More signs... and PLANTS!

 I'm already done with my 2 days this week.  They called me Monday and we went to Des Moines (shock!)  Then it snowed overnight and though the streets looked perfectly fine here in Omaha (I think we got a couple inches, but the pavement was warm enough it didn't really stick...), but they were talking about a swatch in Iowa, along our route to DM, that got 3-5 inches and those hills can be a real bitch when the wind blows the snow over the road.  They had called me Tuesday, and I got up "as if" I would go to work and got ready, all the while debating on whether I would go or not - if they sent us to DM, would I want to go and risk slippy-sliding through that swatch??  About the time that I really needed to make up my mind, Erica called and asked if I'd be willing to work the downtown branch and I'm like, "I can do that!"  So I did... and it was fine, except for the horrendous street work going on downtown.  OMG, e-v-e-r-y...s-i-n-g-l-e...s-t-r-e-e-t... is down to one lane.  I am NOT exagerating!  It must be a freaking nightmare during rush hour!  Between sewer reworking (which they've been doing all over the old part of town) and what they have to do to prep for the coming street cars, it's a holy mess.  

Anyway, so I have the next several days off and today, I got my nails done.  So while I was out that way, I decided I would stop and pick up a Culvers chicken cashew salad for lunch (one of my favorites and a good choice for my diet...)  I pull into the parking lot at about 10:55 and decided to pull into a spot and check their menu... it's been a while since I had Culvers (none in my part of town) and I wanted to make sure they still had that salad.  And I figured maybe the drive thru didn't open 'til 11:00 anyway, so I sat there a few minutes.  When I was done perusing their menu, I pulled into the drive thru and someone had slipped in ahead of me.  I got to the window and ordered, and if you've been to a Culvers DT, you know they put a little sticky-note on your rear view mirror with a number and you pull ahead and park and wait for them to bring it out to you.  So guess what the number was?...

The number Mark sends me most often.  (There are 5 numbers I see consistently that I give him credit for... 54 is his birth year, 58 is my birth year, 73 is his grad year, 77 is my grad year, 87 is the year we bought the house, and 89 is the year we married.  But 77 is the one I see so often, it is uncanny!)  Now, if I had gone straight into the DT when I got there, my number would have been 76, so... Yep, I think they have a way...

So when they guy came out with my lunch I asked if I could keep the number and of course he said yes and I put it there on my dash to remind me of how skilled they are at sending these signs.  And as I'm driving down 96th Street with a big smile on my face, telling Mark how good he's gotten at this, I came up to a stop light behind a white Ford pickup with a license plate ending in 077.  My smile got bigger.  "Now you're just showing off!"

I'm starting to see new growth on a lot of my Hoyas and some other plants as well.  I found one budding up the other day.  I've lost the tag so not sure which species it is, but I suspect it's a form of parasitica...

There's a second peduncle a little higher.  I will get a photo when they open.

Today has turned into a beautiful day! It's hard to believe that yesterday was cold and blustery and there was snow on the ground until late afternoon! There's no sign of winter today. It's in the mid 70s, breezy. I've got the front door open and a couple of other windows to let the fresh air in. But it's going to be a bit of a yo-yo this week. Colder tomorrow, chance of rain. But that's okay. We can use the moisture and with cooler temps, it will get absorbed nicely by the plants that need it so badly, and it won't just evaporate like it does in high temps.

I've placed a few orders over the last few months for Haworthias. I've decided I won't buy any more Hoyas and will limit myself to smaller, slower growing succulents in the future. I'm going to do a lot of cleaning house of plants that don't light my fire this year. In other words, if it isn't "hell yes!", then it's "hell no!" That's one of my favorite phrases! You get to a certain age, and you don't want to waste your time doing things that don't particularly excite you! So that's been my mantra for the last few years. 

Anyway, back to the Haworthias... here are photos of several that I've acquired over the winter. These aren't all of them, but a good representation. These are the ones that have settled in nicely and look really great. A few that I haven't had very long need a little bit of time to plump back up so they will look their best, so I will post pictures of those later.

Some fantastic cultivars!  The one called "Red Moon"... I guess I liked it so much that I ended up ordering it twice!!  So now I have two of those.  LOL!

I kind of feel like I have crossed a threshold and I'm feeling much better. Not that I ever felt bad, mind you. I've always felt pretty good, but the pain that I was experiencing in my back and hip is quite a bit better. I'm not feeling that sharp awful pain in my groin area that came from my back. They tell me that's a nerve, so I think the decompression has helped that. I'm still a gimp, but I'm feeling like there's a real possibility that that might eventually be able to take a real walk like a real person! Can I really hope that I could be gimp free someday? I'm starting to feel like it might be possible!

Before I end this today, I wanted to show some pics of very impressive leaves.  First is a speckled clone of Hoya 'Mathilde'...

And here is Hoya 'Sunrise' that gets so beautifully patterned under the grow lights...

It blooms pretty easy, too, but the leaves really outshine the flowers!  This is Hoya quinquenervia, and it gets some outstanding leaves under the lights as well!

This one is Sinningia bullata that I got from Karin in the cactus club a couple years ago.  It develops a gorgeous caudex and has the most un-succulent looking leaves that emerge from the caudex.  It got overly dry this winter and dropped all its leaves and when I cut it back, new leaves started popping almost immediately.  So these are the baby leaves, and it's sharing its pot with the dreaded "Mother of Thousands" Kalanchoe.  I just couldn't bear to pull them, though I probably will this summer.  And I will move this up to a bigger pot this summer as well...

And last, I wanted to share the dish garden I created at the March Des Moines club meeting.  I used this pot I've had in the garage for awhile - I think it turned out really nice!

That's it for today!