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Snowy day pursuits: the windowsill report
Jan. 21st, 2014 01:23 pmWhen it snows I always revert to kid mentality. It's snowing! We have a snow day! I can do whatever I want instead of going to school!
The reality, of course, is a lot different. Although the city has largely closed down (City Hall is closed, universities are closed, etc., etc.), all my colleagues who work at home on snowy days are churning out emails and such.
Still, I plan to knock off in a little bit and do snow day things. At the moment, snow day things include a pot of creamy tomato bisque with orzo, diced potato, lentil, and chopped spinach. I made it a couple hours ago and it will be a hearty lunch.
I only have two more snowflakes to make, starch, and block and I'm done for the year. That should happen tonight while we watch Downton Abbey. We've discovered that all the Masterpiece Theater stuff shows up on AppleTV the next day -- maybe even the same day, although I haven't tried that. We watched Sherlock last night --![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
poliphilo had complained that Series 3 was more about relationships than about mysteries, but that's okay with us. We're just happy to catch up with some old friends.
Yesterday was Tom Baker's 80th birthday. The Fourth Doctor is and will always be *my* doctor, so I'm happy to see him looking reasonably hale and completely alert. I watched the four-part Season Sixteen story "The Ribos Experiment" Sunday just because I could.
Meanwhile, on the windowsills: I still have blooming Schlumbergera. There are two or three mature buds on the Madisto-like plant in the second-floor bathroom. Big Red, Mother of Dozens, still has more than a dozen flowers and/or buds on it, and my red late-bloomer that I always forget about is starting to bloom. So I have maybe another week. As long as the Schlumbergera are blooming Christmas isn't over.
The Class of 2009 keepers look pretty happy in their new pot. The biggest bulb, and the one I think/hope is the one that's my favorite, has the encouraging swelling that suggests a flower stalk is imminent, as well as some leaves. One of the class of 2011 ('trader joe' x 'gervase') is similarly swelling.
Thanks to the snow I can't get out to get the potting mixture I really prefer for my hippeastrums, but I have enough of it to make a mix of one part Preferred to two parts Miracle Gro, I think, so I don't think I'll wait to re-pot 'papilio' x 'chico.' I cut off the leaves a couple days ago and would like to have the bulbs resettled before they start putting out new growth. I only saved seven of them. The leaves of Class of 2012, 'papilio' x 'emerald,' are yellowing, so next week might be a good time to re-pot those. The class of 2013, 'son of supermarket,' seems fine for the moment so I'll do them once I have new potting soil as well.
No sign of buds on the Nopalxochia yet, but it's early days. If my soul craves bloom over the next week or so, I have an overwintered begonia cutting that is blooming its head off under grow lights.
The reality, of course, is a lot different. Although the city has largely closed down (City Hall is closed, universities are closed, etc., etc.), all my colleagues who work at home on snowy days are churning out emails and such.
Still, I plan to knock off in a little bit and do snow day things. At the moment, snow day things include a pot of creamy tomato bisque with orzo, diced potato, lentil, and chopped spinach. I made it a couple hours ago and it will be a hearty lunch.
I only have two more snowflakes to make, starch, and block and I'm done for the year. That should happen tonight while we watch Downton Abbey. We've discovered that all the Masterpiece Theater stuff shows up on AppleTV the next day -- maybe even the same day, although I haven't tried that. We watched Sherlock last night --
poliphilo had complained that Series 3 was more about relationships than about mysteries, but that's okay with us. We're just happy to catch up with some old friends.Yesterday was Tom Baker's 80th birthday. The Fourth Doctor is and will always be *my* doctor, so I'm happy to see him looking reasonably hale and completely alert. I watched the four-part Season Sixteen story "The Ribos Experiment" Sunday just because I could.
Meanwhile, on the windowsills: I still have blooming Schlumbergera. There are two or three mature buds on the Madisto-like plant in the second-floor bathroom. Big Red, Mother of Dozens, still has more than a dozen flowers and/or buds on it, and my red late-bloomer that I always forget about is starting to bloom. So I have maybe another week. As long as the Schlumbergera are blooming Christmas isn't over.
The Class of 2009 keepers look pretty happy in their new pot. The biggest bulb, and the one I think/hope is the one that's my favorite, has the encouraging swelling that suggests a flower stalk is imminent, as well as some leaves. One of the class of 2011 ('trader joe' x 'gervase') is similarly swelling.
Thanks to the snow I can't get out to get the potting mixture I really prefer for my hippeastrums, but I have enough of it to make a mix of one part Preferred to two parts Miracle Gro, I think, so I don't think I'll wait to re-pot 'papilio' x 'chico.' I cut off the leaves a couple days ago and would like to have the bulbs resettled before they start putting out new growth. I only saved seven of them. The leaves of Class of 2012, 'papilio' x 'emerald,' are yellowing, so next week might be a good time to re-pot those. The class of 2013, 'son of supermarket,' seems fine for the moment so I'll do them once I have new potting soil as well.
No sign of buds on the Nopalxochia yet, but it's early days. If my soul craves bloom over the next week or so, I have an overwintered begonia cutting that is blooming its head off under grow lights.
