The Eyes Have It

They say that the first thing most humans notice about another human is their eyes. While I can't say that is true for me, I usually notice hair, I can certainly see the value in such observation.

Yesterday afternoon, while watering the Pentas in their hanging basket, I discovered some eyes staring back at me!

It was so weird seeing those eyes as I held the sprayer over the basket! Now, here's where a macro lens works very nicely as long as you use the manual focus. Most cameras need a fair amount of contrast in the subject to focus properly, and as you can see, aside from the tiny red flower and the eyes, there's not a lot of contrast! I had noticed my once lovely plant was looking a little pekid, and now I know why--a hungry caterpillar!! You've all read The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle haven't you? Here's a refresher for you....

After taking the photo, I thought to myself, "Self, now what?" Why I'll just cut the branch off, that's what I'll do. And so I did, hanging said branch by a clip on the yucca leaves so we could get a closer look at my "very hungry caterpillar."

I've tried to identify what kind of caterpillar this is with little success. Anyone out there know anything about caterpillars? What I did learn is that those markings along the side are called, "simple eyes." This morning I checked only to find no trace of our green visitor.

Moving on.....

The older I've gotten the more skeptical I've become. Whereas once I was naive, (some would still call me so), however these days I question our culture a lot. One of the things I've been questioning is the food truck fad. Around here, you'd think it was a brand new phenomenon what with all the publicity and the "food truck roundups." Now, if you want to stand around eating "gourmet" food, after waiting in line in our Florida heat, far be it from me to question it, but food trucks have been around a long time. I am married to a construction worker after all and "back in the day", as in more than 40 years ago, "Dots on the Dot" was the food truck of choice. Arriving at a site before 7 in the morning, they served coffee and donuts for breakfast, hanging around until after the lunch crowd had their fill. They didn't serve, Korean tacos, whatever that is, but for those guys who hadn't packed their lunch, they were there. While not technically a truck, this food purveyor has been around long before food trucks were cool.

By the way, this is not operated by our very own, Matty. That's a joke! When Matthew was small, we used to call him Matty, and at least one of his friends still calls him that, however, our Matty is a vegan, so this definitely wouldn't work for him!

Of all places, when I went to buy the new bird feeder at Ace Hardware, I found a garden bench for the bargain price of $49.99. Although it was marked $69.99, it rang up at the lower price, and I did not complain!

So, I'm really happy with the style, the black, not so much. I've purchased both blue and green spray paint because I can't decide which would look better. Stay tuned! Here's a little close up of the finish:

In my garden, which you may find hard to believe, it blends in with everything else. Angela, when I was over there, said the same thing before I even mentioned it. So, we shall see--the blue is similar to the bird bath color, the green is a close match to our door color. Decisions, decisions!

Moving on......

I second the information in this article from the Times, Tests, tests, and more tests! Good grief, when I was hospitalized because I had back pain and a seizure, I ended up having more tests than was good for me, and we all know what that lead to. Fortunately, despite having a pancreatic tumor marker, five times normal, I am here today to write about how wrong that test was. Thank God! When they start throwing around the metastatic cancer words, you sit up and take notice. The worst part of the ordeal--despite all the tests, I never received a diagnosis, and was sick for more than a year. The other day I remembered that my weight, after leaving the hospital, was 103 pounds. I'd forgotten how thin I was!

Finally, there is this fun article about treasure hunting at flea markets and the like. My favorite part of the article was this:

"Instead we have lots of landscapes with or without animals, bodies of water or rustic architecture; a few still lifes; and several examples of what seems to be a popular still-life subcategory: unanchored, free-floating flowers."

And here, all this time, I thought I had an original idea with my free-floating flowers in the swimming pool.

Surely I should have know better, after all, we all know there's nothing new under the sun.

Come to think of it, why didn't I put my caterpillar in a jar with food and air holes? Duh...