Sunday Updates - a list, the garden, a new iguana...

Yep, you read that right. We are back to being a 3 iguana household - maybe short term, maybe for the rest of this little dude's life. Someone not far from our house found him in their yard and no one has claimed him...her...it. Not sure yet. LOL This person didn't know anything about lizards, so we're fostering...hopefully someone misses him (her) and will be looking. Then again, people in FL like to turn them loose because they can survive in the wild here. There are actually breeding colonies in South and West Florida. They are not native to FL and the can be somewhat pesty...ask my mom - before Smirnoff and I moved out, her ficus tree on the porch never had leaves on it....Smirnoff likes ficus leaves. The girls also eat most of the flowers off my hibiscus...just sayin'...they're not for everyone. So those of you reading that are local - Midori (that's what i'm calling it)  was found near The Bird Store (Michigan and Bumby) in the Conway / Delaney Park / SODO ish area of Orlando - if you know someone who lost their iggy, send them to me! We will be happy to return Midori (whatever his/her real name is) to their owner.

Next week I'll probably take Midori in to see Dr. Bruce and get a clean bill of health. Heck, maybe he'll recognize Midori.

Midori has a pretty bad (but healing) gash across his nose and is bruised up around the mouth (the black marks)  but other than that, seems to be in fine shape for a stray. He is very friendly and totally socialized. Doesn't mind being handled at all, didn't mind having his nails trimmed and filed (heck Jose Cuervo doesn't even like that), didn't flip out when put in the shower for misting / soaking. Obviously he was a pet - and as tame as he is, one would think a well cared for pet...it doesn't take a long time for an unhandled iguana to revert into NOT wanting to be handled. 

So there you go - Welcome to the Paisley Cottage Midori - enjoy your stay here, no matter how long that turns out to be! You're welcome here any time :-)

Onward to the weekly Garden Update! It's week 11 and the Florida heat is...well causing the expected decline. Such is life in Florida...it's been in the low to mid 90s with heat index between 100 and 103. It's hot. 

The tropical Hibiscus of course is loving the heat and humidity...and the iguanas are loving their daily red flower snack. Smirnoff will actually pick out the red ones to eat first if she's given and assortment. She likes them best...

The Begonias are doing well...

As are the tropical banana trees - especially since they froze back to the ground with the cold winter we had...

Notice it's the tropical stuff that's doing well...

Hello sad petunia...yep like OVERNIGHT it totally crapped out.

Followed by sad cucumber...it's still flowering, so it might last a little longer...

The acorn squash is looking a little flat...

So is the rest of the squash...

Still have some summer and crookneck squash growing - I harvested two fairly large ones today (not these...but bigger)

This is the other sad petunia...

The poinsettia - just a few red petals left now. I still need to get in there and prune the dead stuff from the freeze...and yes, I still need to pull out the dead snake plant behind it.

The ferns are spreading in the tree line - I need to pull a lot of them out before they take over.

The Yellow Alamanda shrubs are still scraggly but they're blooming!

And the palm tree is now in seed mode...stay tuned for the orange nut photos...it won't be long now...oh joy!

Now for the list that i'm totally stealing from CindiAnn - cause I love her :-) Oh and because my 37th birthday is this week. ACK!

This is a list of 37 things I want to do before my 38th birthday....

1. Make myself a priority (i've already started that, but still needs work)
2. Lose 30 pounds (it's a start)
3. Learn to use PSE 8 (since I only learned a little about 4 and I just bought 8)
4. Make my own blog template from scratch (I like the one i'm using from ShabbyBlogs.com, but...)
5. Whiten my teeth
6. Walk regularly (for exercise...obviously I do WALK every day, but more is better)
7. Get my Etsy shop back up and running
8. Add $5,000 to my savings account

9. Vacation in London
10. Have at least 3 girls weekends at the cabin  UPX crew, Kimberley, CindiAnn)
11. Organize my office - like ACTUALLY organize it
12. Use the Kitcheaid Mixer at least once a month to bake something wonderful
13. Paint the living room
14. Learn to make slipcovers for the furniture
15. Refinish the floors at the cabin
16. Get the front end of my car repainted
17. Pay off the credit card
18. Do more things in a GREEN way
19. Go to Sea World 10 times before my annual passes expire
20. Get rockin' seats again for Monster Jam
21. Blog daily (so far so good)
22. Clean and purge - less is more
23. Make low-carb a habit
24. Make appointments for all my way over due doctor visits
25. Learn to say no
26. Crochet something other than a scarf

27. Read the rest of the House of Night books

28. Buy a new laptop

29. Buy a new scanner

30. Figure out what I need to hook my ipod up to my imac (this is on my last nerve because it plugged right in to my old PC, but the ports are different on the imac...go figure)

31. Convert my VHS tapes to DVD

32. File, label and scan all my "pre-digital" photos

33. Shred half of what is in the filing cabinet

34. Re-frame the Rockwells

35. Journal at least 3x a week

36. Try one new recipe each week

37. Use my craft stash rather than buying new items - mostly