THE REST OF THE STORY(S)

I'm going to take a few minutes to follow-up on some of my recent posts & let everyone know the outcome to news/information I was sharing.

"KAT KONDO"
After initially ignoring the "furniture" I bought for my three cats --along with my worrying that I had bought a bunch of wood & carpet taking up a corner of the living room for naught -- the "Girls" have begun to pay attention to it & spend more time around it. In fact, THE WOBBLER -- AKA, Wobs, my youngest cat -- has made it a real destination for herself.

All three cats have utilized the support poles for scratching & claw sharpening & Nibblets likes to lay at the base & stretch, pulling herself forward. But it is Wobs who is getting full use of the upper "barrels".

The middle barrel -- with the hole cut to the side of it, for access to the top barrel -- is a favorite tube for Wobs to lay in & antagonize her older sister -- Nibblets. [Normally it is Nibblets chasing Wobs. Now the roles are reversing.] Wobs will lay in the safety of the barrel & throw jabs & left hooks at a flustered Nibblets below, who has to finally leave. Then Wobs relaxes & often lays in the barrel for quite some time, looking out the window.

Success !!

HATCHLING TURTLES
Wednesday I loaded up the 11 new turtles in a small bucket & rode my bike down to the creek & let them all go. While still small, they had all progressed to the stage where they were swimming freely, pulling themselves out of the H2O to dry on a small piece of cork in their dishpan, & importantly, were beginning to feed.

They will have several months of warm weather & good food sources, so that they will have time to grow, harden their shells & start their lives in the wild. Not all of them will survive -- it's just a fact of nature; something (large fish, snakes, birds, larger turtles, etc.) will "get" some of them -- to grow to maturity.

I have given them their start. It's now up to the turtles to survive.

MORE PLANTS
I've got a few more pictures to add of the small trees & plants on my property.

This is a small purple/violet Crape Myrtle I have growing in the South yard. I like this color & sometimes it is difficult to find violet Crape's in plant nursery's. They are not as common as the white or pink varieties.

NOTE TO BUYERS OF CRAPE MYRTLES: Buy plants from a reliable source, which will guarantee the color of the plant, or, only buy plants that are in bloom when purchased. Some years ago I bought a half dozen plants at a local "big box" do-it-yourself-store [begins with an "L"], using the label on the plants to determine the color I was -- I thought -- buying.

Mistake.

After a year or two, when the Crape Myrtles started blooming, the colors where NOT what I had expected according to the label. I take my own advise now.

The plant above I grew myself from a cutting I took off a tree in the parking lot of the Kroger store on Summer Avenue in Memphis, Tennessee. I'd drive by, see & admire the trees & their blooms.

PRESTO ... out came the pocket pruners one day on my drive back to Arkansas.

The plant is still small, but this is the second year it has bloomed & it is certainly getting bigger than the original six-inch cutting I started with.

This red Crape Myrtle is called "Dynamite". It really is a bright red & looks good in the yard, where along with this particular tree, I have four others of the same species/color.

This is the front door to my house & shows the large Cycad (Cycas, species) to the left & several Staghorn Ferns attached to the wall. All these plants are tropical -- & since I am not spoiled like some people who live in South Texas, or others, who have Winter homes in the Florida Keys -- these plants do have to come inside for the cold weather of Winter. They are also examples of why I NEED/WANT a greenhouse.

There, as the late Paul Harvey would always say: "Is the rest of the story".