New Year's Eve - I can already feel the days getting longer. Not much, mind you, but a minute or two on each end every day. That means my plants are going to start growing soon. And as soon as that starts to happen, I can start propogating for next fall's plant auction.

Speaking of which, last fall's auction, in September, was quite a money maker for me! I was stunned at what I got for smaller pots of rooted Hoyas - several brought over $20. In the end, I sold about $270 worth of plants, and netted about $215 (after the 20% the club keeps...) I'm going to be a propogating fool this spring! This is a great way to offset what I spend on plants during the year...

For my birthday, Mom gave me the DVD "The Secret." What a life-changing concept this is! I'm trying very hard to keep my enthusiasm about it because I can TELL that it makes a huge difference in attitude, which in turns draws positive things into my life. I'm trying to use it with my diet, which we started the week before Thanksgiving. It's been a tough time to start with the holidays, and Wes being here, going out to eat, etc... In all, I've lost about 12.5 lbs. so far, but that included a couple of lame weeks, a week when I gained a couple lbs., and then last week I lost a whopping 6.5 lb. After that one, this week I'll be happy if I just don't gain any of that back! I suspect it might have been more about timing than actual weight loss. If I lose ANYthing at all this week, I'll attribute it entirely to "The Secret" and the power of positive thinking!

This last year of being editor of the RCCSS newsletter has gone fairly well. It started out with some frustrations - part of my goal was to make it an e-newlsetter for everyone who has e-mail to save the club some money. At first, I was trying to do so by e-mailing an attachment of Word, but may people were receiving it either not looking right or downright garbled. How I made it work in the end was to buy a subscription to Adobe PDF creator. I spent $100 out of my own pocket to see if it would work, and it works like a charm! Maybe when it comes due, I can get the club to pay half of the fee. I figure I'll use it for work, too, so I think having them pay half is fair.

The club has also asked me to maintain the website. I'm having a lot of trouble figuring that out. I'll have to spend some time on the phone to Chuck to see if I can't get it figured out. If not, I may have to pass that chore on to someone else...

As for new plants I aquired this year, here are a few:

This is Dischidia oiantha Schltr. according to Tatyana Livschulz. It looks a lot like geri to me, but I trust her authority on the subject. It's grown like a weed, which is characteristic of my regular oiantha, but has yet to flowers. Perhaps this spring... I got it from a lady in Florida (I believe her name is Laura) who had mentioned on GW that she found some Hoyas and Dischidias at a local public garden. I commented (half jokingly...) that I'd pay her for her time and the plants if she would send me some of them. Well, she responded to me privately and said she'd be happy to do this and the next thing I know, I have a box full of plants arriving. I reimbursed her for the plants and postage, but she insisted I didn't need to give her anything for her time. I did send her a few plants, but it was really a much grander gesture on her part. What a nice lady!

One of the other plants she sent was Hoya obsura. I'd lost my old one after the winter of 06/07, and this was a nice healthy (and pretty good sized) one. It's grown a LOT and it's even flowered for me. I've only gotten a photo of the buds (didn't get back to get a photo of the opened flower) so I'll have to post a flower pic later. She also sent a Hoya mitrata. That one hasn't done anything yet - hasn't died, mind you, but hasn't shown an iota of growth. Maybe it'll take off this spring (**fingers crossed**)

That's about it for now...