My Garden

I come from a family of gardeners.  My mom and her 2 sisters love being in their yards with their plants.  My mom dragged my sisters and me to the plant nursery when we were children.  There was nothing I hated more than going to the plant store.  It was always hot and took way too long to buy dumb plants.  But now, as an adult, I love going to the plant store and being in my yard with my plants. 

Dubai has had the best weather since November.  The days are sunny, temperate, breezy, and all around beautiful.  I don't miss Houston winter at all.  The kids play in the backyard, have friends come over, ride their bikes, or go to the park every afternoon.  While they play, I look at my plants.  I watch for new growth, pull weeds, or admire the flowers.  I'm so thankful for my beautiful garden in Dubai and will miss it when it's time to move to Houston.  I'll just have to convince Mr. Warren to send me to the plant store with my mom and aunts to make another beautiful yard!

Behind the plants is the tank for the sprinkler system.

Tank for sprinkler system.

Beautiful bougainvilleas

Looking across from one corner of the yard.

Desert Rose.  I recently found out that these are poisonous.  I have about 20.  Don't touch, kids!

Sprinkler system for flower beds.  This is how all the many many flower beds across Dubai stay green.

Another pretty plant.  These plants are recovering after receiving too much water.

Covered terrace.  There is a light and sometimes we eat out here.

Frangi Panni.  Recovering from winter or too much water.  These will be beautiful, white blooms in a couple days.

Climbing something or other. 



Front of house.  Wouldn't planter boxes be pretty?



Front of house.  The plants on the left have yellow blooms like the red blooms in a previous picture.

Back door.  I want a big plant for the corner.  There is a bougainvillea that is almost tall enough to start growing on the pergola. 

Ants

Do you know the song

The ants go marching one by one hurrah hurrah....?

Well, I don't know all of it either because I didn't teach little kids, but I do know that first verse. Unfortunately, I sing that one verse constantly because of an awful ant invasion that I've had since I moved in.

At first those little boogers came from the dining room and slowly but surely made their way to the kitchen. So Andy sprayed. What happened after that? Those ants just changed to a new starting point to slowly make their way into the kitchen. So Andy sprayed. They kept moving to a new starting point over and over again. So Andy sprayed over and over again. I even called the property manager, and he sent out an exterminator that used a super strong, stinky chemical that I remember from my childhood. That super strong, stinky chemical didn't help those ants.

Every time I saw ants I pulled out my All Natural Antibacterial Kitchen cleaner (which smells really good) and sprayed those ants. The cleaner killed those ants quite quickly. But you know what? For every 20 I killed, here came 20 more. Over and over. For the past week or so I couldn't figure out where those ants were coming. I guess the spraying was working in one way.

Yesterday I became quite irritated about not knowing the starting point, so I conducted an experiment. I pulled out a beautiful white dish and filled it with several tablespoons of syrup. Guess what?!?!?! The ants came in droves to that plate. Then they got stuck in the syrup. Oh I was so happy to see all of those ants stuck. This is the conversation I imagined they had with each other:

"Go back. You'll get stuck. Go back. Go back. We can't move. Go back."

Before you think I'm crazy...during my studies of how to get rid of ants, I did read that ants emit a noise to the other ants when danger is near. The other ants did start running when their compatriots were sprayed with the antibacterial cleaner. I then had to move quickly to get those ants that were running away sprayed.

Anyways back to my story....I followed that ant trail from the pretty white plate with all the dead ants stuck in the syrup. Do you know where it led? Behind the dishwasher. I pulled out the dishwasher and saw hundreds of ants marching to the syrup. Andy arrived about 15 minutes after this discovery and sprayed that ant trail. The best news of all is that I haven't seen a single ant all day. Whoo Hoo!

Now I have to wait and see how long this being free from ants lasts. I'm really hoping that we are finished with the ants, but if not, then Andy will keep spraying, I'll keep spraying the antibacterial cleaner, I'll keep smooshing them, and I'll continue the constant lookout of crumbs on the floor and counter tops.

Facts I've Learned about My Ants:

1. They love meat. If ever a morsel was dropped, they swarmed it. I have 3 young kids. Morsels were dropped all the time.
2. They didn't like overly processed foods like Trix cereal.
3. They loved my gluten free muffins.
4. They loved the Princess and Winnie the Pooh cupcakes.
5. I could follow a trail fairly easily. Except when they disappeared behind the dishwasher.
6. They really can carry a lot of weight.
7. They carried each other. Twice I saw one ant carrying another ant. I don't know if the ant being carried was dead or had some other problem.

Today's Accomplishments

Buying items for my house is taking priorty over everything else including clothes for the kids and me. After all, the kids and I don't get out that much during the week. CFBC softball t-shirts, boxers, and a swimsuit are my daily uniform.

Anyways...back to my house. I need curtains, curtain rods, pictures, lamps, etc. so I've been shopping for these things at the mall and Dubizzle. More about Dubizzle in a later post. And what do you know, there is a huge sale called Dubai Summer Surprises going on right now. It has to be a good price if it is on sale, right?!?!? The most important purchase needed at the moment are curtains rods since the curtains will be ready in a couple of days. I found all of the rods, double brackets, and extension poles a few weeks back but needed to get approval from the money man. I've been patiently waiting all this time because the money man does not make fast decisions.

While at the mall one night after work (Andy hates going anywhere after work), I discovered that the sale ends on Sunday. What to do?!?!?!? Andy still wants to price check curtain rods. We don't have time for that. I, of course, try to control my anxiety about whether or not I get to save 25% on everything while Andy just glared at me angrily. In his defense, the kids do act a little crazy when we take family trips to the mall. That does stress him out.

Did I get what I needed that night? NO. But there is a light at the end of the tunnel because on the way home, Andy asked for an estimate for everything that we need. What did I do? I made a quick chart and added up all of the rods, double brackets, and extension poles and gave my chart and estimate to the CFO. The answer, "You may go buy what we need." Yea!!!!

Olivia and I left early this morning to buy all of the hardware for the curtains and a trash can, candles, basket, planter, metal gazebo for the backyard, and an ugly pink flower lilly pad that Olivia wanted. Tonight my wonderful husband, who has a lot of work to do, hung curtains in the breakfast room for me. His response, "Curtains make a room feel dressed." That's right, baby.

P.S. picture of the house will come when I feel it is pretty enough to show.