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Farmer's Almanac Weather Prediction for Ontario: "Rain spreads across east across the region, followed by clearing and colder weather."
 Well in the last week I managed to put up a new shelf in place of the dremel multiproTM. The dremel is now displaced but at least my plants have more space. I have now divided my plants up according to climatic conditions. All the succulents, cacti and a few odds and ends (poinsettia, a few African violets) are in my office, and all the tropical, humidity loving plants are in my bedroom (where we have a humidifier). It works out well. I have an entire shelf of just tillandsia and another shelf of strictly African violets. I have been trying to achieve this division for a few years now, but I just didn't have enough shelves with prime lighting conditions to accomplish it. Now every plant is exactly where it should be. It's genius. I patted myself on the back for hours after the set-up was complete. Of course this isn't exactly my idea. I've managed to accomplish in a very basic way what growers have been doing for... well... ever... It feels like my idea, and that makes me feel all smart and shit.
 In my previous entry I mentioned that I gave Davin's dad one of my portulacaria afras leaving me with three plants. Well at some point I miscalculated. When I started bringing plants in, I could only find two. That's fine with me, I just don't have any memory of giving three plants away. Loss of memory freaks me out. I repotted one of the remaining plants into my old (and dearly departed) bonsai pot. It had been at least six months since the bonsai burned to a crisp, yet I didn't want to accept it. I kept hoping it would miraculously come back. After an entire growing season outdoors, I realized that I couldn't live in denial anymore. So now one of the portulacarias is living in the pot and everyone is happy.
It's that time of year again when I bring in all the plants and take a survey of what's what. I inspect the plants, figure out where I went right, where I went wrong. This was a really good growing year. I figure that when my end-of-the-year death toll is complete, it will be fairly low. In fact not only did many plants grow a few inches, but I actually managed to correct many of my past mistakes. For instance, I have a jade-like succulent with variegated leaves that was hurting last winter. The roots were a solid mass, and the leaves were developing rust-coloured bumps. This plant needed help. In spring, I repotted it in fresh soil and a larger pot and put it outside. It flourished. It has grow considerably, the leaves are healthy and lush and from what I can tell, the roots look good. Another case in point are the portulacaria afra. During the winter months I could not provide them with adequate light. As you may remember I originally bought them last summer as one large plant in a hanging basket for the deck. They flourished all summer but during the winter the leaves started to drop rapidly and the remaining leaves began to loose their variegation. I separated the plants into individual pots (5 plants in all) and prayed that they'd hold on until the light levels improved. Come spring I cut back any dead parts and put them outside. Now, at the end of summer they are all lush, filled with variegated leaves and looking great. With only two plants remaining i should be able to provide all of them with adequate light this winter.
This past weekend was Canadian Thanksgiving. I don't have too much to say about it. I wasn't into it this year and had planned to do nothing except watch crappy movies on digital cable until my friend LRock called and invited us to a feast at her house. The following day I completely emptied and setup my freshwater aquarium and then the day after that I moved furniture around. That's it. I'm going shopping for some new aquarium plants this weekend so I'll talk about that and post photos when it's done. It will be a few weeks yet before I start introducing some new fish. I'm very excited.
This time last year: Last year's Thanksgiving
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