ladybugs are so cute!
On Saturday we were able to get to the farmers market and ended up "picking our strawberries" there since the cool weather we had for the last 2 weeks delayed the ripening... so we're planning on going in a couple of weeks, when the farms expect their peak picking.
After the market we went to the garden center where they finally had some purple coneflowers available (echinacea). And I also decided to get some ladybugs for the garden (ladybugs are beneficial insects as they eat aphids which are soft-bodied bugs that like to eat away at pepper leaves and eventually kill the plant).
And tonight we released them into the garden as a family and it was so much fun! 
And the earthworm book that I'm reading is very enjoyable and educational. Amy Stewart is a fantastic writer. I just finished reading Flower Confidential and that was an interesting read too (it was all about the cut flower industry and where most of the roses are grown in the world, how the Dutch flower auctions operate, and the about the man who bred the Stargazer Lily, and other ways new flowers are introduced to the marketplace). I never thought I would be excited to read a book about earthworms but there you have it - I am! And I've been researching getting one of these. It's called Can-o-worms Worm Composter and is a worm bin where you keep red wigglers in there and feed it your kitchen scraps, they eat through the scraps, and leave behind castings, then you collect the worm castings (read: worm poop) and use it as organic enrichment for the soil. Yes, I AM thinking about getting a worm bin in my very own yard next to my regular compost bin. Have I lost my mind?! Yes, perhaps I have. But I have to figure out what I will do with them in the winter since they like to be between 50 and 85 degrees and let's just say that I only like that temperature spread too, but in the winter it gets much much colder than that which is why I walk around all winter in a jacket that makes me look like a cross between the Michelin Man and the Pillsbury Dough Boy.
