A Miniature Praying Mantis

I have been seeing Praying Mantis insects quite often in our backyard for the past years. Most of the praying mantis that I have seen were mostly fully grown adult ones around three inches long. Recently, while hanging out in the garden patio area, in the corner of my eyes I noticed a very tiny green insect in our fabric outdoor swing. When I went to take a closer look at it, I realized that it was a miniature praying mantis! Praying Mantis always fascinates me because they look like they are always praying, as their popular name emplies. But seeing the little fellow fascinated me even more because I never seen one before that tiny and small, barely an inch long. Thanks to new technology of digital cameras nowadays, I was able to capture this tiny little creature with my point-and-shoot digital camera in macro mode. Dont let the photo above fool you, its the wonders of technology at work which makes this insect look like a giant in photograph because in contrary it was so small, you can barely see it. I called it a miniature praying mantis but I assumed that it is a baby praying mantis? They look just like the fully grown adult praying mantis, the only difference, from what i observed, is the size, they look like a shrunken version of the adult ones.

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Our Huge Shade Tree

We have this huge shade tree in the backyard that i like because it gives us a lot of shades especially during summer time when it gets really hot. We live in an area that we frequently get more than 100 degrees fahrenheit temperature during the summer, so having a shade tree like it is very benefecial especially for our electricity bills because this tree is situated near the house blocking some direct sunlight in one side of house in the afternoon, where the sun hit most during that time of day.

The problem with this tree is that during fall season it has all these leaves that fall in our patio that we need to clean up almost daily through out the season. This tree is full of leaves, and all of them are gonna fall by the end of the season, every year. Not only that, this same tree have sticky saps that stick to the falling leaves and I mean sticky. So when we step/walk into the falling leaves, some leaves stick to our shoes and slippers and can easily get carried inside the house. Our dogs can even carry leaves inside the house with their paws.

Fall is near and the leaves of this tree started to fall and the saps too, so its going to be another busy autumn season for us cleaning up the mess that our tree produce. But its hard to take it down and replace because its a full grown mature tree already and it helps us a lot during the summer and gives us plenty of shade and be able to enjoy our backyard without baking in the sun.

To read more about gardening and tree, check out Gardeners Land blog.

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Water The Lawn

With the peak of the summer season, its becoming hotter and hotter everyday outside. And one of the most noticeable effects of this hot weather is the color of our lawn. Even if we frequently water our lawn, its definitely taking the beating from the sun really quite harshly and its started to turn brownish and if left unwatered it could die. We try to water our lawn after the sunset inorder to give it some really good soaking and and let the water soak into the ground and not just let it evaporate in the middle of the afternoon sun. Sometimes, our built-in sprinkler system is not enough to do the job, we have to drag a hose and a rotating sprinkler system attached to the hose to add more water to the ground. Its no surprise that during summer time, our water bill goes up to almost double because both the lawn and the garden needs more water during this season and its necessary for the lawn and plants to survive the heat.

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Our Lonesome Dove Neighbor

We have this one dove that regularly sits in an electrical wire that feeds our neighborhoods electricity. We see her regularly there, and also moves from tree to tree. So far I never see any company that she was with around. She seem to be living alone nearby, in one of the neighboring tree. Aside from wild squirrels and house cats and dogs that we see all around, this lonesome dove is definitely living in the area as well.

JazeVox of www.HonestlyFresh.com

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Spring Time Is Finally Here

I love the springtime, its been months, and its finally here! Many of us (definitely not the skiers and snowboarders) are hibernating and refraining from doing any yard and outdoor activities all winter long. For some reason, the gloomy cloudy days of autumn and winter seasons seem to naturally keep most of us from enjoying our yard and having the desire to hang out outside. During the cold days, we prefer to stay indoor and enjoy the nice warm air in our fireplace or central air instead. Spring season offers bright promises, it is a perfect time to start enjoying the outdoors again, clear up the deck and set up the outdoor patio set. Spring time is also the best time to expect colorful surprises in your garden. Many flowers blooms in the spring and most plants get out of hibernation mood and grow leaves again. So out with the coats and boots and in with light shirts, shorts, and flip flops once again.

Thank you for visiting www.HonestlyFresh.com today!

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Decorative Touches For The Exterior Of Your Home

Outdoor living is becoming a way of life nowadays. Inorder to fully enjoy ones yard or backyard, it would be best to developed it into a usable and more livable space by putting outdoor furnitures where the family can go out, sit down, relax and enjoy the great weather and observe nature.

One of the most commonly neglected area of a family dwelling is the yard. Usually, we spend a lot of time and money making the interior of our home look nice and pretty. But equally important is the look and curb appeal of the exterior of the house, specially the yard. Taking pride of home ownership shows a lot by how homeowners dress up both the interior and exterior of their house. Even if a homeowner is not a professional landscaper, she/he can definitely accessorize and add some nice touches around.

At Mailbox And Beyond website they carry variety of outdoor products that are great for your yard. Updating mailboxes and making them look new and fresh is not that complicated, simply change them with new stylish ones with more appeal and character. Let your visitors and delivery men find your house easily in the neighborhood with decorative address plaques and house numbers, not only are they useful but decorative as well that helps with the overall look of your the exterior home.

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Gardening And Decorative Planters

If I have to mention one of the things that I truly enjoy doing, it is being outside in our garden! Me and my hubby are avid gardeners, we enjoy growing different variety of flowers, fruit trees, vegetables, and all types of other plants. It is amazing to witness a simple seed turn into a tall plant and can produce beautiful flowers or delicious fruits.

Aside from our ground garden, we also plant several different variety of flowers in garden planters and put them in the deck or staircase to add touch and curb appeal to our outdoor space. One of best thing i like about using decorative planter is that it serves as its own decor when the plants sleep during the winter time.

I usually choose planters that works really well with our existing home exterior like the color of the paint and other existing accessories.

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Days Outside

For the past few days, the weather have been so nice here in northern California. The sun is out and so perfect to go around town and do some yard work as well. Took some time to rake dead leaves in the lawn, below the huge tree we have in the backyard. The weather is great but definitely could use some colors around. Most of the trees around the area lost their leaves already for the winter time, so its quite a relief to know that we dont have to wait for more leaves to fall down and had to rake them everyday, specially that we have several trees nearby.

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Skunk Somewhere Near

It is definitely not pleasant to wake up early in the morning and realized that a skunk is hiding nearby or passing by your place. My hubby and I had to wake up early with this nightmare this morning. We smelled a skunk. We were inside the house, but we could sensed that there was a skunk somewhere outside, near the house or passing. We have all the under the floor vents properly screened, so we are quite confident that the skunk we smelled was not under our home, thank goodness.

No idea what a skunk is? Chances are you never encountered one, or smelled one, you are lucky. If you are in the United States, ask someone you know about a skunk, and he/she can probably share her/his personal story about his/her encounter with this particular animal with an undesirebable odor.

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If you have the chance, please visit my other blogs: www.FiftyStatesTravel.com  www.DogsCircle.com www.gardenersland.com www.socoolsource.com www.ExpressInStyle.com Hope to see you there too.

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Shop Smartly With ShopWiki

Online shopping has gained popularity over these years, but there are still a lot of people that get intimidated, lost and confused about the whole concept of online shopping. But the feeling of uncertainties and intimidation can easily be overcomed by being more informed, more knowledgable, and more aware about everything and anything that is/are available in the internet.

A great place to get a lot of helpful and useful data about variety different products is at ShopWiki.com where they provide guides and information regarding seceral different products that most consumers are looking for and want to research more about. Knowing in advance all the basic facts about the product before purchasing it usually help consumer gain more confidence about which item works best for them, and which ones meets their needs. The guides provided by ShopWiki.com in different product category are definitely great resources.

Aside from all the helpful information provided at ShopWiki.com, you can also find list of different stores carrying the same products, so that it is virtually easy for consumers to compare which stores carries certain items and at what price range.

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Best Deals On Off Season Items

We have a wooden bench in our backyard that we bought at Lowes few months ago. It is a great quality bench with classic decorative iron components in it. We been using it all summer but it was hard to have a soda or juice in our hand while seating in the bench because we had no table nearby to place it.

Today, we went to Sears, and was checking out some of their clearance section. I immediately spotted their small outdoor glass table being marked down. I thought it was perfect height and size that will match perfectly with our wooden bench. Although the finished is not exactly identical, they were closed enough and both have light-color finished material, so still work really good together.

It feels great to be seating in our wooden bench with a nice table to use with it. They work really good together, both in purpose and function.

Written by JazeVox of www.HonestlyFresh.com
Thank you for visiting my blog. Please visit my other blogs at www.DogsCircle.com www.FiftyStatesTravel.com www.ExpressInStyle.com www.GardenersLand.com  www.SoCoolSource.com Hope to see you there too!

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Mantis In Our Front Yard

My hubby called me the other day to grab my camera quickly because he wanted me to take a picture of something in the front yard. I grabbed the camera and hurried back to the front of the house, where my hubby was. He then pointed me the praying Mantis in our siding. So I set the camera to macro mode and started taking some photos of the mantis. Honestly, I never seen a praying Mantis until the other day, so to me it was very interesting to witness such a creature. It was a little bit scary because the mantis didnt make a single move, it just stared back at me and I have no idea how safe or dangerous a mantis is, so I was a little guarded but I still managed to take a close up pictures of the insect despite uncertainties and unkown mantis behaviour. It was definitely an interesting experience of the day!

If I have the chance, I will post some photos of the mantis here!

Written by JazeVox of www.HonestlyFresh.com
Thank you for stopping by at my blog. Please visit my other blogs: www.gardenersland.com and www.DogsCircle.com and www.FiftyStatesTravel.com www.ExpressInStyle.com www.SoCoolSource.com  Hope to see you there too!

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