Devastation

You know things are not going well in NaBloPoMo land when your post titles go from “Faltering” to “Devastation”. But life- and mundane blogs- need a little drama now and then.

I, however, am not particularly fond of drama in my life, unless it’s the kind that comes in a red envelope.

Some drama is good. This red lily that finally bloomed is an example of good drama:

as are the cascading tendrils and cheerful blooms of the volunteer nasturtium plant:

But there is a dark underbelly to the garden’s beautiful facade. All is not as it seems. In fact, the nasturtium plant is actually a crack-house for black aphids.

It was quite disturbing to see just how many of these icky things are all over my once-beautiful plant. I’m about ready to rip it out and burn it.

But that’s not the worst of the drama, friends. It gets uglier. Much, much uglier. As I scanned the back garden, my eyes were met with a horrific sight:

That is supposed to be a hosta. It was a hosta yesterday, before I went to bed. So were these:

And this was a beautiful double impatiens:

Do you see any beautiful red double impatiens blooms in that picture? No, you do not. This is because the deer ate them during their midnight all-you-can-eat buffet in my back yard.

I sulked about the deer all day. They had already whacked my kids’ bean teepee, which still has not recovered, and trampled all the garlic. This was just one more in a long, long list of deer-related transgressions. But the deer were instantly forgotten when I stepped outside later this afternoon and glanced at the basil planter box.

Yep, that would be a Japanese beetle orgy going on in the basil mix.

Fortunately (relatively speaking), beetles tend to feed in big obnoxious gastronomic orgies. So only one plant was victimized here, which is small relief when I’ve already had a whole series of agricultural failures so far this season. I did feel slightly vindicated when DH volunteered to smash them for me.

With pliers.

After that, I had to look for signs of hope in the garden. And lo, there were my acidanthera about to bloom. Bless them.

On top of it all, I saw some flower buds on the overwintered fuschia today.

So maybe all is not lost.

Yet.

Newton’s Got Nothing On Us

Sir Isaac Newton may have been a bright man, but I doubt he had kids. His law of inertia is completely inapplicable when you’re talking about children.

For example, these bodies at rest, while insanely cute, rarely remain at rest, even without an outside force acting upon them.

But they sure are cute.