A question???

I have a Lantana planted in my rock garden. It always does really good in this spot. Like REALLY good. Every spring I cut it back a lot & every summer it fills out quickly. This summer something happened.  I don't know what. I haven't done anything any differently than any other year. Normally, it gets out of control. This year I don't know how to describe it.

 Colossal maybe??

A view from the other side. These pictures really don't do it justice. I swear it's probably 5 ft. in circumference!  It's completely taken over everything else in the rock garden. I'm not concerned about that because everything else that's there grows like crazy & you can't get rid of it either. I just remember that when we bought the house this spot didn't have any grass because of the lab the people had. This was his spot. I wonder if he had some super duper "business" that fertilized the area really good??

That brings me to my question. Well, sort of. Would you rather have a raccoon on your patio or a snake? This is a serious question that I asked Dean yesterday. He didn't give me an answer. I can't figure it out but I'm leaning towards snake. The majority of the snakes I've seen always seem to be trying to get away from the humans whereas the raccoon sat there & looked at me. As my friend Allison would say he looked like he was asking "what's up? what'cha looking at?". The reason this came up is because Dean was outside cooking a brisket (that turned out totally amazeballs!!) on his Primo grill. He looked up just in time to see a snake slither into the rock garden. Yep, into the Lantana, which incidentally, is a FABULOUS hiding place. He wouldn't come out. We now have a shovel as a patio accessory just in case he comes out of hiding. Sidenote: If you're an animal lover or believe snakes are our slithery cousins (that's a direct quote from someone I know), DON'T TELL ME NOT TO KILL IT!!! When the raccoon made his appearance he too visited the Lantana.

I'd given some thought to cutting it back but I like all the blooms & truth be known I'm kinda curious to see how big it will get this summer. Now that I don't know what's inside I'll just wait. I just hope there aren't any eggs or baby something or others in there. I do seem to remember Dean saying something awhile back about the Lantana getting out of control & "it makes for a good hiding place". He's always right. Sigh.

Toodles!

Is Harry Houdini Really A Raccoon???

I'm sick of work. Especially this week. I'm one of the few people here. It's quiet & boring. Not to mention that my email buddy, Wendy, is at home recovering from her C-section. Bummer. I knew I was going to be without her for awhile but when her hubby texted me that she'd had a section my first thought was "well crap, that's 2 MORE weeks of no email"! He'd already told me that mom & baby were doing good. I'm not that awful!

My friend Allison has a freakishly odd aversion to raccoons. They're not my favorite animal by any means but while I think they're kinda cute with their little masked faces (of course I haven't found them rummaging in my trash), Allison is petrified of them & thinks they're awful! As luck would have it, she's had several incidents with them. I'm still confused as to how many have been caught in the trap they had. The confusion is due to a Houdini raccoon. Yes, that's right, he/she (because let's face it, nobody is getting close enough to figure it out) has been caught & escaped multiple times!!! I bring all this up because of a conversation Allison & I had today. She's doing Weight Watchers & while looking up points on something she came across this tidbit of info:

Raccoon, cooked, 1oz........2pts

Yep, you read that right. Of course Allison completely flipped out. What's really strange about all this is I was reading a blog I follow http://randcgraves.blogspot.com/ & I sent it to Allison so she could see that she isn't the only one with raccoon problems. It was after reading this that she found the Weight Watchers info. I know there are people out there that eat raccoons (I think it's a southern thing) but I never thought it would be included in the Weight Watchers program!  I'll leave you with this quote from Allison, "Now, if we find out that eating it will actually burn fat and calories and make you lose weight, we'll talk".

Toodles!!