Houseplant Facelift

Okay, back to the plants! After my last post, I promise I won't "vent" for a looooong time (like Skynrd said "I do not sing the blues" :) Okay, I try not to. Anyhow, I discovered that I could go back to the older post editor on blogger, so now my posting should be back to normal-Yay!



Anyway....this Schefflera is becoming kind of cumbersome as a houseplant, so I decided to do something about it. (Not to mention the poor thing hasn't been repotted in about 8 years-oops!)

Not nearly as rootbound as I expected. As you can see, I have three separate sections to work with........so let's start with the two big ones. I decided to try and weave them together to form a quasi-bonsai-looking houseplant "sculpture".......after fiddling with them for awhile, I came up with this.........held together at the trunk with some stretchy plant tape to maintain form.I felt that it would be plenty content rather pot-bound, since it grew so large all crowded before. (Plus I'd like to try and keep it manageable.)There! It still looks too large, and frankly scraggly too..........time for a little "tough love"!Presto! Hopefully the bare stubs will fill in and pretty it up, but I'm willing to sacrifice this specimen in the name of experimentation ;-)I decided to expose some higher roots and wedge a couple decorative rocks underneath........for another bonsai-ish element. Someday I'm going to try "real" bonsai again, but for now I'm content to amuse myself this way.
Our third subject will be potted up alone....



....and trimmed to sort-of represent a leaning bonsai form.

That was fun! Now what else can I bend to my will? :)

(This took place a few months ago...more updates from last summer coming soon.)

Fast forward: Here is our main subject just the other day...not too shabby, eh?

The smaller one still looks pretty much the same, maybe it's focusing on root growth?

Fall is a Season of Change

These autumnal changes are widespread and not all of them good. Plants are "dying" (most of them sleeping, really), temps are dropping, and many creatures are preparing for hibernation or the challenges that winter brings. I'm dealing with some hard times myself, which have kept me away from my blog. When I can post, it's utilizing dialup which is excruciatingly slow for uploading images. For instance, I swore I'd uploaded four images for this post...only "Alvin" here made it through. But I'm an optimist, doggone it....so Blogger can challenge me, life can frustrate me, and haters can kick me in the head when I'm on the ground-I don't care! The Lord made all these days, better or worse...and you can't keep a good woman down! So bring in the funk, and I'll belt out my noise! Woot woot! :)


"Whenever evil befalls us we can think how we can turn it into good, so that we may take occasion from a bitter root to raise perhaps many beautiful flowers." Goodness will always prevail- Ralph Waldo Emerson

Gizmo the Amazing Veggie Taster

This has been a very weird growing season for me...personally, weather-wise, and now Blogger seems to have changed some things since I last posted....it's all kinda freaking me out. Anyhow, there have been veggies to harvest and enjoy here and there....

.......like these moderately hot volcano peppers I brought in the other day. Gizmo acted interested, so I gave him the opportunity to investigate. First he just took a tiny taste...

.....then a small bite...

.....then an all-out chomp! He never made a sour face or anything, so I put it on the floor next to his food dish (where he quickly lost interest). Crazy kitty!

Personal Space

Hey! Look at this lovely crab spider I spotted last spring...

...resting on a forming lupine bloom...

....spinning a web of some sort......and taking issue with my attention!
Get back....

...get back...

...get back to where you once belonged! (Or anywhere really, so long as it's not here!)

Submitted to Friday Ark.

Turkey-lurkey Lurking

I was coming home from work one day this past June, and noticed something lurking behind a pine...

...moving slowly through the brush, still hard to see...

...as I get closer, the "guest" moves along to make a retreat...

...coming into the open, my guest is a nice big turkey!
As I try to get a better look, she hurries a tad more......glancing back as she disappears into the woods.

That's why they call them "turkey-lurkey"-they're often lurking! Submitted to Friday Ark.

(My absence from Blogger for so long has been filled with days of vertigo too numerous to mention...I'll provide an update on the veggie planters, etc. ASAP. Thank goodness most plants take care of themselves pretty well! :)