Thursday, February 09, 2012

Baby scorpion in my bathtub

OK, there clearly is a scorpion "situation" at my place.
As you know I already found one in my bathtub, I posted its photo. Then the other night I found one under the book shelves when I pulled out my exercise mat and this morning there is the smallest baby scorpion in my bath tub. I should say that the bookshelves are obviously not anywhere near the bathtub so it isn't just a bathroom thing.
Anyway, this morning I caught the little guy, put him in a very large jar left over from the previous tenants and I am going to try to see if I can have a pet scorpion.
I have no idea what they eat, or what their even most basic of habits are. I am going to have to look it up.
If I can't make it work, I'll release him in the garden.
Cute, isn't he?
He is so small at first I thought it was a "silver fish" (that's what I call some other small bugs, but I don't know if it is their real name). Silver fish are hard to rescue out of the bathtub because they are very fragile and this is really the only reason I looked carefully and noticed that it wasn't a silver fish.

ADDED LATER: I had to release him, he just was not eating. I am not sure if he didn't like live ants (the only things I could really catch) or what it was. Either way he is free back in the garden now. There is hope he will pass on the notion that going into my place is not great and that my reputation as a good cook is just grossly exaggerated!

Wednesday, February 08, 2012

...... And Pumpkins too

Pumpkins also love Johannesburg's climate and grow like crazy here. They are escaping from gardens.





This one grows along a set of stairs which follow an old riding trail. The stairs now create a nice walkway up and down the hill where I live and a nice path between my place and the area where I go shopping for grocery.

Wednesday, February 01, 2012

Tomatoes love Johannesburg climate

One thing I noticed here in Johannesburg: tomatoes grow like weeds. As somebody from a cold place you notice things like this.
I've often seen small tomato plants among peoples flowers. Probably seeds escaped from the tomato in sandwiches from the gardener.
This one I gather escaped from lunch from a stone wall builder. You can't see the wall but right next to it there is a little stone wall which was just recently rebuilt. So here is this small tomato plant growing among garbage (gardeners among you will recognize the leaf - and no I don't mean the 2 heart shape leaves). I think I'll try to rescue it since I have a tiny area with dirt where I can grow stuff. Still summer is near its end and I don't think it'll have time to bear fruits. Also I am worried that I may damage its roots because the dirt where it is growing is very packed and dense.