Friday, March 25, 2011

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?


13 comments:

  1. The cat knew it would be unfair to the mouse in its dazed condition.

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  2. Very funny! Although I'm sure the whole mouse episode wasn't so funny to you at the TIME.

    I am a mouse murderer. Had I been there, I would have TRAPPED that dazed mouse under a glass or bowl or something and then I would have KILLED that thing. Because, I believe in capital punishment for mice that wander into MY living space.

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  3. That's such a funny story! Thanks for sharing it.

    By the way, I love the baskets and have them all over my house. They help me feel organized.

    =)

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  4. OOOhh what a pretty plant for them and for anyone:) Love the cat and mouse story. You remind me of Beatrix Potter. Do you have that movie? I like it and want to own it. Your room looks so nice. Poor Violet:) Can't wait to see the finished room! Bethany wanted a purple room, but she is getting pale yellow.

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  5. So funny! What a situation--it's like a comedy. What were the mouse and cat THINKING!!?

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  6. I really enjoyed your blog today. Had a good laugh with the cat & mouse story. :) Keep em coming.

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  7. Awesome post. First--your cabinets look amazing and my husband would say the same thing as yours. The cat and mouse story is hilarious. It’s like a great 70’s cartoon. I bet if you came into the kitchen in the middle of the night--Moon and Mouse would be in there eating together and laughing and having a big party. They just forgot you weren’t suppose to know about it :) LOL

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  8. Great post. Cat and mouse story absolutely hilarious!! Your cupboards look wonderful.

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  9. I agree with Keetha, should have got him while he was dazed. Although it would have ruined the good story. You are a perfect farm wife. I laughed at Shawn not noticing any difference in the cabinet and your "men". I had no idea about the name of praying mantis eggs was oothecas.

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  10. I love the cat & mouse story. Cats are like that, you just never know what they are going to do!

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  11. My nice neighbor brought me over a lil bag of oothecas couple weeks ago, I took pics. of it for a blog post after they hatch... I go out and look at them every couple of days. I looked em up on the computer too :)

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  12. Your cat and mouse story was so funny!

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  13. OOthecas? New to me. I do have a picture of the most gigantic praying mantis I saw on a visit to the Dr.'s office. People were carefully stepping over it on the walk. I put him into a bush.
    With the cats I have here it amazes me that we have mice in the house (and vehicles.) Apparently my cats will catch the ones in the field and barn but "contained" mice are no challenge and not worth their time.
    Congratulations on the progress of your room and your new swimming family members.

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