The News from South Philly

Testing my image hosting on Flickr

2026-01-03T16:59:03Z

Having a little trouble getting images into my post. This is my testbed.

Welp, that didn't work...

Let's try a non-shortened URL:

Nope.

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Crossposting test

2019-12-26T18:09:13Z

Crossposting test -- Dreamwidth to LiveJournal.

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Dear Diary / Garden Journal

2013-07-02T14:38:38Z

I've felt a great reluctance to post lately -- although I've been happily microblogging over at Teh Facebooks. But it's hard to search FB for things, so here's a gallimaufry.

Garden Journal:

The hippeastrum Class of 2013 is still soaking, and most of the seeds have sunk to the bottom. I am expecting to see some sprouting action over the weekend, or maybe not.
Valerie's sansevieria has put up a flower stalk. I hope this doesn't mean it's getting ready to die; if it dies, RoyJr will never forgive me. The rooted sansevieria in a vase on the mantel are still fine. The cuttings from another of those leaves have put out roots and resist an ungentle tug, but haven't put up any stalks yet.
The nopalxochia I rooted from a broken piece is thriving on the upstairs kitchen windowsill. The one I rooted and put on a windowsill in our bedroom, not so much. The one out back is growing like a madman so I am hoping for abundant bloom this winter, or next (I don't think they bloom on new growth).
The rosemary cuttings have made strong root growth and a little top growth, so I moved them out of the vermiculite and into potting mixture today. Their parent plants are getting to look a little gnarly and yuck.
Schlumbergera continue to crowd me out of house and home and I'd better move some of the seedlings to new homes before it's time to bring in the hippeastrums, all of which are looking pretty healthy at summer camp.
All three daylilies out back -- two in the ground, one in a pot, look to me like they're going to be Martian Invaders, based on the size and shape of the buds.
The powdery mildew on the auntie's rose is getting worse, so I've dosed it with Bayer 3-in-1 and will spray it if we ever get a dry day. I'll also prune off the affected leaves in the next couple of days.

In other news, I've had a busy week. Last Wednesday was the PACSCL retreat; Friday was the Tommy Emmanuel concert; Saturday was Wanamaker Organ Day.

Looks like a friend is going to pick me up and drive me out to the 'burbs so we can see Star Trek Into Darkness together. His idea...

And speaking of Benedict Cumberbatch (which is the reason behind my interest in the aforesaid film), here's a YouTube of Himself reading John Keats' Ode to a Nightingale:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TdphtMWjies

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Garden journal: windowsill report

2013-05-17T13:54:58Z

I no longer have any empty windowsills on the third floor. Once I'm sure the schlumbergera are happily settled in their new pots I will probably move them downstairs to the various tables in front of windowsills. I like my office and upstairs kitchen windowsills to serve as the intensive care areas.

Yesterday I took the Class of 2006 out back, and brought it right back in. The leaves are kind of streaky and in case they're suffering from the dread mosaic virus I don't want them near the other hippeastrums. The self-pollination of the last Class of 2009 flower looks promising. Once the pregnancy is completed (or aborted) they'll go out back and then come right back in if they look streaky.

The Franklinia is looking a tiny bit bigger.

The weather has warmed but the mosquitos haven't yet cranked up, so we can sit out back and enjoy ourselves of an evening. The rooted cuttings of coleus that I set out here and there are starting to take hold and lend their color to the corners, and the pansies are probably at their peak.

Tomorrow we volunteer for a Wanamaker Organ concert.

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Garden journal: empty windowsill

2013-05-15T03:25:26Z

Today I moved all those hippeastrum out back (and then right back into the dining room when the promised warm spell didn't materialize).

This left me some empty windowsill space up in the third floor. Which is a good thing, because it's high time to pot on the 15 or so Schlumbergera that have been languishing in market packs for about nine months too long. The current plan is to keep one or two and find good homes for the rest. One can only hope that with bigger pots and more careful watering and feeding they'll bloom this fall. Who can resist the gift of a blooming plant? One can only hope. After Christmas I'll want their windowsills again for the Hippeastrums, which will have had their autumn rest.

And so it goes, the circle of life. There's a volunteer tree growing in the wisteria pit. At this early stage in its life I can't tell whether it's in the apple family or (hiss!) a young mulberry. If the latter it will die a horrible death. If the former, it may live on, but in a pot.

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Garden journal: moving day

2013-05-14T12:04:25Z

Today the weather is predicted to grow sharply warmer and remain so for the rest of the week. So this afternoon's exercise will be the Great Hippeastrum Exodus. I have three of the slightly larger milk crates that I think will serve well as housing for the collection, supplementing the staking I did with their higher sides. The collection will get almost full shade for a day or two and then be moved a few feet to a space where they'll get sun in the mornings but won't be subjected to the hotter noonday or afternoon sun.

I see that LJ is in full meltdown this morning. Another DDoS attack, perhaps. Fortunately, there's Dreamwidth. I should train myself to post here, but I usually read over at LJ...

EDITED TO ADD: And I see LJ is back, so I'll attempt a crosspost. I'll add that the three crates have been brought inside after a good rinsing, and the first crate (the class of 2011) has been set out. The other two crates are loaded and ready to go downstairs. Meanwhile, new growth on Franklinia continues at a stately pace. As soon as the seedling has put down serious roots in its little yogurt container I'll plunk the whole container full of soil in a much larger pot.

If I had a bigger space I couldn't lavish all this attention (and write at such mind-numbing detail) on just a few plants. I'd be too busy doing epic battle with weeds and bugs.

Speaking of mind-numbing detail: I had potted up a couple pieces of creeping jenny a few weeks ago. Today I added them to the gallimaufry in my window boxes out front, and discovered that they'd sent roots clear down to the bottoms of their little pots. I had thought that the plant was very shallow-rooted, but apparently that's only when it's creeping. Once it has a foothold it gets more serious about putting down roots. (That's probably a metaphor for something if I were the reflective type.)

While I was fussing with my plants out front I had the storm door open, using that little flit-gun-like anti-slamming device and a little keeper. The Scamp came out to help. He alerted on a couple of passing dogs and looked positively alarmed at the sound of some smallish diesel trucks. But he was definitely in Mighty Explorer mode and went after my next door neighbors' tree pits. He was still investigating the smells when I had finished my work. I called and he ignored me, so I went out and herded him back inside. Herding cats is an art form -- too aggressive and they say screw you and scamper away, too timid and they pay no attention. Today I got it right and chuckled as I closed the door.

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New year, new floor

2013-01-08T17:47:15Z

I think I've mentioned that one of our "Christmas presents" to ourselves was the decision to get the hateful green carpet ripped up and replaced with hardwood flooring sooner rather than later. We're dipping into our retirement fund to do it, but what the heck. After sixteen years of living with a carpet that was pet-stained when we got here, I think we're due.

So Phase I of the process of readying the living room for this exercise was completed this morning when the piano movers came and took Mr. Kranch&Bach away to piano camp for the duration. I expect this to be the next to the last time we move this bad boy -- the last time will be in our retirement home.

There he is, all bundled up in his overcoat and on the bus

This weekend my cousin comes to pick up the blue furniture -- that stuff my mother thought was worth a bazillion bucks but turns out to be worth bupkis. I'm glad someone wants to keep it in the family. I've been its reluctant custodian for a decade. This cousin had relatively limited family contact as a child because her father, my uncle, died young and her mother naturally gravitated to her own side of the family in Maryland where they had lived. Linda is trying to pick up her Detter ancestry now and didn't get much of a shot at the family swag, such as it was. I'm delighted that she'll have her great-grandmother's furnture. Better her than me.

Once that's done, we turn our attention to books and books and books. Our living room is 23 feet long, punctuated by five feet of marble mantel, etc. The mantel is flanked on either side by 6' tall bookshelves -- I estimate 60-70 linear feet of books at minimum, and probably more. They'll get schlepped upstairs for the duration, a few boxes at a time, and will be unpacked and stacked in the now-empty guest room so that we can use the same boxes for transport again. I am also hoping that I can find a couple large big lads to move a big honking ugly bureau up there to make a little more lebensraum in the living room. Even a 23' long living room gets to feeling cramped with 18 feet of bookshelf, two overstuffed love seats, a big bureau and a 7 foot grand piano in it. (I'd trash the bureau except that it's useful for storing stuff.)

In another couple weeks I'm going to order two more things for the living room. First, I'll get a new cover for the piano because the one I inherited from my sister is starting to rip and also has pee and barf stains from the four cats she had at one time. Second, I'll get a large and very inexpensive polypropylene area rug. After spending $$$$ on the floor we have no money for a fancy schmancy carpet.

It's weird to see that big open space where the piano used to be, though. Dolly and her corner chair look quite forlorn.

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Windowsill phenology

2013-01-07T18:16:51Z

Schlumbergera 'gold charm' and 'Xmas flame' have had their peak bloom during the 12 days of Christmas. Good Schlumbergera! Gold Charm was the most prolific bloomer, and today I thought I saw signs that history was going to repeat itself -- a couple years ago it bloomed and then totally collapsed. I was able to take a few cuttings and keep them going. This year I'm taking a chance that it may just be very very thirsty and will attempt to rehydrate it.

'Madisto' has decided that this is the year for it to be a foliage plant. Its foliage is lush and beautiful and it has only put out two flowers. Well, at least it's healthy.

My attempt at a salmon NOID x 'xmas flame' cross appears not to have worked. So I guess those guys are sterile. Probably just as well; I have so many baby Schlumbergera it isn't even funny.

My class of 2012 Schlumbergera (Salmon NOID x 'Madisto') looks good.

I brought in Hippeastrum 'class of 2009' last week; a few days of warm weather has resulted in them breaking dormancy. This weekend I'll give them a good drink and shove some Schlumbergera aside so that they get some quality light.

Class of 2011 'Trader Joe' x 'Gervase" is looking good. I don't expect any bloom this year but I think they'll bulk up nicely over the coming growing season and perhaps I'll see something next year. The fussier crosses ('Papilio' x various cybister hybrids) look healthy but -- unsurprisingly -- diminutive, given their parents. Foliage-wise, all three of my 'Papilio' look great. Will they reward my devotion with a flower scape? Who the heck knows? They're known mostly for their unpredictability. My two juvenile 'Mandoni' are coming along but it will be awhile before they're ready to do anything. (In my lifetime, I hope...)

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For the folks who wonder about our urban redtails...

2013-01-07T15:24:22Z

http://sunnydixie.blogspot.com/

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2013 Snowflake

2013-01-07T15:09:54Z

This year's snowflake, adapted from a pattern by Faye Shelton. I don't love it the way I loved last year's, but it will do.

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Wild South Philly / First Snowflake

2013-01-04T22:05:41Z

I had two kinds of wild South Philly today. The first was drama at the bird feeder. There were no birds at all when I went down to make my omelet, despite a full bird feeder and a bitterly cold day. When I went to get a fork and looked out the window to see if there were any sparrows on our fence, I saw why: an enormous red-tailed hawk was sitting on our wisteria fence, not five feet from the house. I know they're big birds, but let me tell you, this guy was as big as or bigger than a Leghorn rooster. It stared at me with, I suspected, some disdain, and after a minute or two it took wing. It took about half an hour for the shaken sparrows to come creeping out of the hawkproof two-ply trellis on top of the fence.

The second wild thing was my wild boy at the elementary school. He saw me when I entered to do the tutoring and said, "oh, no, you again?" I think I was as happy as he was to find out that he had to go to some kind of social work assessment. Instead of the three ring circus I had my two girls and had a wonderful time reading about guide dogs with them.

The first snowflake didn't fall from the sky but sprang partly from my pattern book and partly from my mind. I wasn't happy with the way the pattern felt in my hands so I tweaked it. I was dubious until I blocked it; but now I think that once it has been thoroughly blocked I will like it a lot.

Since LJ has been frisky today I thought I'd post this on DW and let it crosspost when LJ is ready. [I forgot that I'd changed my LJ password, which is probably behind the repeated failures]

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Happy birthday, Nancy!

2012-05-29T15:17:26Z

It would have been my sister's 56th birthday today. This marks the official end of my Difficult Month Of May. (Here is my sister wearing her Happy Chemotherapy Poncho and being witchy on Hallowe'en after chemo in 2005)

It's already 91F at 11:00 a.m. Half an hour ago it was about that in my third floor office. The central air doesn't really reach up here. By the time the air gets up here it has picked up a lot of warmth along the way. (The chilled air doesn't like climbing those three flights of stairs any more than I do...) It is, however, dehumidified, so it's much more bearable. About half an hour ago I moved some hanging plants to summer quarters so that I can lower the east-facing Venetian blinds. I still have about 16" of naked window because the windowsills are full of plants, but I'll take 66% of light/heat deflection, thankyouverymuch. In that thirty minutes the temperature in here has dropped to 86, which feels deliciously cool after the higher temp.I'm also sitting here with a fan blowing across my wet hair -- another cooling thing. And I have rediscovered the joy of ice water from my 40 oz Harry Potter cup.

I got in a morning bike ride -- down the Lakes and back, 7 miles -- before the sun really took off and was home by 8:30. Go me.

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Thirty-six flights of stairs

2012-05-28T21:37:14Z

There are three flights of stairs between my office and the washer and dryer. I did four loads of laundry. That means six round trips at six flights per trip.

My knees aren't terribly happy today, although they started out fine.

I didn't ride my bike today.

Tomorrow it's supposed to go up to 100F. If I get on that bike it will be early.

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Windowsill report

2012-03-25T15:42:50Z

Looks like 'gervase' x 'apple blossom' is aborting. I'm not terribly upset -- I will have more than enough experiments from the Class of 2012, I fear. 'Papilio' x 'emerald' still looks good, and so does 'apple blossom' x 'gervase,' which was pollinated the same day. Too early to tell on the other crosses. Another 'gervase' is opening and I think I may just dab a little leftover 'emerald' on one of the flowers just because I can.

Look at this pretty seed packet:

Proceeds from the sale of this open pollinated heirloom hardy hibiscus (H. moscheutos) will benefit the City Harvest program, so I'm doing good by growing plants. Imagine that! I also have no idea what I'll do with 10-15 hardy hibiscus plants, assuming good germination. Actually, I do: dividend plants for the PHS member appreciation day; gifts to the going-green neighbors with rain gardens; possibly one or two in the Julian Abele park if the powers that be will deign to accept them. Or perhaps some guerrilla gardening in the new Wal*Mart rain garden!

Here's more about the seeds from Hudson Valley Seed Library:
http://www.seedlibrary.org/wp/hardy-hibiscus-limited-edition-pack/

(karenkay, be sure to click the link and scroll down to see that ukulele is the instrument of John Bartram!)

In other news, I salvaged a leaf segment from the presumed-dead Sansevieria and will attempt to root one piece in vermiculite and another in water.

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Flower Show and windowsills

2012-03-24T16:37:56Z

I have finally finished editing my Flower Show photos and uploading to Flickr. In what is surely an abundance of overkill, I have included 761 photos. This does not include the 300-plus photos from setup week, nor does it include Roy's photos, which still remain to be edited.

I like it as a slide show, to be accompanied by lovely music and a glass of wine, and perhaps a bit of needlework. It runs about an hour:

And I finished just in time, too -- the Macy's Flower Show opens tomorrow. Not as big a deal, but I do want to get some shots. The theme this year is Brazil, and the plant list looks suspiciously like Hawaii leftovers.

With no photo editing to do today, I'm turning my attention to seed starting and seedling potting on. First step is soaking all my containers in bleach. Once they've been sterilized and dried, I'll start some marigold seeds...pot up some basil, marjoram, parsley, and thyme seedlings in individual market pack cells...and finally cull the Class of 2011 and pot on the 15-20 robust of the 50-plus seedlings.

Today is the much-feared Day 28 for the 'papilio' x 'emerald' seed pod. If a pod is going to abort, it generally does it by Day 28, and mine looks fine. Next hurdle, some time in the next 10 days, is seeing if I got real seed or just chaff. Other developing pods (pollinated March 7 and March 19) still look promising.

Earlier today I opened the plastic bag containing the canna roots I dug up last fall and left in the unheated Anderson House. They're putting out roots and shoots. The sansevieria I left out there has apparently given up the ghost, although the volunteer spider plant that was in the pot oddly enough has not. I think I'll cut back the sansevieria foliage, water the pot and see what happens. One leaf still has some life in it, so I may take a cutting -- I've never tried that, but there's a first time for everything.

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Springerle time...

2012-01-28T22:44:15Z

There are only two springerle left in the cookie jar. I have new flavorings and a cookie cutter for the Amo Te heart. And Roy is off looking at train pictures with the guys. Imperfect but [one hopes] tasty almond springerle will happen tonight and tomorrow.

I have cleared most of the horizontal surfaces in my office in addition to those in the kitchen. I am determined to roll the whole batch tonight and bake them all tomorrow afternoon, after church.

In other news, it was a sunny day, not particularly cold or windy, so I biked down to deepest south philly to buy cheap cuts of beef at the Shop-Rite. Then it was off to the Big 8 for veggies and fruits. A very nice day.

Also: it appears my Yahoo! account was hacked, and I spammed addresses that haven't been current for years, so the hackers pillaged my old old old mail, bleah. I changed my password and am running a full system scan and hope that will do the trick.

Also also: five of the eleven Class of 2006 keepers are putting out leaves. A couple of them are in the habit of doing nothing and then suddenly sending up a flower scape, so I hope that's what they're up to right now. The discards are also sprouting in the basement, leaving me in a quandary about what to do about them. Exotica's offset is putting up a scape, woo-hoo. No signs of flower scapes from the Class of 2009 yet, oh well.

Now I am going to relax with a cup of jasmine tea, my crocheting, a slide show of 2010 photos, and some tunes before starting the springerle marathon.

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Hippeastrum

2012-01-27T03:09:18Z

There's a flower scape emerging from my Hippeastrum 'exotica.' The leaves are showing some symptoms of [possibly] hippeastrum mosaic virus. If the flowers look fine, I'm keeping the bulb. That is all.

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Dear Diary: January 24. Yesterday was orchids

2012-01-24T19:12:10Z

There aren't too many things nicer than seeing beautiful, fragrant, exotic flowers. Except for seeing beautiful, fragrant, exotic flowers in a library. In the middle of winter. With a little snow on the ground.

So I took pictures, and pictures, and pictures, ostensibly for the librarian but actually for me.

While I was there I noticed she had a large book of prints in a vitrine, opened to an orchid page, but I forgot to check and see what it was, much less photograph it. I guess I'll just have to go back.

Meanwhile, here's a slideshow of 39 highly orchidaceous photos.

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Dear Diary: January 23 -- Happy New Year and Bad Attitude Day

2012-01-23T18:27:21Z

Happy New Year! It's the Year of the Dragon this year, and my local supermarket (Sieu Thi BIG 8 Supermarket) gave out these calendars to its customers. My son lusted after it, but it's mine, Preciousss. So I got him something else almost demented from one of the bazaar stalls in the same plaza as the Big 8.

Since it's a holiday, in a manner of speaking, I did the bare minimum of mission-critical deadline work this morning and knocked off around noon to make chocolate snickerdoodles for Roy. In a little bit, I'll knock off for the day, go have something to eat, and then head over to the Horticultural Society to photograph some orchids at the request of the librarian, who is hosting a pre-Flower Show orchid exhibition.

I'm also going to get a quick training session on the HortSoc's blogging platform so that I can join the merry band of unpaid contributors. I must say I'm really looking forward to it.

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Dear Diary: January 22

2012-01-22T16:46:17Z

I can see lots of rooftops from my office window, and they're all covered with snow. The skies have that leaden going-to-snow-any-minute look, but it's bogus. We're supposed to get temps in the 50s tomorrow. Still, it gives me a cozy feeling to have it looking like winter today.

The deaccessioning of miscellaneous stuff continues apace. I've been through several junk drawers in the living room and should be finished with that room today. During the course of the next week I'll work on the dining room. I'm not yet ready to get rid of family heirlooms, but I'm edging closer!

Do I really need to save a Big Chief tablet with three or four sheets of paper left, just because an old friend used "on a Big Chief" as a metaphor for a scrawled communication? No, I think a scan will do. I'm amassing a mental list of things I plan to photograph and give away, too.

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Dear Diary: January 20

2012-01-20T15:17:15Z

I am working on reducing the quantity of stuff around here. It's not easy, but I had an epiphany today. If there's something I don't want for its intrinsic usefulness, but it has sentimental value, I can always take a picture of it and then put it in the trash / yard sale box. I am looking at the house with fresh eyes and building a little list.

Hippeastrum 'papilio' continues to send out shoots but doesn't look like any hippeastrum I've ever seen before. Take a look at this:

It sure looks different from all the others I've seen, in which a fan of leaves comes from the center and the flower scape either comes from the fan or from the side. Here it looks like the flower scape is in the center (it's a thick thing, not like leaf nubbins) and then there's an odd cluster of leaves coming out of the side.

Well, anyhow, it's growing.

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Another craftsy project

2012-01-16T13:54:46Z

My son emailed me last month asking how to clean the felt embroidered ornaments I made for him in the 1980s. Later, on the phone, he told me the tale: some years ago, in a mad post-holiday cleaning fit, he shoved a decorated artificial tree into a closet. Life happened, and he wasn't decorating for Christmas for some years. By the time he remembered it, it was a horrendous dusty mess. A couple of the ornaments weren't used that year so they're okay.

I have no clue how one would clean stuffed felt ornaments. So I suggested immersing them gently in cold water with a little diswashing detergent, swishing gently, rinsing the same way, and then drying on a towel. He plans to do it one of these days. If it's not successful he'd like new ornaments, please.

How grubby are they? Well, I asked him to scan them so that I could figure out which of the ten in the Vogue pattern I hadn't done yet. Here's just how grubby they are:

I had experimented with a couple of color palettes over the years. He says he prefers the one I used for the kittycat. (I made the kittycat's eyes blue at his request.) I haven't embroidered for about a decade and am not sure that either my fine motor skills or my eyesight are good enough for this kind of work any more.

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January 14: The springerle chronicles, continued

2012-01-14T16:22:38Z

I still had dough in the fridge waiting to be rolled, molded, cured, and baked. So this time I rolled the stuff about as thin as I could, which means about 3/8". I did three or four "amo te" hearts, none of the big blobby roses, a heap of my single shallow rose rounds, and 20 of my smaller two-rose mold.

Just for grins, I plan to poke a couple holes in one of the amo te hearts just before I shove it in the oven. Perhaps just enough steam will escape that way. Or nor. Who cares at this point? The last batch were suboptimal, but they *were* cooked through and they taste fine.

UPDATE: the ones with holes poked in them didn't explode, but the holes are pretty visible. Also, I think I left these guys out too long and they dried too much. I do not heart their texture. I have plans to carpet the kitchen AND my office with cut-out springerle, an entire batch-full. Twelve hours later, let the bake-a-thon begin!

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January 14: The springerle chronicles

2012-01-14T13:46:48Z

I am not a happy bunny.

I thought I finally had rolled and molded these big guys thin enough that they wouldn't puff and split. Apparently not. At the moment, the alternate recipe (no butter, no hartshorn) is looking more enticing. Or perhaps the gingerbread recipe that has no eggs and hardly any baking soda.

It may be time to back away from the cookie molds entirely and do something else for awhile. I feel as though I've been in pink springerle hell for a lifetime, even if it's only been a few days.

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January 14: LJ down

2012-01-14T11:56:29Z

LJ doesn't appear to be happening right now. This is a test to see if this crossposts if and when LJ comes back up.

[Edit: it didn't crosspost. But LJ is back up so perhaps this edited version will...]

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