20201015 Around the garden

I love this plant/pot combination, but I’m afraid I’m going to have to move it to a bigger pot before it bursts this one.

Discorea Elephantipes

This little sedum died back when it got to 110 F, but it’s showing signs of coming back and I really like it so it stays.

This aloe turns a really vibrant red on the edges when it gets enough light. I recently repotted it and moved it to a new location. I’m hoping it gets more light there.

I love the peach/pistachio colors of these little gasteria blossoms.

I love the form and color of this echevaria. Spud the tortoise loves the flavor. I set it up on another pot to try to keep it out of his reach.

20201005 – Casper and the fish

Casper has discovered the fish.

And the fish are surely aware of him. They’re huddled up against the wall of the pot, motionless, where he can’t see them.

I like having both the fish and the snails in there, but I can see it’s definitely going to mean more maintenance on my part. Going to need to scoop gunk off the bottom more often, and remove plant overgrowth. However, everyone likes looking at the fish, cats and people. I’m happy with the tradeoff.

20200828

Went outside for the first time in a couple of weeks. I’d been trying to take Casper out for a while every morning. It’s usually cool enough to be nice for a couple of hours in the morning. But it’s heated up and gotten really humid for the past couple of weeks so I haven’t gone out. Casper’s been mad at me. He loves his morning out in the garden. As do I. So this morning we sat outside and enjoyed the butterfly parade. Casper enjoyed my orchids.

I got some new fish for the pond recently. I’ve had one for several years and think she’s been lonely, judging by the eggs she’s been laying. I had one fish for a long time before. I bought several at once and then all of them died but the one. This time I decided I quarantine them for a couple of days before I put them in the pond. This time everyone seems to be doing OK. I named them before I got them home; I don’t know why. Blanche, Lucy and Coppertop. I’ve had the other fish for 3 years and never called it anything but fish. At first the newcomers hid from Fish. No wonder, she’s 3 times the size of the others. But as of now they’re schooling around the pot, acting like fish. So far so good.

20200815 – Home maintenance

Kinda feeling like a home maintenance diva right now. We’ve had a couple of things go wrong lately. Got an outside faucet with a major leak. And the air conditioning broke down. During a major heat wave.

For the plumber I remembered a guy who had worked on our water heater a long time ago who I’d been impressed with. He knew what he was doing. Thanks to the wonderful spouse we had the number of the company he worked for and he still works for him. And even though they’re only supposed to do water heaters, he’s coming on Monday. I don’t know anything about plumbing, but at my age, I’m starting to know what competence looks like.

Then the AC broke down. The spouse had tried a few places, but all of them just had message machines. I tried a few myself and got the same result. I broke down and used one of the on-line services. I hate giving people my phone number, but the prospect of no AC, temperatures in 100’s and high humidity sounded awful. Entered my info and got a call back in minutes. The guy showed in minutes and fixed it in half an hour. At a price I considered reasonable.

I totally feel like a winner right now. Hope things go as well with the plumber.

20200812 – Morning in the garden

There are lots of caterpillars right now.

Big ones

Small ones

And ones so tiny I have a hard time holding the phone still enough to get a decent picture. All of the passion flower vines are ragged and the butterflies are ragged from fighting over territory.

Casper and I go out in the mornings when it’s still cool and the onshore breeze is blowing. Usually I’m outside about 3 minutes before I see something that needs to be done. Taking Casper out is just the motivation I need to get me moving on the yard work. I sit down and read between chores and he sits by my chair and watches the butterflies. After a dirt bath.

Insomniac night

Since I started exercising regularly I seldom have the sleepless nights that I used to, but I’m up now. That fact is driving Casper cat crazy. First he wouldn’t leave me alone. “You’re up now? Great! What are we going to do?” Then he got the zoomies and ran up and down the stairs, making as much noise as possible.

Truth be told, my anxiety level is pretty high about now and he’s a wonderful distraction.

The Penny Project

So, the Wonderful Spouse has given his OK for me to do a penny back splash in the kitchen. The coin sorting hast begun.

Pants

I had a life-changing experience today. I got a pair of pants that I was able to put on and wear. I didn’t have to hem them. I’ve been hemming every pair of pants I get since I was thirteen. I haven’t been able to find any place to buy pants where they didn’t think that all petites were a size two. I’m officially old now and time, habit, culture and biology are all stacked up against me being a size two. Besides, I’ve been a size two; it’s not nearly as appealing as it sounds.

Remote control house

I’ve been a huge fan of Amazon since the year I did almost all of my Christmas shopping there. I hate shopping, unless it’s a social event or I’m going to a bead or plant store. Amazon has taken care of most of my shopping needs.

We’ve had an Alexa for over a year and for most of that time I occasionally used it to play music. Lately I’ve been using it as a timer when cooking or a reminder to do something later. Today it was too quiet in the house and I asked her to turn on a radio station and she did. I finally have the voice activated house of the future.

Cake!

I used to dislike baking. Too much science. You have to get the proportions right or things go really wrong. Not like ‘not my favorite dish’ wrong, like ‘that wasn’t supposed to be a pancake’ wrong. But sometime in the last couple of years I decided that if my sister could bake, so could I. We both have about the same genetic material. I should be able to do it. So my cakes have been getting progressively more elaborate.

I’ve planned my husband’s birthday cake this year doing a couple of things I haven’t done before and I’m afraid I may have overdone it. Since he does most of the shopping I decided it would be easier to tell him what I was doing instead of trying to surprise him. I’m making chocolate coffee cake with chocolate ganache and mochoa creme frosting. The best part is that he seems to like the idea of a chocolate-coffee flavored cake. But I’m a little apprehensive. I’ve never made ganache before and I’ve heard it can be tricky. I also never tried to modify the flavor of a cake before. I’m planning on using Starbucks Via and I can’t find much on using it baking. From what I’ve found, you use it more like a spice, mixing it with your dry ingredients, but there’s no info on how much of it to use. Oh boy! Improvisational baking. ‘Cause that’s worked out so well in the past. I’ll err on the low side and add more to the batter if necessary. I’ll bake the cake tonight and frost it tomorrow. And find someplace to hide it from my cat in the meantime. One time I made a cake, set it on the table and started to walk away. Before I had gone two steps she had jumped up on the table and taken a bite. Finding someplace cat-proof is a necessity.