Wednesday, December 4, 2019

A day in the life of Dodgy Daph



I was cleaning out my handbag as one does when transferring to another one and some cards fell out, stuck on the back of one of the cards was a post it with "liquid seaweed" , " liquid worm castings" written on it. I stuck out my tongue and made a face, uugghhhh WTH?  Ohh yes, On my quest to be less of a plant killer and more of a gardener I had attended a workshop on organic gardening... what?.. can't a girl have different hobbies?.. get off the floor it's not that far stretched, this is Australia , everything grows here.. fast, My kids, my hair,  friendships, the weeds....   Anyway where was I? oh yes, so back to the garden, we're about to go into summer, being in the Suthern Hemisphere and all that, the weather is hot, dry, we're experiencing tons of bush fires, and if you don't water yer plants everyday they go "byeee byeeeeeeeee.... I'm melting... poof!"  

I really tried.. I did

So amongst my many other bucket list items I've actually started to get a handle on the gardening malarkey, and to my kids astonishment I even watch gardening shows... if this is not a slide into old age I dont' know what is!  Oh oh I can feel the botanists and avid gardeners giving me the evils... it was just a self depreciating joke.. c'mon, don't get yer tomatoes in a twist. 


I do love Monty, he's such a chilled out character




Anyway moving along swiftly, I was in the backyard the other day about to water the plants and "insert special effect wing noises" a LOCUST flew off my plant and into my lemon balm .... I found if you spray water on it it flies off , the locust not the lemon balm...(I'm trying to not kill things ok.. cockroaches though dont have a chance)  I knew it was a locust because it was the LARGEST brown grasshopper type thingy I had ever seen .. and I asked Google ... she told me.. I'm good. 

Yes it's an Australian Plague Locust
It was really strange as it was one of the hottest days before the weather changed drastically and the next thing you know we've got hail the size of golf balls pinging down on us mere mortals.  Electricity went out, internet went out, drinks went out.. uh well we had to finish all the stuff in the fridge in case it went off... that's the truth and I'm sticking to it. You try sitting in the heat without any form of a cooling system, the only company is the neighbour's cat who's taken a sudden liking to your house and spends more time lounging in my sons room then in it's own dwelling, sweat trickling down yer nether regions with nothing to do but wait for everyone else to stop banging on each others door to see if the electricity is also out in their homes.  ohhhh I live a high paced and racy life I tell ya. 



Which brings me back to my point of the locusts, they really are the harbinger of bad news arent they, I even went online to see what part did they play in the eco system and guess what : 
"Native to Australia, the Australian plague locust is a grey, brown or occasionally 
green insect that can attack and destroy crops and pastures. Of all locusts in Queensland, it has the greatest economic impact because of the extent and frequency of outbreaks."... I must say though I did not kill the locust, I did find a few stray brown insecty almost could say locust like legs scattered here and there on my verandah.... the neighbour's cat hangs out there a lot... I wonder....


I look so cute and I also left a rat on your doorstep as a gift... purrrr