Farmer's Almanac Weather Prediction for Ontario: "Sunny, seasonable."
This site is two years old today! Hard to believe that two years ago Beate and I managed to pull this site together. It has changed quite a lot over the past two years. The format used to be in seasonal issues, the design used to be very different, and well, back then we had no clear idea of what this site was going to be. To be honest we still don't. At times it is a burden, while at other times it is incredible fun. After two years I think I'd miss it if it wasn't in my life. Thanks to everyone who reads this site, or who has contributed in any way to making it what it has become.
I'm very excited! For Valentine's Day Davin gave me two cacti. One is a large, lovely and prickley cacti of unknown name. I have yet to get a chance to look it up. Offhand I would guess it's a Mammillaria. The second is a faux cactus light that I have been coveting for ages. There is a crazy store in our neighbourhood that sells furniture, Hello Kitty stuff and crazy kitschy lamps (the backlit waterfall photo, dripping oil lamps among others). I had wanted the cactus light but the price tag was outrageous at over $30.00. I mean, I'm talking about a light-weight plastic lamp in the shape of a barrel cactus here. It's really not worth much more than $9.99.
Deciding that the price for such a frivolous item couldn't be justified, I resolved to love it from afar. Anytime I passed the store I would stop for a moment and gaze at it lovingly through the window. It's so pretty. There are little tiny fibreoptic wires (aka bits of plastic) sticking out around the faux spines that twinkle, oscillate and change colour. It has an Xmas light vibe about it.
I was shocked when Davin came home with it last night. He talked the owner down since only the display model was the only one available. It is now sitting on my desk in all it's glory. I had to do some plug juggling to make room for it since I currently have three lamps on or around my desk.
Last week I went to China Town to get a new golden gourami for my fish tank. One of the males was incredibly aggressive and I had the stupid idea that if I got another female it would balance things out a bit. Sadly it only increased the male's violent streak. Admiting defeat I had to go back again the next day and replace the aggresive male with another female. Everything is much better now and the fish that had been under attack is starting to heal from its psychological and physical wounds. While at the store I bought a few new plants for the tank. I really can never have enough. With the hygro growing like crazy I've managed to propagate quite a few new plants from cuttings.
While in China Town I stopped to see if any neat plants were available as a result of Chinese New Year. I ended up taking home three stems of a variegated variety of lucky bamboo. The leaves are the usual green mixed with a nice yellowy chartreuse colour. They were only $5.00 for 3. I have them in an old fashioned mason jar with ocean blue glass chips (bought at last year's Canada Blooms) lining the bottom and holding the stems in place. I also saw some really nice cherry tree stems (for forcing) but didn't buy them because I thought they were pricey at $12 -15 a bunch. But a friend who lives in New York said that they're about $8.00 US a stem there. In the end it's probably a good thing I didn't bring more foliage into the place because I still have forced narcissus and hyacinths sitting on the kitchen table, and a few stragglers from the garbage bag of forsythia stems Davin's mom gave me.
In other news I have a new journal over on Fluffco. Finally a place for me to discuss topics other than plants or donuts.
This time last year: Plant people.
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