 
I probably have. 

We shall no doubt be discussing this next year when it blooms again. 

So. Today. 

I really didn't get much done at all and mostly because I didn't feel like it. Once more I am either a little bit sick or suffering from mental illness. 
Virus or depression? 
Impending death or mostly functional insanity? 
Who knows? Not me. 

I did do one thing that brings me a great deal of pleasure. 
Ever since I've lived in this house there has been a paper shade covering the windowed door from what used to be our bedroom (and hopefully will be again soon) into my bathroom. It's had a rip in it forever which came about when the door got swung open too wide and the shade got torn on a mirror which used to sit near it. A few weeks ago Jack got trapped in there for a few hours and ripped another piece out of the bottom of the shade and I've been pissed and depressed about how it's looked. It's like- I can't keep anything nice. 
You know? 
So today I finally pulled that shade down although I couldn't get all the hardware off the door and I made a temporary curtain to replace it out of a piece of fabric I bought quite awhile back. I didn't want to cut the cloth because I'll make a real curtain out of it eventually so I just did some machine basting and tacked it up and it looks about five million times better than the ripped paper did. 


It's definitely one of those "don't look too close" projects but still- a vast improvement and it makes me happy. I remember reading an Ann Tyler book a long time ago and I can't remember which one but there was a family in it (of course) and they were the sort of people who could not deal with fixing or replacing things but instead did ridiculous things like arrange everything in their pantry alphabetically while iron railings were rusting through and falling down and everyone would just sigh and walk past them because- WHAT COULD THEY DO? Their house was crumbling and falling apart and no one felt empowered enough to deal with any of it. Just keep alphabetizing that pantry! 
And man, I identified with that so much. 
I still do. 
Maybe more than ever. 
How I wish I was one of those people who, when they see a problem can go directly to the toolbox and get whatever they need to fix the problem and get to it! Who absolutely know their way around Lowe's. Who can saw and hammer and drill and so forth. 
Hell. I can't even paint. I'd probably be as good at painting a wall as I would be at painting the Mona Lisa. 
So just that small thing I did- ripping the paper shade down and figuring out a temporary solution until Mr. Moon deals with curtain-hanging hardware makes me feel incredibly accomplished. 

Meanwhile, I will just cook. My cabinets may not be very well organized but I can work around that. Tonight we are going to have some pork chops and also these:


Gjelina's Roasted Yams. 

Honey and red pepper and yogurt and lime juice are all involved in their preparation and it is one of my favorite recipes. I don't have any scallions but they'll be okay without. It's nice at the age of 64 for this old southern women to find a sweet potato recipe that does not involve cinnamon and brown sugar. And butter. 
Although there is nothing wrong with cinnamon and brown sugar and butter. 

Darla is still sitting on her eggs. I need to go back through my posts and see when we would reasonably expect those eggs to hatch if they aren't hard-boiled by now. 
Supposed to get really hot this weekend. Summer is here. 

Happy Friday, y'all. 

Love...Ms. Moon 

22 comments:

  1. dumb shit clerodendrum bungei !!! I snort laughed at that, repeated it to Mr. Man, but he did not think it was as funny as I did. I am still smiling hard! Big jobs go wanting around here as well, the little piddly non consequential jobs give us some semblance of power and control, I guess. On the calendar today is scribbled " garbage day"...it has been too.

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    1. Ha! I just took my own garbage and then looked out at the backyard where there's a fence falling down and where weeds have overtaken and well...hey! I took the trash!
      Sorry your husband did not find my humor very funny. Glad you did.

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  2. I don't know what the hell that giant caterpillar is, but I think the Ann Tyler book you're referring to regarding excessive alphabetical pantry items is "The Accidental Tourist" Great book...Pulitzer prize winner. X

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  3. That caterpillar is gangster looking. Gangsta, ya know. It wouldn't pass my smell test, and it's damn lucky it wouldn't encounter me in its travels. Probably luckier still my garden seems to attract zero caterpillars.

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    1. What? You haven't fallen prey to the butterfly garden yet? Woman! You're behind the times. Get busy!
      And just for the record, that crinum lily was planted long before I got here.

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  4. Mary - I once had a toilet that didn't flush for SEVEN YEARS. Through pregnancy and a small baby and stomach flu... jugs of water ... for seven years. And when my not very handy husband finally fixed it, it took a small, inexpensive piece of hardware and about five minutes to do.

    Yes. I too wish I was handy.

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    1. Oh, Jo! That's got to be a metaphor for something.
      Bless you.

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  5. You don't want to know what I've shelled out to contractors this week for AC problems--the one thing I can't live without, and the toilet is making funny gurgles when I flush but that will have to wait...Do tell about the new sweet potatoes without butter and brown sugar. They sound good.

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    1. Nope. Can't live without the AC. Well, maybe we could but I wouldn't want to. With the sweet potatoes you cut them in wedges, put them in a bowl with two tablespoons of honey and two tablespoons of olive oil and a little red pepper flakes and get them all coated. Bake them on a baking sheet at 425 until they're tender and starting to caramelize (oh- salt and pepper them when you put them on the baking sheet). Mix up 1/4 cup of plain yogurt, about two limes' worth of the juice, and a tablespoon of olive oil. Drizzle that on the potatoes along with some cut up scallions. That's it!

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    2. Thank you. What did you think of them?

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    3. Oh, I've made these about half a dozen times. I love them.

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  6. spanish moth caterpillar.
    https://entnemdept.ifas.ufl.edu/creatures/orn/flowers/spanish_moth.htm

    20 odd days of work left for the year.....i'm in the doldrums too. everyone hates everyone and no one wants to work.

    xxalainaxx

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    1. You are correct! Someone else e-mailed me the same information and the same link! I have such great readers.
      May your last days of school for the year fly by.

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  7. It looks like the Amaryllis caterpillar. We have them here in South Africa and they decimate the clivias.Aparently the birds don't eat them otherwise you could have put your hens on to them! Manual removal is one solution-bleah!I didn't realise the Crinum lilies were indigenous to South Africa.What's going on in politics today boggles the mind- soon they will be burning witches at the stake again.

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    1. I swear I replied to this and then it got lost.
      It's a Spanish moth caterpillar but yes, it shares the same host plant as the Amaryllis.
      I can't even begin to wrap my mind around what's going on in politics these days. It's just too horrible.

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  8. You can find youtube videos to teach you how to do just about anything. I learned how to remove my toilet and replace the weather stripping around the doors from youtube. Also learned how to quilt.

    The new curtain looks lovely.

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    1. You're a better woman than I, Ms. Lilycedar. Mr. Moon uses youtube all the time for repairs and projects. I suppose I could too.

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  9. my hundred year old house in the city needed to be replumbed and rewired. the cracks in the sheetrock stayed after we foolishly had the house leveled. not to mention the termites. we finally abandoned/sold it and they tore it down. I'm determined not to let that happen to this house. I don't wait for the husband to do anything now, what I can't fix, I call the repairman for. good thing he lives done the street. I want that roasted yams recipe. my pink crinums have started blooming. and yea, summer is here, humidity and mosquitos. ugh.

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  10. I wonder what would happen if I called a repairman for some of the stuff that needs doing here. Mr. Moon would probably have a stroke.
    See above for the yam recipe. It's in my response to e's comment.

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  11. I love that shade you made. Bright and cheerful! I too can’t figure out how to address the slow slide into shabbiness and disrepair in my home. Why can’t I call a repair person? I don’t trust myself to find the right one and I don’t trust them to take me seriously enough to do a good job. I don’t trust myself to know how to explain what I want. Hell, I don’t trust myself to KNOW what I want. So I keep walking past all of it, dreaming of someone coming in and doing it all for me like I’m on HGTV. You are not alone. But you did make that kickass shade so kudos woman. Love.

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  12. The shade turned out great! I love that fabric. I know what you mean about making a minor improvement and what a difference it makes. (By the way, your description of that Anne Tyler novel could be pretty much ANY of Anne Tyler's novels. I like her but she is a bit repetitive.)

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Tell me, sweeties. Tell me what you think.