No Respect for the Rosemary

I know this rosemary's been at our house longer than we have, but it desperately needed to be cut back (and we needed to be able to build the back wall of the raised bed).

Guess I'll be drying some rosemary this afternoon, huh? Click here to see my quilting progress this week (TexasRed Quilts) and here for the Wordless Wednesday headquarters.

Rattlesnake!

So, I recently ran across my first Texas rattlesnake. Here are the results of that encounter (no thanks to any work on my part).

I have to say -- rattlesnakes are now my least favorite part of West Texas! Click here for my TexasRed Quilts progress on a new quilt and click here for the Wordless Wednesday headquarters.

Teaser Tuesday - The Sweet Potato Queens' 1st Big-Ass Novel

Teaser Tuesdays are hosted by MizB at Should Be Reading.

It asks us to:

(1) Grab our current reads.

(2) Let the book fall open to a random page.

(3) Share two (or three) teaser sentences from that page somewhere between lines 7 and 12 (avoiding spoilers).

We're also supposed to share the book title and author so others can find the book themselves.

Here's my teaser for today from The Sweet Potato Queens' 1st Big-Ass Novel by Jill Conner Browne (with Karin Gillespie). Here's the website for The Sweet Potato Queens. One of my best friends gave me a SPQ care package for Christmas and I'm loving the books and music. This novel is a fictionalized version of the growing-up years of the Boss Queen of The Sweet Potato Queens:

'Polka's fun,' Patsy offered.
'Good suggestion, Swiss Miss,' Mary Bennett said. 'I'm particularly fond of strip poker.'
Patsy frowned. 'I didn't say poker, I said --'
'Food,' Tammy said softly.
'That's the best idea yet,' Mary Bennett said, lighting a cigarette. 'We should open and close all meetings with the appropriate snack foods.'

Everything's Coming Up Roses

We don't have the veg garden finished yet, but check out the flowers starting out here:

New rose bush covered in buds.

Mama rose bush with open rosebud.

Ok, those last ones are runucula, not roses, but they're still pretty!

Prairie Dog -- Not the Only One

See -- we're not the only ones with pet prairie dogs. Meet Wilma: Wilma the Prairie Dog. She's the new pet of @thatwoman.

Teaser Tuesday - Fool by Christopher Moore

Teaser Tuesdays are hosted by MizB at Should Be Reading.

It asks us to:

(1) Grab our current reads.

(2) Let the book fall open to a random page.

(3) Share two (or three) teaser sentences from that page somewhere between lines 7 and 12 (avoiding spoilers).

We're also supposed to share the book title and author so others can find the book themselves.

Here's my teaser for today from Fool by Christopher Moore , a humorous re-working of King Lear by Shakespeare, told from the point of view of a 13th Century British court jester. This quote isn't random -- it's the "Warning" before the first chapter -- but it was too good to pass up:

This is a bawdy tale. Herein you will find gratuitous shagging, murder, spanking, maiming, treason, and heretofore unexplored heights of vulgarity and profanity, as well as non-traditional grammar, split infinitives, and the odd wank. If that sort of thing bothers you, then gentle reader pass by, for we endeavor only to entertain, not to offend. That said, if that's the sort of thing you think you might enjoy, then you have happened upon the perfect story!

Happy One Year, Prairie Dog!

It's been one year, as of this past weekend,
that we've had our little, unusual pet.
What a difference!

Don't mock me for messy eating -- clearly these people never feed me!

It's been so good to have you here, Hoover!