My mother grows orchids, and I mean a lot of them. She has a green house and special tools. It is like a full-time job. You could definitely say that she (and my brother for that matter) has a green thumb. I, on the other hand, have a brown thumb. I do OK with bonsai, but I have never made anything bloom in the house - until today! This is the beautiful orchid that Randi gave me. It needs repotting, but somehow it still produced this gorgeous flower! :)

My friend and colleague, Randi, just bought a house up North and could not bring her beautiful orchids up there with her. She asked me to adopt two of them, and I gratefully accepted. One is a Phalaenopsis, which has bloomed for her in the past, and I would have to guess that the other is a Cattleya. Randi's parents brought her the presumed-Cattleya as a tiny souvenir from Hawaii. She has been caring for it ever since, and it has grown considerably, but it has yet to bloom. I hope that I can take as wonderful care of these new roommates as she did! Welcome home!

The caterpillars did NOT die after the attack waged on Sunday. (Well, only nine of them.) Therefore, I called TruGreen ChemLawn, and they are coming to spray the tree sometime in the next two weeks. Although I am happy that they can fix the problem, I do not want to lose more of the tree in the meanwhile or have my parents poking at it when they arrive for their yearly visit. Thankfully, I had one last weapon in my possession: Country Fresh Raid for ants and roaches. It was very effective! I used the entire can, and I counted 58 dead caterpillars on the driveway last night AND this morning! :)

When Shawn and I left for the supermarket this afternoon, I was suddendly incapacitated by fear! We were under attack! Caterpillars had already stripped three limbs of the tree at the end of our driveway raw, and they were enjoying a few more young branches when I noticed the black and yellow leaf eaters! I launched an unplanned counterattack with chemicals that I found in the garage - Diazinon and Orthonex. Both smelled really bad (and probably gave me boils, and made me bald, blind, and barren in the spraying process), but I have no idea yet whether we will be successful or not! The critters were hanging on to the branches tightly! YIKES! :(