. . . very very hungry . . .

. . . a couple of years ago, 

tyler worked so hard 

planting twelve hibiscus . . .

. . . and eight arizona yellow bells

 around our pool . . .

. . . that was after he worked so hard

 digging out the stumps of hedges past

 and replacing the drip system . . .

. . . yep ~ he's a keeper . . .

. . . then, sadly, 

one by one, every single 

danged hibiscus died . . .

. . . my yard man told me 

that he'd seen dozens of them 

kicking the bucket around town . . .

. . . one by one, i yanked them out . . .

. . . grrrrr . . .

. . . the yellow bells, however, 

grew like weeds . . .

. . . seriously . . .

. . . i have to cut them back

 all.the.time . . .

. . . but i love the pop of yellow . . . 

{look at the flowers ~ not the quilt}

. . . even through this downpour, 

you can see they were 

green and thriving . . .

. . . then over the course 

of the past two weeks . . .

. . . they started turning brown . . .

. . . and i said a few bad words . . .

. . . and felt horticulturally 

picked on . . .

. . . and i wondered 

what in the world 

are those black specks? . . .

. . . and then i noticed 

something was eating 

my basil, too . . .

. . . some sort of italian pests, 

no doubt . . .

. . . but when i saw 

my beloved coral geraniums 

were being devoured . . .

. . . that was the last straw . . .

. . . i was mad as he** and 

i wasn't going to take it 

any more . . .

. . . apparently, the valley of the sun 

is infested right now by these . . .

{if you have children, i know you've read this book about a thousand times}

. . . technically they are

leaf skeletonizers . . . 

. . . i kept searching 

for one to photograph, 

but was not successful . . .

. . . according to the asu website, 

this is what they look like . . .

. . . bless their fat, slimy 

green little hearts . . .

. . . when i walked 

into my local a&p nursery 

with my chewed up clippings 

safely tucked in a ziploc bag, 

the guy just laughed and said, 

"you're about 

the hundredth person today" . . .

. . . misery does, indeed, 

love company . . .

. . . then he sold me these 

and told me to prune the bushes back

 to practically nothing . . .

. . . which i did, 

and then i sprayed the heck 

out of them . . .

. . . and gave a shot 

to the basil 

and geraniums, too . . .

. . . in case you were wondering . . .

. . . the black specks 

covering the ravaged leaves 

happens to be caterpillar poo . . .

. . . i hate to think 

how much of it i touched . . .

. . . or worse, inhaled, 

in the process of pruning . . .

. . . so if/when 

i start coughing up moths 

in a couple of weeks, 

there is a perfectly 

logical explanation . . .