Cult of Walgreens

Does anyone else find the new Walgreens "strategy" a little strange?

     Some months ago, the Walgreens stores painted all their drab stores a fresh new drab color, started selling fruit and sandwiches, and instructed their employees, at the close of each sale, to say, 

"Be well."

                  

..............creepy............

     Regardless of the employee, these two words are always spoken a bit furtively, as though "they" might be listening.  

     I always reply, deer in headlight, "Thank you,"  when what I really want to say is,

"So say we all,"  

a la Battlestar Galactica.  

     

     THANK GOODNESS "they" did not instruct the Walgreens liquor store employees to say, "Be well" as I gather up my 1.75 liter bottle of Beefeater.

     As you might expect, I hoofed my hooch on home and started wandering around my backyard.

As usual, CHAOS.

I swear, I have a finished picture in my mind and it's lovely.

Me and my Korean-made chop saw (read girl's best friend) will sort it all out.

     In the meantime, the lubbers are back...

     I try to live-and-let-live but if these grasshoppers reach maturity, they will be nearly unstoppable.  Sadly, because they feed on toxic plants, I can't swipe them into a jar and take them back to my chickens.  

     What I'm trying to protect are things like this awesome new angel trumpet.  A friend gave me the start and it finally bloomed:

Is this for real?

It is.

     Another fabulous angel trumpet plant is off and running, with huge blooms that only scent at  night. 

     I also want to keep the lubbers off my "mini swamps"...

     The centers of these large bromeliads fill with water and create a microcosm.  

I love a microcosm.

There's more than one way to meditate and I'm going to indulge in mine.

Be well.