Of Ootheca, Confused Creatures, and Giveaway Winners.

Sitting here last night,

I was thinking about what to blog about.

I needed to announce the winners of the Herbal DVD giveaway.

I thought maybe I'd inform you of some spring cleaning

I've been working on:

 my baking cupboards.

I cleaned it out and did this idea

that I'd seen on another blog:

My Farmer asked me what the difference was.

Men.

 Or, I thought maybe I'd show you how when I was pruning

my shrubs and bushes,

I found this:

 an ootheca.

Yes, the egg casing of Praying Mantis.

Yes, I did look it up on Wikipedia.

If you knew how often I looked things up on Wikipedia when I'm blogging,

you'd be very unimpressed with me.

If only there was Wikipedia when I was in college.

I sure would have been smart.

 The sight of this brought about much shouting

and dancing around on my part.

The kids all came running 

to see if I had found gold

or a tree that grows lollipops.

Nope.

Just happiness over that Praying Mantis I'd bumped into 

on numerous occasions in the rows of green beans last summer.

Good job, Praying Mantis!

Do you know, somebody actually gave us a bag of oothecas

for part of our wedding present.

We loved it.

A truly useful gift.

Not to say I didn't love my purple towels just as well.

 This is the plant that houses these sleeping babies.

What a lovely place to be born!

Then I thought that perhaps I should share my daughter's school project...

 of plant sticks she hopes to sell at my plant sale.

 

Or,

I could show you...

that Violet was highly disappointed when she found out

 

 that this room was NOT going to stay periwinkle:

that drywall actually gets painted.

 And I thought perhaps I could tell you

 that our last lonely fish has 2 more companions again,

much to Lillie's delight.

 But as I sat here thinking,

I heard that dreaded

>>"SNAP"<<

 I'd seen evidence that a new unwanted fiend 

was visiting the kitchen in the evenings again.

But when I entered the kitchen,

 I could see that he'd avoided demise

although it scared him pretty well.

When suddenly,

there he was.

He sat there a few inches from my basket

just looking at me

quite dazed

as if he was checking on me,

to see why I had wandered into his kitchen.

Then I realized he'd been knocked by the mousetrap

and was not all himself yet.

He was stunned.

I asked him what he was doing,

and he just looked at me,

turning his head,

 and then ran up behind this basket.

By this time,

I noticed that Moon

our black male cat

was rubbing my legs.

Not knowing what else to do,

and,

no,

I don't EVER allow my cats on my counters or table,

but,

in a daze of confusion myself,

I reached down,

grabbed Moon,

and dropped him onto the counter

 facing Mouse.

 Mouse looked at cat.

Cat looked at mouse.

Neither of them did anything.

I stood there dumb-founded and said,

"Moon, what are you doing?

Get the mouse."

Moon sniffed the mouse,

and the mouse looked up at him,

and then did a leisurely loop around the basket

while Moon sat up and just watched him.

Then the oddest thing,

the two of them walked along the counter

together.

Like friends.

"What is WRONG with you two?"

I was alarmed now.

Mice were supposed to run away

and cats were supposed to catch them.

Then,

as suddenly as this all had happened,

the mouse fell over,

and he snapped out of his stupor,

looked up at Moon,

and then whipped off in a flash of fur,

the way I've always seen mice run.

Moon,

suddenly brought to the realization that this was a mouse,

followed in hot pursuit,

colliding into the wall

but long after Mouse

 had disappeared into the black oblivion of safety.

Now I have an empty trap,

a mouse who is free to rummage through the snack drawer again

while I am sleeping,

and a cat with a sore forehead

(and hurt pride).

Without further ado,

 I wrote up the entries from the blog and facebook,

using the time of day that they were entered...

 as the placing of them in the line-up.

Random.org picked:

# 69

Amanda from Serenity Now...

and # 63

Maire from Cottage Homestead

and # 5

Julie from the Hopple Family.

Please email me your addresses, ladies,

at PumpkinPiePainter1(at)gmail(dot)com

and I'll be happy to get those DVD's headed your way!

Thank you to everyone who linked up;

I hope you will get a chance to win next time.

Until then,

does anybody want to counsel my cat?

Linked up to:

Verde farm: Farm-friend-Friday

Living to tell the Story: Fridays-fave-five