greenhouse companionNo such thing as coincidence. Recent experience put the lie to that statement (an experience that has nothing to do with the critter to the left :).

Mechanicals and I tend to live in awe of each other. I look at something mechanical and think, “Awesome!”  The mechanical looks at me and thinks, “Awe, here we go again.”

If there’s a button that shouldn’t be pushed, I’ll somehow manage to push it. Sometimes it seems that all I do is touch a mechanical and something will go wrong — screens go blank, phones magically factory-reset themselves … whatever can go wrong, will go wrong. I’ve come to expect it and — apparently — anticipate my own culpability.

Case in point — a few days ago, I plugged in the coffeepot and started working. I’d barely gotten started on a writing project, when Blam! my monitor went black.

What the heck had I done now? Mind racing through all the nasty possibilities — virus, bad hard drive, etc ad nauseum — I called for my live-in tech. Brandon’s already up and checking out things (which should have been a flag) and hubby Jim mumbles something from downstairs. Meanwhile, I’m freaking out, trying to remember when I did my last backup (no, I’m not a perfect backup artist 🙂 and Brandon’s going, “It’s okay, you didn’t do anything wrong.”

What do you mean it’s okay? Of course, I did something…whatever that thing might be. My computer…

At this point, I should probably point out that our electrical system is not like most other people’s. We live off the grid and use solar as our primary source of power. Which means we have to be careful how much we plug it at the same time. Turns out that Jim had turned on the laser printer at the same time the coffeepot was trying to heat up water and blew the circuit breaker.

So, amazingly enough, I really had nothing to do with the blank monitor.

Coincidences really do happen.

I was tearing out weeds in the greenhouse when I came across this little fella (or little miss – not sure how to tell the difference). We’ve worked for years to get beneficials established and I’d thought it was an impossible task. We’d bring in praying mantis cocoons and bags of ladybugs and next thing I knew, the bugs were headed outside any way they could get there. We’re just seeing signs of aphids and spider mites. Time to pick up more ladybugs — and then I find this lovely praying mantis (who really does not appreciate my watering habits :). Also found ladybugs in the same area — the weeds. Now I just have to figure out how to entice them into the greenery the aphids and spider mites seem to love!

Definitely a surprise to find beneficials in the greenhouse — definitely not a coincidence!