One More Dose Here for the Spider Mites

You can see that they spider mites survived. Those little white specs are the blasted things.

So I took the blasted plant back into the kitchen and blasted the blasted things off with some blasted water again. This time they better not come back!

Trying to Get Rid of Spider Mites

My impatiens plant has a terrible problem with spider mites. I've been fighting them for a long time. I've sprayed them several times. I haven't been feeling well, so it kind of got neglected and almost all the leaves died. You can see in this picture here that the poor thing looks...very sad:

Here's a close up of the little buggers web:

The little white specks are the nasty critters. I decided it was time to get really serious with the things. You'd think I could have come up with a nicer way to do it. The plant was really struggling anyway, but they're about as hardy a plant as ever I've grown. I tipped it over the sink and sprayed it all down:

I got it from every side corner and angle I could think of. You can see that it washed almost all the leaves off. They were dead anyway.

Here's a close up between the branches showing where all the mites were washed away:

It has been a couple weeks since I did all that. I'll take pictures of it now and share them with you another day. About my health, I'm waiting for a referral to visit with a Rheumatologist. Because my blood work didn't show anything really obvious, my regular doctor doesn't want to put me on anything without a for certain diagnosis.

Happy Birthday to Me!

My favorite part about my birthday is the good excuse it gives me to do something for my mother. Since I was 16, every year I've made it a point to do something for her on my birthday. She's the one who did all the work getting me here! I also like to do things for my other family members. This year I'm giving a gift to each of them. The gifts range from MP3 players to books to stuffed animals. Mother's will be a new pair of Skecher's Shape Ups! For my father's gift, I had a hard time choosing between this Water Wheel Table Fountain and this Spinning Ball Table Fountain. I personally liked the Water Wheel one better, but I settled with the Spinning Ball one since it looks more like something you could, you know, drive your Jeep on. :D He loves natural fountains. That one looked much more natural to me.

I've wondered before, why exactly my birthday would happen to fall right in the dead of the winter. Maybe it's so I can have a little spark of sunshine during the cold months. My parents, especially my father, were thrilled to have me as a "tax deduction baby" and the last baby of the year in my area. :) Anyway, so I'm having a happy birthday being so thankful for my parents and wish you all a Happy New Year!

Snow!

Remember those pansies I told you about last week? Well, look at them now:

This is our first snowfall of the year, if I remember correctly. Since my friend thinks snow is just the greatest, I won't comment on how I feel about it. ;)

It's Been Raining...

And raining, and RAINING!

I was glad for these pansies that came to brighten my day. It has been raining for a LONG time now. I don't even know how long it's been. All I know is that it hurts, but we need it! Here in the desert, we don't get rain like this hardly ever. I'm surprised it's not snowing. I took this picture from my window. I don't care to be out in the cold. :P Anyway, how's life for everyone? :)

Missing My Morning Glories

I don't know how anyone else is feeling, but I'm missing my morning glories. They were SO lovely. The old dead vines just got torn down. Here are some pictures from a few months past. I think you'll agree that these were BEAUTIFUL!


I love how they get a little star on them and the center almost glows.

They are bigger than you'd think.


So while I'm feeling rough with the cold getting to every joint in my body, I can rest with this assurance...it's springtime somewhere! :D

My African Violets

I sure love flowering houseplants. African Violets are so much fun for me on my plant shelf. They just love it there. Here are some pictures of them.

This one is really flowering well right now. I don't know if I've ever seen this many flowers on an African Violet at once:


This one flowers such glittery white flowers that you fall in love with it in an instant:


And this lady is just getting ready to throw out a bunch more flowers I'm sure!


Here they are all together on my plant shelf with there little flip flap friend:

I wish I wanted to tell you all about these lovely ladies, but my wrists hurt so I'm too lazy to make myself type. I hope you enjoy the photos anyway. :)