A sweet summer success, my little, well behaved flower bed.

Gardeners, plant and nature lovers can join in every Sunday. Visit As the Garden Grows for more information.

Okay, I know I'm in Illinois but I'm from Iowa so I still get to sing the song. I never mentioned the popcorn because honestly, I was pretty sure you couldn't grow popcorn from Orville Reddenbocker popcorn you buy at the store I figured it was irradiated or sterilized or some fancy hybrid but in fact, here it is, Orvil Reddenbocker's popcorn, growing in my back yard! What will they think of next? Apples that grow right on trees?

Lovely Lantana, still blooming away!

Gardeners, plant and nature lovers can join in every Sunday. Visit As the Garden Grows for more information.

So, I'm working on this hermit crab nutrition website. Like, all the time. Well, "all the time" is kind of completely wrong when I write it out like that. Let me try it again. So, I'm working on this hermit crab website in 2-3 minute stretches when someone isn't climbing in my lap, I'm not reading someone a book for the 300th time, or changing diapers, grading papers, writing lectures etc. One of the things I've been doing is adding pictures to each entry. Well hermit crabs being exotic creatures and thus eaters of tropical and exotic fruits, on my last trip to the big giant grocery store last week I decided to get some of these exotic fruits and take pictures of them myself.

So once in the store I headed over to the weirdo fruit area. You know the one I'm talking about. Right next to the coconuts and around behind the bananas. Now, I'm not going to sit here and pretend that I'm all worldly and have tried all sorts of exotic (weirdo) foods. I haven't. I work hard to broaden my horizons but before this week my "horizons" didn't venture out into the weirdo fruit area of the supermarket.

I come home with a kiwano, a tamarillo, a starfruit, and 3 pluots. Well first of all the kiwano shouldn't be allowed to mingle with other fruits.

All that grocery bag drama aside it was a lot of fun checking out the strange and unusual. I didn't really like any of them except for the pluot (which isn't really exotic, just a cross between a plum and an apricot) which was delicious and very very ripe. In fact, it was so ripe I had to eat it over the sink.

So the moral of this story is you don't have to be afraid of weirdo fruit, but you don't have to like them either. I'm picky, you can be too. If anyone lectures you about broadening your horizons, kick them in the shins and run away, that's what I always do. It's worked so far!

Good golly miss molly! Where have I been? I've been pouring my heart and every second of my free time into my hermit crab nutrition website.

If you'd like to check it out, go here. I'll be back in a day or two, I promise, the superstructure is finally finished!

Hermit Crab Cuisine

What do all the things in the picture have in common? All safe for hermit crabs to eat!

Gardeners, plant and nature lovers can join in every Sunday. Visit As the Garden Grows for more information.