Time to grow

 I'll start with another sign.  I've talked about the signs I see, often numbers and especially in license plates.  Mark, I believe, sends me 4 numbers most frequently: 73 and 77 (the years each of us graduated) and 54 and 58 (the years each of us were born).  I see these so frequently it's uncanny!  With Wes, it's triple numbers.  I think these signs are simply saying "hi, all is well".  I seem to see the triple numbers when I have times of worry, crisis or if I'm just feeling down about something.  When Mark was so bad and until about 6 months ago, I saw several every day.  It's been rather "quiet" from Wes recently and I suspect it's because life has settled into a mostly peaceful routine.  I haven't needed as much encouragement since Mom got through her painful transition.  She's probably keeping him busy on the other side!  LOL!

Anyway, yesterday I was out and about and I came up behind a car whose license plate number was 077DF - huh, my year of graduation AND my pre-marriage initials!  Then I stopped by Arby's - I had a coupon for a reuben for $3.99, so I ordered that and a small curly fry.  The total was $7.77!  Numbers fascinate me, and I think this is why they choose to use them to communicate with me!

Yesterday, I took the curtains off the French doors that go to the sunroom and put decorative film on the windows.  Here's how it turned out:

A closeup of one pane for detail:

I'm really happy with how it turned out.  It was a tedious project, but worth the effort.  I really like the effect!

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I started this about a week ago then had to get on and complete the cactus club newsletter. This month, we're having a joint meeting with the Des Moines club (I'm also a member there) so on the 14th, around 10 of us will be driving over to tour the Greater Des Moines Botanical Gardens.  We'd originally planned to rent a packer van (a 15-passenger van), but for some reason, they aren't giving me my usual discount and it was going to be nearly $500!  So I'll be driving my vehicle and Kathy will be driving hers and we'll get 9 of them in our 2 vehicles and one of the newer members is driving with her sister who wants to come along.  I'm looking forward to it!

Last fall, I took cuttings of some of my larger Hoyas that really needed a "reboot".  Ones that had gotten very large and had a lot of older growth that looked a bit... well, old and dull.  I suppose plants are like people - they age out and eventually die.  So I have pots of cuttings that have been growing in perlite since last fall, and this last week I potted up a new H. pubicalyx 'Bright One'.  This cultivar of pub is probably my favorite for flowers.  The leaves are rather unremarkable, but the flowers are truly spectacular.  In fact, it's the one I use on my business card.  Here's a photo of one from a few years ago:

I love how the corona is outlined in white.  'Red Buttons' has the same white outline and is so similar in both leaf and flower, I've often wondered if there is really any difference.  Anyway, I got it potted up into a nice ceramic pot that my neighbor, Marcy, gave me.  It's now in the front window where it will hopefully grow and flower this summer.

Hoya shepherdell has been losing leaves - one here, one there.  They yellow and drop.  On top of that, it has leaves that crisp at the edges.  I figured it's a sign of doom, so I went ahed and chopped it up and made one nice potfull for myself to replace the mother plant, and several small ones to sell.

It's roughly 2 pm and I was just outside observing the eclipse.  We're in the range of 86% of a full eclipse and the "height" of it was about 10 minutes ago.  I was checking it out with my eclipse glasses and it's pretty cool.  Right now, it's a weird hazy gray, looks as if I've got my sunglasses on inside.  But my transitions are clear.  And I saw my plant rack in the sun was casting a weird double shadow, which I think is always the strangest thing about an eclipse.  I don't think the critters get quite as weird during a partial eclipse as they do during a full eclipse, though I really don't hear much bird activity right now.  I tried to take a photo using my eclipse glasses over the photo lens and it did work, but it wasn't clear enough to be a "keeper".  Oh dear, Pearl just up-chucked, which reminds me of a stupid rumor I saw on FB - don't eat anything during the eclipse or it could kill you.  The premise was that the sun would "poison" your food.  LOL... right.  Oh, it will poison JUST the food you're eating DURING the eclipse, but none of the food you will eat later.  Where does this shit come from??

Anyway, as I water and groom plants, I'm seeing all kinds of new growth.  This is the time of year that really gets me excited about the things I grow.  Gets me in a mode to whack things back, to get less-than-perfect leaves removed from otherwise perfect specimens.  Gets me excited to give them a spray-down often - if not every day, then every other day.  If you consult the Eleanor's VF0-11 flyer, it says that foliar feeding is the most effective feeding.  Of course, in winter I hate to do a lot of spraying because I fear getting mold going.

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And here it is, another 11 days gone by!  I'm going to publish this one today, come hell or high water!  It's Sat. the 20th.  I plan to just stay in and work on plants.  Today, I've been watering the plants in the spare bedroom.  Dischidia ovata is one I typically water every other time to the others as it is in the original mix from the nursery and doesn't dry out very fast.  So it gets watered about every 20 days and seems to be pretty happy with that.  It seems to be doing fine, though I really don't see a lot of signs of growth yet.  I have a start of H. australis IML 006 that seems to be very happy.  I started it because the mother plant wasn't doing much for some time.  Taking cuttings was smart as it kicked her into growing mode and she's looking much better now!  But this small one looks so nice that I intend to keep it, at least for now.

Also in that window are three that aren't doing much yet - nummularioides, obscura and vanuatuensis.  They maintain a nice, healthy appearance, but not really any signs of new growth.  I need to trim back the obscura and will do that, probably by offering super cheap add-on cuttings when I sell others.  

I put my older variegated macrophylla in this window a few months ago and I think it's very happy!  It has two brand new leaves that I think may be all white (right now they are pink).  That's not necessarily a good thing as it does zap energy from the plant, but I'm going to enjoy it as long as they look good.  Next to it is cardiophylla, which has been growing in that window for a long time, and boy-oh-boy is it HAPPY!  It has 4 new vines and new peduncles! I see from my photos that it did bloom for me, but it looks like that goes back to 2014, so that's 10 years ago!  It's about time!

Also in that window is my oldest glabra with one new vine on it.  It's always exciting to watch those leaves grow as many of them are just massive!  And last is a rooted cutting off my allegedly "splashy" clone of fungii.  I got it from Colorado Kathy several years ago and it had 3 very nicely splashed leaves.  She warned me that it may or may not have "splash" as it grew out and the new leaves I got were not at all speckled. But it grows like a weed and looks fabulous in my sunroom! Well, last year I took the oldest splashy leaves off and rooted them separately to see if I could get a splashy plant out of it.  It has yet to grow, but I do think I'm seeing one, maybe two "growth nubbins" down at the base, so it may be getting ready to grow!

One last one worth mentioning is callistrophylla.  This has been a long-time favorite, but it just...doesn't...grow.  Well, last year it did grow a little.  I'm hoping maybe THIS is the year it will take off.  This is what it looked like in its heyday...

I got it from Gardino's back in 2008 and it did well for quite awhile, but then started to decline.  It was coming back in 2022 but was out in that hail storm and was hanging in the tree when it fell, both that same year.  I think the shock of being beat up might have inspired it to grow as it grew a little better last year.  I'm just hoping it will keep it up this year, but no signs of growth yet...

We (the cactus club) are going to participate in the Men's Garden Club plant sale again this year in a couple weeks.  So I'm hoping to sell a few things then.  I've got some leftover succulents from last year, and maybe I can sell a few Hoyas as well.  I also need to get off my duff and start selling all the ones ready to go from last year.  I'll have a few going to a lady in Idaho here in the next couple weeks (waiting for some new growth), but I have at least a flat or two that are already growing and ready to go.  Then we have the farmer's market again this year starting in June...

Something was blooming in the dining room overnight - I guess I have to assume it is Rebecca.  Hard to believe those tiny blooms can create that strong scent that was a bit overwhelming.  My sinuses have been a real mess lately and I'm wondering if the Hoyas add to that???

I have a couple small flats of little bulbs for the Men's Garden Club sale.  I got them all cleaned up and marked - I'm going to ask $2 apiece for them, which isn't much, but I just want to be rid of them.  There are a few other little things in there, like some little Sansevieria starts and one Kalanchoe.  And if I have time, I'm going to split up another pot of bulbs to add to these that I need to get rid of.  Or maybe I'll just sell them bare-root for $1 apiece.  I would also like to split up my Haworthia truncata 'Lime Green' - take all the pups off the biggest plants to give it some room to plump up as it's very crowded right now.  That's one that sells well because it's so odd-looking!

 

 

What's going on...

I'm opening a new post and will leave it open a few days while I putter around with my plants, recording the goings-on as I go.  So far today, we have Hoya pubicalyx 'Philippine Black' is still blooming after 10 days or so.  I walked into the GH one evening and the scent knocked me over.  I had seen it budding up but did not realize it had opened until then.  And it's still hanging in there, though I'm not detecting the scent like I was before.  This one reminds me of a mix of 'Royal Hawaiian Purple' (the flower) and 'Pink Silver' (the leaves).  It's just lovely...

Then this morning, when I found a first-timer, one I got last summer as H. patcharawalai (icensis).  It's leaves remind me of the pottsii group, but less oppressively succulent.  It's said to get black margins, though I have yet to notice that one mine.  Here's the flower:

I have to admit I do like the colors and how far back the coronas reflex.  It's cute!

I started chopping up my old 'RHP'.  I got a new one a couple years ago, a much nicer clone, and it's doing very well.  The old one is rather gnarly and needs a re-start.  I look forward to seeing how it grows out this spring once it gets rooted.  

I have a few losses... one is the crested Crown of Thorns.  Crests are so touchy.  I'm sure I under-watered it and that's all it took for it to collapse.  I might have lost the Hoya 7727.  It's becoming very dehydrated, so I put it in a zip lock bag to see if I can get it to re-hydrate.  It does work sometimes, so I'm hopeful.  It's funny because Colorado Kathy sent me a start of that fall of 2022 and it grew nicely for me last year.  Not by leaps and bounds, mind you, but it did well.  She contacted mid-summer and said she had lost hers, could I send her a little start back, and I got it started and sent it to her last fall.  Will I have to ask her for a start of her start from my start that was from her plant?  LOL!

Another one I think I've pretty much lost is Hoya australis ssp. tenuipes.  I've grown that one for years and it got very crazy and out of control at one point and I whacked it up.  Last year, I think I got rid of all that I had for sale and was down to one smaller plant.  Well, I put it in a spot where I forgot to water it for some time and I think it's toast.  But it's a pretty common one and I'm sure I can get a start from either Karin or Kathy if I want.  I just have to decide if I want it back.  I'm trying to be more selective about what I grow, and perhaps get rid of most of my duplicates...

All the plants on the shelf in the south window sure look terrific after a winter in the sun.  And I think every one of them has new growth - well, all but H. deykeae, which grows so painfully slow...It must be that it is simply not happy in the midwest because it seems to grow like a weed for Marco in Florida.  I've had my original one for over a dozen years and if I get one set of new leaves each year, I'm happy.  I've had years when it didn't grow an iota.  Mind you, it looks good, looks healthy... it just doesn't like to actually grow.  Marco has sent me up cuttings and they root fine and then just sit there.  I've got one in the sunroom and one in the front window this year.  Maybe I'll hit them with a double-shot of VF-11 now that we're coming into spring.

>>>>>>>>

Veering away from plants for a quick rant... On the news, they've been talking about the fact that DT is talking about pardoning all those who went to prison for the Jan. 6th insurrection once he gets in office.  Didn't he deny that he incited that day?  Didn't he deny thinking it was ok?  And now he's calling those violent criminals "patriots"?  And his followers continue to follow him.  And he talks about how "there will be a bloodbath" if he doesn't get into office.  And his followers continue to follow him.  Revenge and retribution seems to be all he talks about.  And his followers continue to follow him.  I'm simply stunned at what has become of our country.  I only pray that after November, our biggest problem is worrying about the "old guy" making it another 4 years. 

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Before I go back to plants, I started taking collagen about a year ago and noticed a few months ago that my hair has started growing fast and the texture has felt more like the old days.  My intent in taking it was to counteract my hair that's been thinning on top.  I know it's very common for women to have this problem as hormone levels decline with age, but it sucks.  I was starting to consider wearing a "wiglet" and even bought a couple, but getting them to blend with my hair takes a lot of work, and then if you get out in one of our typical midwest winds, won't it be obvious you have on a wiglet??  Anyway, it's definitely making my hair grow and MAY even be helping it fill in a little on top, though it's certainly not growing at the rate the rest of it is growing.  But a few months ago, I decided since I'm taking collagen that I would quit taking the Knox gelatin I've been taking for many years.  The stuff in that is essentially collagen, so I figured why double up.  Well, apparently there's some benefit in Knox that doesn't come in collagen because oh how my joints have been hurting!  It finally occurred to me that it might be because I haven't been taking the Knox.  So I looked it up and this is what it says about gelatin:

Gelatin is a protein that may promote skin, joint, hair, nail, and gut health. It also provides essential amino acids, the building blocks of proteins, which can provide potent health benefits. The protein and amino acids in gelatin can help the body build more collagen, a vital element in healthy skin.

So I'm back to taking it... just the last couple days, but I somehow think I can feel it already.  I really kind of missed it.  I put it in a hot cup of beef broth - I use the Tone beef base I get from Sams and then use maybe 2 tablespoons of Knox.  It's funny because I've done this for probably at least  a dozen years and a few years ago, taking "bone broth" was suddenly all the rage.  And so you can buy "bone broth" and it's pretty freakin' expensive.  It's exactly the same thing - it's all about marketing!

This last Sunday was the DM cactus club meeting, and it was their annual trip to a nursery there in Norwalk called Bedwell's Gardens.  We do a dish garden.  You can bring your own pot or buy one there, and then the club gives us a $10 credit toward plants to put in our dish gardens.  Bedwell's supplies the soil, substrate (for pots w/o drainage holes...pebbles, charcoal...) and top dressing.  So it's about creativity more or less.  I decided to buy a pot there this year because I think it's good to give them support because they're so kind to host this every year.  Here's the finished product:

 

I got two Haworthias that were loaded with offsets and picked all the little offsets off the mother plants and used them in the dish garden.  The babies I put in with other plants - most in my huge old Jade sport 'Skinny Fingers'.  (The Haworthia on the left is one I grew for many years and have been looking for, H. geraldii, and the one on the right is, I'm pretty sure, H. cymbiformis.)  I got a small Aeonium 'Kiwi' for some height (hard to tell in this photo - it's the one in the top of the photo...)  There's a tiny unidentified cactus just left and below center of the rock.  I'll get a closeup of it and see if I can't get someone to ID it on GardenWeb. And I needed a little filler and threw a bit of an unusual and compact little Wandering Jew in there.  I don't know if it will stay compact like that, and it may be too much light if I give it enough for the Aeonium.  We'll see how it does.

Just a quick aside - I guess "Wandering Jew" is no longer politically correct.  I made this comment at the meeting and a young guy piped in, "Now it's Wandering Dude.  You know, we have a large Jewish population in the midwest!"  It seems political correctness has gone a little berserk IMHO.  I mean, are Jewish people really offended by this??  I always thought it was a recognition of their wandering in the desert for 40 years - maybe they don't want to be reminded of that!  Anyway, if it's an insult, I guess it's ok to insult a "dude"!  LOL

Back to the dish garden - I found that nice rock at Corwin Toyota when I was dropping a car off for work.  They had some really nice rocks in their rock bed!  You can't tell from the photo, but it's a nice pink with sparkles in it.  Very nice and nicely shaped. 

On top of those plants, I also got a nice sized Rhipsalis.  I'm relatively sure it's one I don't already have!  It's really compact, which is an indicator it was grown down south and in lots of sun.  Well, when it starts to grow here, it may suddenly start to look like one I've already got.  If it had been tagged, I would have known one way or the other, but as is typical of Rhips, it wasn't tagged except to say "Rhipsalis".  So many of them have similar attributes that it takes someone with some expertise to tell them apart. 

And lastly, I got a crested Sedum.  A cute little thing.  We'll see how it holds up...

It's winter-hardiness is questionable, so I won't put it out in the ground.  It might survive, but because it's a crest and they tend to be less hardy in general, I won't risk it.

My Hoya pubicalyx 'Royal Hawaiian Purple", the clone I got a few years ago from Canoyer in Papillion, is bursting forth with new growth!  I counted 6 new vines, some already reaching out a couple feet, some just getting started. I might have to find a bigger spot for it this year.

I've had this open several days now and need to finish it up for now.  One last photo... I got this Orchid at the show at Lauritzen Gardens on Sunday:

The tag says Osp. Brazilian Sun 'Samba'.  I looked it p and Osp. is short for Oncostelopsis and it says it is an intergeneric Oncidium hybrid.  It's gorgeous and I hope I can keep it alive and get it to rebloom!

And with that, I'm done for now!

 
 

Signs...

If you're watching for them, signs are everywhere.  Yesterday, I was in Des Moines, and I was reminded of one that happened not long after Wes died.  I was driving to work (our business) one day and I came up to the stop light at 42nd & Center and a car in front of me had a dealer's sticker on it that said "Wes Finch Motors".  OMG, there was Wes's name, and a bird - everyone who believes in this stuff knows that birds are said to be messengers from our passed loved ones.  It was a clear message!  I wondered - is this a real dealership?  I hadn't heard of it...  So as soon as I got to work, I got on the computer and googled "Wes Finch Motors" and sure enough, there's a dealership in Grinnell, Iowa, which is about 55 miles east of Des Moines.  Of course, then comes the question of how likely it is that I would intersect with a vehicle that was bought 180 miles from here that just happened to have my brother's name on it?  And not just his name, but the name of a messenger?  It had to be fate.  It gave me goosebumps and still does when I think about it!

And I see signs all the time.  Last night, I got in the shower after telling Alexa to play songs from one of my playlists.  I can't remember the song, but as I was getting out of the shower, I thought, "Wow, it feels like this is a message from Mark."  It wasn't exactly a mushy song, but it was a loving song.  Anyone who knows Mark knows he wasn't a mushy guy, wasn't the kind of guy that said "I love you" often, but in the last 4 or 5 years, he started telling me every single day, sometimes more than once, that he loved me.  I think there came a point in his decline where he realized that I must love him an awful lot to have stuck it out.  His poor health choices did wreak havoc on my life as well as his... So it felt like he was trying to make up for all the "I love yous" that he withheld because he was the "tough guy". 

Anyway, so I get out of the shower and go out to my chair to get my bed clothes on.  I had paused my program and the screen saver was on, which are photos from my phone (I still have NO idea how that works!)  I sit down and look up and there's a photo of the framed picture that is my favorite photo of him, this one:

 I felt like that was an acknowledgement of the song.  But as if that wasn't quite enough, here comes the photo of this:

A quick synopsis of what this is... back in Dec. 2021, 3 months after Mark died, I got an flyer from Danbury Mint addressed to Mark.  Mind you, I've gotten stuff from them for years, always addressed to me.  It's been a long time since I've gotten anything from them, so I was surprised not only to see one of these show up, but it came in Mark's name!  It was actually the 2nd one in about 10 days, the the other one was a heart-shaped necklace with both of our names on it!  Anyway, this photo came up right after his photo, so it was like a double acknowledgement.  It doesn't stop there.  The next photo after this one was:

I took this in a screenshot from FB a long time ago because I think it's incredibly true!  Music was probably my strongest connection with Mark. So that was my clear sign from last night.  

 

Strange...

Sunday...

I like to get it written down when I have one of those strange experiences that I can only attribute to a message from the other side. I was in bed and woke up a few minutes before 3:00 a.m. this morning to the sound of flapping paper coming from the dining room. To give a more vivid description, it sounded like one of those giant tablets that you would have in front of an audience on an easel where you draw or make notes and then flip the giant page over to the next page. So it wasn't like the sound of a thin newspaper, which does sit on my dining room table often. It was the sound of a thick large sheet flapping. Anyway, I woke to that sound and my first thought was that my dining room fan had turned on to high and there was something sitting on the table flapping. The reason this thought came to mind was that when I went to bed and I went to shut off the light (which is a remote on the wall), I had to poke it a few times to get it to go off. So I thought perhaps I had accidentally hit one of the fan buttons and turned it on higher and didn't know it since the light had gone off. The flapping sound happened a couple of times and then it stopped, and of course my next thought was "did I just dream that?" But Pearl, who always sleeps beside me,  sat up on her princess pillow and was looking in that direction obviously also wondering what that sound was! So then I sat there a minute and thought what the hell would make that sound?? A few seconds later, it happened again.. flap flap, flap flap. So now my curiosity got the best of me and I got out of bed and went into the dining room and turned the light on. There was absolutely nothing that would have made a flapping sound, and the fan was on the usual slow speed. So the only explanation is that it was a sound made by one of my transitioned loved ones. Mom? Mark? I always want to figure out what something like this means, but I have the feeling that it mostly just means "I'm here, watching out for you". The psychic told me that Mark watches over me, told me that he often lays next to me when I'm in bed. It's kind of a comforting thought.

 

Monday

They didn't call me to work today, so I'll spend the day working with my plants.  We're going to have an extraordinarily warm week...today will be in the 50's and the coolest day of the week. So it will get me in the mood to get things repotted.  The little seed dome has a lot going on!  I think it's time to move the Desert Rose into its own pot for starters.  The tiny Rhipsalis (actually Pseudorhipsalis) seedlings are developing their first flat leaves:

Aren't those just the cutest little leaves??  As for my "mama" plant, I've decided I'm going to restart it.  In fact, it's hanging over the sink right now - I watered the shit out of it yesterday so it will be well hydrated when I chop it up today.  The thing is so severely potbound that it really does need a reboot.  And it has a huge Drimopsis bulb that showed up in there a couple years ago that needs to be extricated from the hard mass of soil.  It's the only one of its kind that I have (for some reason).  Here's what it looks like in there:

 

This is actually from a year or more ago and it's much denser now.  I will take a photo when I get it potted up on it's own...

And now a mystery.  In the seed dome, next to one of the two Haemanthus albifloss bulbs, is a tiny "tuft" of green...maybe moss??  I took a macro pic of it and this is what it looks like:

I have no idea what it is.  I figure there's a good chance it was some seed that was in the mix I used, which came from Dick of the DM club.  Maybe I'll send a photo of it to him and see if he might have seen something similar when planting in his mix...

Well, that's all for today.  If I don't stop here, I won't getting any plant "stuff" done!
 

 

Hell...

 I recently blogged about the fact that I don't believe hell exits.  I'm starting to wish it did!  I'm so utterly disgusted by the direction so much of America is going.  Of course, politics brings out the worst of the worst, but I really need to just shut out the rhetoric if I'm going to keep my sanity.  Here are the questions and observations that swirl through my mind on an endless loop until I find a way to calm down when I listen to the news...

*How do otherwise decent purportedly "christian" people stand behind a man who revels in spewing vile, insulting, degrading remarks at anyone who disagrees with him?

*Why can't the republican party come up with a better candidate?  Has the party gotten so far away from decency that it can't see a better way?  How sad is that?

*When did it become ok to rape, assault, degrade and humiliate women?  It must be ok because over half of the republicans overlook it in the highest office in our country.  And then there are the worst of them who threaten the life of a woman HE treated this way because she had the nerve to call him out on it legally.

*And what does it say about our citizens who will still vote for a criminal whose crimes include business fraud, mishandling of classified documents, election interference and of course inciting his followers to storm the capital (in which one person died and 174 police officers were injured)?

*How does one get over the embarrassment of living in a country that thinks Trump is an appropriate leader?  I often ask myself, what must the world think of us?  I saw a clip of John Cleese on a late-night show, talking about Trump's popularity.  He said, "He still has about 38-39% of voters behind him... but these are the dumbest people!  One woman, when asked how she can support him after what he said on the bus, about if you're a celebrity, women expect you to grab their pussy.  She said, 'Well, he never would have said that if he'd known he was being recorded!'"  Is this really our mentality??

*Don't people listen to the man?  He's said so many incredibly STUPID things that would make us burst out laughing if it weren't so woefully sad that he actually said them seriously...  stealth bombers are literally invisible... maybe we could put a bomb in a hurricane to disperse it... how about we inject bleach or disinfectant into our veins to fight the coronavirus?... a personal favorite that DID make me laugh was how the troops "took over the airports" during the revolutionary war. He's not the first president who isn't the sharpest crayon in the box - but most have been smart enough NOT to open their mouth about things they know nothing about.

*When I ask friends why they would vote for this kind of man again, the response I get most often... "Well, the economy was good when he was in office."  I guess this is the epitome of what our country has become.  Money truly is our God.  The almighty buck is more important than upholding decent values and having a man who makes us proud to be our leader.  

*And the worst thing about this (for me, anyway) is that I discovered that a lot of people who I thought I knew as thoughtful, intelligent, kind human beings defend this vile person.  

I know I live in the Midwest where conservative is a badge of honor, where I have to be careful what I say as a free-thinking independent less I be branded a "flaming liberal"... But I think people used to be willing to cross party lines to vote for the one that is best for our country, to keep us going in the right direction.  It's not like that any more, on either side to be honest.  It's "vote for (my side) come hell or high water... I'd rather go to hell than concede that the other side might have a better candidate." It's sad what we've become.

I do love this country.  I have my "lady cave" devoted to Americana decor.  My walls are red, white, blue... I can not pass up any kind of decoration with our flag on it. I know there are a lot of decent people here, even among the Trump supporters.  I think he somehow has many mesmerized - maybe mass hypnosis??  I don't get it.  But it scares the bejesus out of me and if he gets re-elected... I wonder where we will be at the end of another 4 years?  I guess I'll just try to focus on my pile of money growing and not look at anything else! Learn to bow to that golden calf...

And now, I need to go raise my vibration.  Next time will be all about plants, a much better subject!

Flowers today...

We have had days and days of blah, overcast, downright foggy and cold days and the lack of sun is really starting to bum me out.  I'm grateful for all the green around me in the house, but at the same time, nothing is growing, everything is dormant... Oh, there's one Hoya that pretty much blooms all year round that still has flowers on it ('Rebecca'), but even though they're adorable, they are minuscule. So I thought I would cheer myself up with a barrage of flower photos!  I'm not always good about noting the name, but I will make an educated guess if I don't know.

First up is Hoya dasyantha...

I describe this Hoya as looking like carnosa on steroids!  It's leaves are bigger, a little "beefier".  I love how the leaves look when the sun shines through them!

 

This is Hoya sp. Ban Ngong Ngoy.  It's probably one of the pubicalyx vareties.  Mine got pretty overgrown so I took a bunch of cuttings that are rooted in perlite and ready to be potted up.  All I need is a bit of enthusiasm and a place to put them! 

 

This next one was once a Hoya carnosa 'Krimson Princess', the variegated form with the variegation on the inside of the leaf.  It's an unstable cultivar that tends to revert back to all green.  It makes a very nice clone of carnosa and blooms a lot easier than either 'KP' or the original carnosa...

 

This is one of my Hoya kerriis.  I grow 5 different clones - the common clone, a fuzzy clone ("hairy kerrii"), a textured clone (veining is distinct), variegated and reverse variegated.  I'm guessing from the pot this is in that it's the textured clone.  The flowers are surprisingly different from the common clone! Second photo is the common kerrii.

 

This one is a shot in the dark, but I think it's most likely to be Hoya pubicorolla 'Pink Dragon'...

I thought I had both Pink and Black Dragon, but I'm convinced now that both are probably Pink.

This is one of the small Hoyas, H. memoria.  The whole flower umbel is about 1.5" across.  The lower flowers are in the opening process and the upper umble is open and reflexed.  Very adorable flowers and prolific!

 

This is one of the pubicalyx varieties though I have no idea which one:

There are lots of pub varities.  My favorite is probably 'Bright One' for flowers:

It's the one I chose to be on my "business" card.
 

Oh shit... I just realized I changed my email address recently, so now I have about 200 cards left with the wrong email... Grrr. 

Here's 'Rebecca', the constant bloomer.  First photo is it in bud, second is the open flowers:

Another small one is Hoya inconspicua.  And when it's happy, it blooms often.  Mine hasn't been so happy of late, but it's hanging in there!

 This is one I don't grow anymore.  It has SPECTACULAR  flowers, but the way it grows sucks.  I never had more than two good leaves on it at any given time.  It might have a third now and then, but it's like it really couldn't maintain more than two good leaves, so if it had a third, it looked crappy.  If it grew a new leaf, one would die.  I finally just gave it away.  I'm not a fan of the ones that don't look nice when not in bloom. It isn't worth looking at a crappy plant 11.5 months out of the year to get an umbel of pretty flowers!  Anyway, it's Hoya megalaster, photo one is an umbel opening and two is a single open flower.

 

One that looks very different is Hoya sigillatis.  It's one of the smaller Hoyas, very nice leaves.  It never grew very well for me, but I've recently acquired a different clone that seems to be doing ok.  Here is a flower umbel:

 

I grow several clones of Hoya verticillata and the ones that have bloomed for me look the same:

 

 

Hoya aff. vitellina has caramel colored flowers:

And that's it for today.  I think I feel a little cheerier, but please-oh-please, come out soon sunshine!  

 

 

Our scary future...

This country is in a precarious balance right now.  If Trump gets the nomination for the republican party, that means a) that more than half the republicans think that this hateful, misogynistic, criminal is fit to lead our country (which scares the holy bejesus out of me!); and b) we have to pick between Biden (who I agree probably won't make it through another term) and that Jackass.  I'm registered as an independent, so I can't vote in the primary, but if they would just come up with another candidate, I would be very inclined to vote republican this time.  (Anyone but DeSantis or that Indian guy, who seems like a real SOB...) But if the only choice is Trump, YIKES.  If the republican party really wants a chance, they need to nominate SOMEONE ELSE because I believe the decent people of this country will come out of the woodwork to vote to keep him OUT. He's a menace to decency and an embarrassment to the world.  I can only imagine some of the things that are being said about us around the world as they look on and see how much support is given to a man who tried to challenge our democracy!  While we try to shove democracy down the throats of other countries, they see OUR OWN PRESIDENT challenging the one most important concept of democracy - the right of the people to choose their leader.

And that's my rant for today!  Our snow ended up being around 5"  here.  A little less at the airport, which is always the official amount for Omaha proper, but a lot more in west Omaha.  Columbus got 13"!  They always seem to get it pretty good.  I found a guy on NextDoor to shovel the walks.  When I told him (via text) how much there was to do, he said, "I can do that for $20."  I told him that I've paid $40 in the past and I feel that's very reasonable - I think he must be a desperate fellow (he told me his car is not running right now) and I wasn't about to take advantage of that... He did an awesome job.  And now it looks like we'll get another 4-7" overnight tonight??  I told work just to take me off the schedule until next week.  

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Started this on Tuesday, I think, and here it is Friday.  We got at least another 7", maybe closer to 10" of snow overnight and today.  A light snow, blowing like crazy so lots of drifting.  What a mess! My guy came by at noon, when it was still snowing pretty good and cleared the majority of it, and he'll come back tomorrow sometime and clean it up.  Even if it had been done snowing, I probably would have had him come by tomorrow due to the drifting.  It is SO cold!  Right now... 4 degrees real-temp, -20 with the windchill.  Horrible!

I don't think I've talked about my new car.  I've been talking about it for a couple years.  I decided I would cash in my life insurance and use the money toward a newer car.  I've been driving my old HHR for 15 years and even though it was low mileage for it's age (under 100k), I was ready for a change.  But then after covid, there was a car shortage and used cars were selling for a premium.  So I waited.  After Mom passed, it made me feel my mortality and got me thinking... how much longer do I have to enjoy a new car??  Why wait!  and why not get what I want?  I had decided, after driving lots of different cars in my work, that I wanted either a Kia Soul or a Mini Cooper.  The Soul was a more practical (cheaper) choice, but the Mini is what I really, really wanted. So around the end of July, I went through the steps to cash in my life insurance. One day, I was delivering a car to Enterprise car sales in west Omaha and behold - there was a Mini sitting right out in that "premium" up-front spot on the sidewalk!  When I dropped off the keys, I asked what they wanted for it.  The sales guy said $24k and some change, which was about $4000 more than my life insurance (but then I get a $1000 discount for being an employee, so really only $3000 more...)  I came home that day, getting home early enough to call my insurance folks and see how much more it would cost to insurance it and it kind of surprised me that it was only about another $75 every 6 months.  Hmm.  Then I started going through my mail which I had grabbed as I came in and what was there but that check from the insurance company!  Sign #2, I figured!

So I had the next day off and went out to talk to them about it.  I ended up buying it and even added an extended warranty (24,000 miles) - I did this mostly because I asked my mechanic about the Minis and he said they are notorious for having some issue with the timing chain at around 65,000 miles as a "just in case".  The car had 43,000 miles on it, so I figured that would get me into that mileage range.  It cost me an extra $1700 and it was probably not worth it, but it gives me a bit of "peace of mind".  Anyway, I found a pic on the web to show what it looks like...

I love it!  It's adorable, it's zippy, a comfortable ride, fun to drive.  Gets around on snow very well...so far!  The dash is so retro.  The app screen is round and has a very cool light around it that can change colors.  It has a decent sound system. All the new features like a backup camera (though with all the new cars I drive for work, I hardly use the camera - I do better with the mirrors...), heated seats which I didn't know at first!  Nice right now!  LOL!  Just wish it had a heated steering wheel... love those when it's cold!  I'm not sure if they're leather seats... I supposed they could be fake leather.  How would I know??  Oh, what I discovered after about a month is when it's dark out and you open the door, a light shines on the pavement with the Mini logo:

 

So cool!!  Anyway, with my insurance money and a little more, I was able to pay cash for it, so no car payment.  YAY!  Though I dread how much more it's going to cost to register it each year!

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It's now Saturday, and painfully cold.  Right now:

Look at the "feels like"... FUCK!  I'll take snow all day over this shit.  My snow removal guy was going to come back, but I couldn't let him do that in good conscience.  It's all drifted back over the sidewalks, but the wind is still blowing like a mother, so it'll just fill back in anyway if he does come.  And no one is going to be out walking in this stuff anyway, so I told him I'd see if he can come back in a few days when it warms up a bit.  They said it's going to be like this until Tuesday.  I already told work I don't want to work Monday...

Well, Pearl stole my chair while I was up for a minute, so I'll end this for now.