Plant Appreciation Post: End of the Growing Season!

Well squirrel friends, it’s almost the end of another year. I was hoping I’d get some fall plantings done, but I missed the window to start seedlings indoors, so I’ll just have to appreciate what spring and summer had given me, which was plenty!

In the skinny planter on the table, I’d started some goji from seed. I got my seeds from the regular dried goji at the grocery store, and they were very robust/had a great germination rate! Better than from a seed packet I’d purchased the year before. By the dog potty are daylilies and pampas grass.
Up on the trellis I have a mystery squash type. It gave edible blossoms most of the season, but never made fruit so I can’t really tell what it is/was! It’s sandwiched by fruit trees and a big o’ mess of thyme. Behind the gorgeous canna are some volunteer peppers from the compost.
On this side we have basil, beets, calendula, canna, lavender, nasturtium, sage, sesame (already harvested), strawberry, and tomatoes. All of which were grown from seed.
A box of my alpine mignonette strawberries, fig and polar berry behind it, and an evergreen in the corner. Plus a peek at my row of yam leaves.
And here’s the full yam row with epazote, ice plant, pineapple & tomatoes towards the back.
These peperomia obtusifolia were from a single plant I’d bought years ago. They propagate easily!
I had to trim this kangaroo fern that lives by my bathtub. One time it grazed my back as I was getting into the tub & I almost died.
Here’s a Worry Lines comic that explains why the fascination with growing green things in and around the house.

It’s eBay time again

I’m starting to think auctions/limited time listings are not the format that work best for me, but I can’t give anything just one try so here we are.

These Converses I have worn only twice. Selling for $45 with shipping included, bidding starts at $10. Click the image to see the listing.
These Sesto Meucci sneakers I have worn only once, but it was on a walking trail. Selling for $35 with shipping included, bidding starts at $10. Click the image to see the listing.
Let’s just take a quick kitty cat break, and have some water
because hydration is important
These Naot loafers I have never worn. I thought I was going to be a teddy girl for half a minute. Selling for $35 with shipping included, bidding starts at $10. Click the image to see the listing.
The Michael Kors ballet flats have a cool chain detail going around the back. I’ve never worn them, just thought I was going to be this punk core witch once in a fever dream. Selling for $60 including shipping, bidding starts at $25. Click the image to see the listing.
Kitty cat / Plant break concludes this presentation.
Bonus kitty cat & plant content. This is my orchid that never grows and doesn’t die. Is it cursed because it was stolen?!

Bye now, kitty friends, you take care now.

 

Return to Philly – the picture essay

When I got back from California, urgent businesses awaited me!

Chief among them: the babies needed cuddling ASAP
In fact I was quite the hot commodity
I examined Wallace’s precious little paws
And gave some excellent ‘scritches too
Of course the dogs also had to have special treatment: for example “joining” us at dinner
We even started to make serious progress in the introductory efforts, at least with Lizzie that is 😐
Lizzie does an excellent job of playing possum/pretending to be asleep and inching closer to her new brothers
But ultimately she’s too chicken to make direct eye contact (I think she gets that from me)

(near) cuddles over, I installed this corner cat scratcher I got from Grocery Outlet for Heller & Wallace, thanks Steffi for showing me the glories that is a well-stocked Grocery Outlet!
The animals all settled, it was time to address the plant babies gifted to me by the most wonderful souls
Potted: two strings of dolphins from Ella, a string of watermelon from Corinne, and a Stephania from Steffi 🙂

And a variegated tradescantia pup Corinne snipped off for me to prop. (I tried to kidnap Bestie’s more established pup that was already rooted, but Corinne refused to budge)
Besides generous gifts, my other $0 garden plants come from seed saves. Pictured here is calendula (easy to grow annual with beautiful edible flowers) from my existing plantings (I once bought seeds 3 seasons ago).
Other saved seeds: butternut squash from groceries, morning glory from a volunteer plant on my roof deck, and shriveled strawberries from my 2 year old alpine mignonette

In other $0 plant/tradescantia news, I found this on the ground while walking doggos! (pro-tip: propagate your new pups with spider plant pups because they share their rooting hormones in the water!)

All this out of the way, next up for me is probably back to the eBay grind then 🙁

California Dreamin’ – a picture essay

Recently I visited California in order to celebrate Mini’s birthday in person with her

Nana chipped in these BEAUTIFUL flowers & various wonderful presents! I got to take a “in front of the fireplace and mantel” prom style picture of Mini with these but we won’t show you cos we be real shy

Here’s her back instead. We drove to Redondo Beach (24 hour parking right by the sand!) so this real true blooded California girl could put her feet in the sand for the countdown to her birthday

one caveat is that the bathrooms are closed from 11p to 6a as we found out rather painfully

I also had the opportunity to pot Mini’s backup 😛 “Graduation Pineapple” that Corinne is graciously helping us raise

In other plant news, Mini suggested we visit a favorite plant nursery of ours in town and it was REALLY hard to part with this beauty but I knew I couldn’t take it home. I still miss you :'(

Mini, however, enjoys PLANTY of room in her spacious abode and snagged this gorgeous milky nephthytis

We also visited Amanda/mom/sis/OG Dr. Wise Money and jointly chose a CA native (Mexican Star) to give away in her name

my mom made us these delicious foods

I also tried my hands at dinner on 3 separate nights, this one being probably the most successful

a close up of my oven baked chawanmushi that ended up overdone so she was a bit dry and salty, oops

my garlicky oven baked eggplants. I ended up baking about half the dishes because I needed everything ready in a relatively short amount of time to make my flight! (Wise Money Grandpa was a STAR being a tireless sous chef that washed and chopped most everything)

this was also the trip we found out that Mini is TALLER than Wise Money Grandpa! (don’t let the hair fool you)

I asked Mini a hilarious question in comic form when she took a birthday nap but weirdly she didn’t find it funny at all

Mini helped me steal dog bestie from my human bestie for a day too

And I met her new kitty friend, who was the catalyst in Heller & Wallace joining our family recently

I got some pictures of dogs sleeping on pillows. This one is of my favorite fur niece.

And bestie is a pro!

Cat Updates and Last Week in General

When we last left Heller & Wallace they’d just started getting out from under the bed & showing me love.

In fact I thought they would always lovingly embrace & groom each other for all of time
But on day three it became clear they were Spicy Bois. Other spicy behavior include biting for attention and trying to eat directly out of the kibble container.
Seeing as they were fully out of their shells, we began the process to introduce the dogs. Here Wallace the Brave is looking at Abbie.
Lizzie stares into the transitional cat room at nothing because the cats did not wish to be looked at & she is coming on too strong.
Wallace gets closer within the day.

Then as of this morning we had a successful escape in which we found out these Slender Bois can in fact slip through the gate! Wallace the Escapee was roundly sniffed by Abbie & then escorted back to his temporary accommodations in my arms.

In the afternoon I built their new poop palace & of course it was thoroughly inspected before it even met completion.

In other, much less exciting news. My first foray into reselling was a resounding failure. The only sale I made turned out to be to a scammer so I had to cancel. I’m leaving town tomorrow to visit our Mini so shelving the resell project once again for hopefully not long, at least not as long as 5 years!

Buddy, I wasn’t born yesterday.