Oh my, I woke up this morning with a TERRIBLE sore throat!  It goes way up into my left ear.  I'm pretty sure it's probably from allergies.  But I decided I'd do a little blogging to distract myself from the misery - so that's ALL I plan to say about THAT!

First, I want to talk about the two little birds nesting on our porch.  I've thought about this a lot, and I think Dad sent those two little birds for me to enjoy.  They're barn swallows (I searched and searched a Nebraska bird database to find them...)  Consider this - I grew up on a farm and probably saw a bazillion barn swallows, but I never, ever saw one close enugh to see how beautiful they were, so apparently they're the kind of birds that don't land and hang out around humans much.  I mean, surely they're one of the most common birds, yet I couldn't even tell you much about what they look like except that they're "small."  Anyway, Dad was a nature lover, and when I see something in nature that is out of the ordinary, I always think "maybe Dad sent that for me to see and appreciate."  

So these little birds (I've posted a photo from the web, above) started making this messy nest a couple weeks ago, up on the ledge above a window that faces out onto our front porch.  When it was all done, I was really surprised - it seems to be more or less a mud nest.  I'm sure there's some other ingredients, like some small brush pieces, but it looks like mostly mud.  Seems like most of the time, one of them is on the nest and will fly out when we come out of the house.  Then if I hang out on the porch, like to water plants, one or the other (or both) will fly in under the porch, then back out, repeatedly until I'm done.  They don't really seem to be trying to bother me - no dive-bombing or anything.  If I'm very slow-moving and talk to them in a soft voice, the one on the nest will sometimes stay put while I'm out there. 

Then, when I come home at night (like on a Saturday, after a function), I've found them both perched on the opposite side of the ledge from the nest, facing each other, presumable sleeping.  I've told Mark to leave the light off on the porch now so it doesn't disturb them.  They are SUCH pretty little birds and I am really enjoying watching their little "life cycle."  I've seen no signs of babies yet, but I'm sure it won't be long...  I'll be sad to see my little birdies leave when it's all done...

On the Hoya front, I took a bunch of Hoyas to the last cactus club meeting.  A few of the members bug me all the time about bringing some to sell.  Well, those buggers hardly bought any!  And the woman who bugs me the most didn't buy one!  In fact, I think Liane and one other member are the only two that bought any.  I didn't price them cheap enough, I suppose, but I ain't givin' them away!  I'm going to put them on eBay - maybe that's how I'll distract myself tomorrow from this... shhhhh...

But I'm excited to report that I have a few that are budding up for the first time.  Merredithii x crassicaulis, the clone I got from Ted Green, has two peduncles.  This is one I nearly lost once.  I got it as a cutting from Ted in '08 and it rooted quickly but never really grew for the longest time.  But it took off in late '09, then last year put on a fair amount of growth and has been growing like gangbusters this year.  This is a photo from last summer...

The leaves are big and awsome, distinctly veined.  It seems to love its spot in the GH, which is why, I suppose, it's budding up!  Another first time budder is naumanii, one I got in my first Liddle order in '09.  I potted it into a bigger pot a month or 6 weeks ago and it seems to be VERY happy I did!  I hung it in a sunny spot and now it's got vines of new growth with peduncles. 

'Dee's Big One' has formed one long-honkin' peduncle - probably about 4" long!  And it's very thin!  It will be interesting to see how big the flower clusters are on that one.

My compacta, which I restarted last year, has some peduncles forming on it, too.  When I took cuttings from the mother plant (which I still have but really needs to be tossed...), I only took cuttings with leave that were more "open" than the typical twisted compacta - here's an example of what I mean...

See what I mean?  Most of them are not so much folded and twisted.  So far, it seems to be maintaining this less-than-typcial growth habit.  I also found a variegated compacta (I think they call the cultivar 'Regalis') at Lowe's after I saw someone speak of finding one on the Hoya forum.  It was very healthy, so I snatched it up.  It's the one and only Hoya I've bought this year...

I really like this clone for the way the leaves fold but don't twist so much.  But I hate that old EA dirt.  It started to get dehydrated about 2 or 3 weeks after I got it, so I repotted it (as best I could) in my soil.  I hope it makes it...

Another one I repotted recently was deykeae.  It had been in one of those pretty, tall, very narrow porcelain pots since I got it in a trade 2 years ago.  It's already got a new growth point, so it must have needed that repotting.  It's been such a SLOW grower, which is ironic since it could easily be on my top 10 list.  I mean, the ONLY thing keeping it off there is that it grows so damn slow!  Look at these great leaves...

A photo of the whole plant doesn't do the leaves justice, but this photo seems to show the appeal.  They're textured, have some silver splotching and the leaf tips are squared off.  Very cool!  I hardly ever see this Hoya mentioned anywhere, so I have a feeling it's not a common one to find in a collection.  But if it grows for everyone as it does for me, I can see why it's not commonly out there.  I won't be willing to share mine until it's about 4 times bigger than it is now!

Anyway, the last one I wanted to talk about today is a Dischidia.  An unknown one I've gotten from Tom.  I noticed it's doing particularly well in with my Hoya onychoides, even flowering.  Here's a shot of the leaves:

 I see plenty of imbricate Dischidias on Dischidia.com, but none that have this textured surface and the little black line.  I think it would be kind of nice to get it ID'd, now that I'm having more success growing it.  Maybe I'll have to see if I can track down Tanya...

And that's 'nuff for now!