A regal find at Goodwill...

Yesterday afternoon I made my weekly trip to buy groceries and find treasures at the Goodwill store. I was quite awestruck by what I found OUTSIDE the store...a beautiful Imperial Moth! I snapped the above photo with my cellphone and could barely wait to get home to show Don.

It was about two inches wide from wing tip to wing tip and the colors were just amazing. Naturally I had to get online to learn all I could about this beauty.

The Imperial Moth is a member of the Saturniidae family of moths which is also known as royal or regal moths. I can certainly see how they came by that moniker as it was truly a regal creature of the night!

They are really ugly as caterpillars and feed on oak, maple, pine, sycamore, sweet gum and sassafras leaves. We have plenty of those around, so I'm a bit surprised I haven't seen one before now!

I have to admit, I didn't find much inside the store yesterday, but seeing this gorgeous Imperial Moth outside made it worth the trip.

We need more food!

You may have noticed I don't blog on Tuesdays or Wednesdays. That's because those are Don's off days...our Saturday and Sunday. Usually I let him stay home and babysit the zoo, ummm...farm, while I do my errands and buy groceries. Then we spend Wednesday together at home. I don't get much computer time on those days as I let him have it. After all, I have the computer the other five days!

Because of the heat I put off my Tuesday errands for a week or so, which meant a big shopping day this past Tuesday. When I got home all the dogs and some of the cats were very curious to see if I'd gotten them some treats. Putting the groceries away is always a challenge with ten or more four-legged "helpers" getting in the way!

Wednesday Don and I met a friend at Ajax Diner in Oxford for lunch. If you ever find yourself in Oxford, Mississippi I highly recommend stopping in at Ajax Diner for lunch. They have the best Southern home cooking you can find outside of Grandma's kitchen! YUM! I always have the fried catfish and sweet potato casserole.

Afterwards we stopped at the State Trooper's Station in Batesville to get our licenses renewed. Don's had expired on his birthday back in February and mine expired on my birthday this past weekend. It was packed, but we used the new kiosk and were out of there in five minutes.

While in town we noticed that, for once, the temperature in the truck matched the temperature on the bank sign...111 degrees! I'm glad I didn't know the heat index! When we got home it was 107 at the farm with a heat index of 113. Don made sure all the animals had fresh cool water and filled up the kiddie pool I'd bought for the dogs the day before. Then he and I crashed in the house and enjoyed a lazy, drowsy evening.

Now you know why I go missing for two days and what I normally do on my "weekend". Y'all stay cool and keep your fingers crossed that this heat eases off soon!