Author: iagardener55

The plants are thriving; I am sure it is because of the warmer weather, and the grow lights! Not to mention the new plant app. Here are some cuttings I have had in water for about two months.

You cannot see it, but there are about ten spikes from the original mother in laws tongue, or snake plant, (Sansevieria trifaciata) that I cut, and placed in a yogurt container with water. They have all developed roots, and will be planted in a container, like their parent plants. We now have ten new plants, that will, one day, make more plants. The cycle continues.

Here is what the parent plants look like now. They normally grow with a arrow shaped top edge, so when I cut them back to root for new pants, that was how I cut them. It is hard to tell which ones I trimmed, and which are untouched. Fascinating.

Coming home from Los Altos, I was able to bring back a treasure trove of veg. Just look at this. All of them are fresh from someone’s garden, or farm. Yum.

You probably know what all of the vegetables are, except, possibly, the curly green chilies, top left. Those are called chile de árbol, but these are fresh. Normally, chile de árbol is used in the dried form, so most people recognize them as a dried red chile. These, however, are fresh, so they are green. Still have the spiciness of the árbol chile, definitely, but with a difference that is inherent in its being fresh.

The yellow chile, that looks like the habanero, is a form of habanero, but a bit less killer on the Scoville scale of chile heat index. I do not remember, at the moment, what Liz called it, but we are going to try it, and see what happens.

I was able to procure some cuttings from a plant called a String-of-Pearls, (Senecio rowleyanus), which I placed in a small jar of water, just before we left for Los Altos. They already had roots about one inch in length when we returned home. Happy day. Right now, there are only two small strands, about three inches long. If I am able to acquire more cuttings, I will add them to the container. This is when I must use a bit of patience. Here is what it will look like sometime later in the year.

I am not sure what I am going to make with all of the fresh veg, though I am considering a version of ratatouille. We shall see. Until then, please, stay happy, stay healthy, stay safe. Wash your hands, cover your mouth, and protect your loved ones.

It is an absolutely beautiful day, and we are traveling, to LA.

This weekend is the annual fair, and we are hoping to be able to see some of it. I say hoping because it has been raining for about a week! I, personally, could care less if it is raining or not. We are out of isolation, even if it is only a temporary reprieve. I will take what I can get.

It recharges my internal batteries, when we get out of the apartment! The sun is shining, the temperature is a mild seventy two degrees Fahrenheit, twenty two degrees Celsius. There is a cool breeze, and the sky is a beautiful light blue, with puffy, swirling white clouds. An amazing day; another reason to live here.

We are actually taking some things to LA, to be left there; we can stop lugging clothes, makeup, toiletries, etc. back, and forth. Win, win. Not a big deal when we take the BMW, but with the Mercedes, even with its good sized trunk, there never seems to be enough room, especially sitting room.

We are going to celebrate my father in law’s birthday when we get home, on Sunday. He will turn ninety three tomorrow, the twenty sixth of June. Here he was, two days ago. Excellent shape for his age.

We are working diligently to get the apartment cleaned up enough to bring Juan over to live with us. We miss having him with us, to get us outside, walking, sitting at the table, talking. I used to make him coffee at night, before he went to bed. I miss that. I will pick up more Spanish with him living with us, as well.

This post is taking forever, with all of the bumping around in the backseat! So, please, stay happy, stay healthy, stay safe. Wash your hands, cover your mouth, and protect your loved ones. We are going to the fair.

Post script: we have been “on the road “ one hour and are still in town!!!

Every day, I get up, and do, basically, the same things. I like to have a routine, of sorts.

Today, we went to the store, briefly, and bought a few things, for our two families, that we will take to LA (Los Altos), with us this weekend. As we were driving home, a feeling of complete comfort, and tranquility washed over me, like a wave. It feels so “right”, to be here, in this place, at this time.

It brought me a moment of contentment, and a profound peace to my soul.

A week, or so, ago, I had a similar feeling, but this time, it was much more pronounced, and affected me more strongly than before. I am not sure, really, if I have described it accurately, but that is the best I can do, in either language. Someone pinch me.

Just coming out of the store, it started raining a bit; nothing too serious. Then, about five minutes later, it was a downpour. The drops were huge, which, for those of us growing up in the North, usually means it will not last long. Not so here! It rained like that for about fifteen minutes.

The rain does not run into the drains in the streets, as it does up North, so there are large areas of collected water everywhere. There are drains, just not like in the States. One needs to look forward, on the ground, to make a path that keeps ones vehicle, and ones feet the driest.

Whilst we were driving around, however, I happened to remember that I had left all of the windows open, and I do mean all of them. When we got home, however, not a single drop of rain was anywhere in the house. Thank you Jesus! Lesson learned.

Leaving the apartment, shut the windows.

I hope your week is going well, and that you are happy, healthy, and safe. Wash your hands, cover your mouth, and protect your loved ones, while you are at it.

It was fast, this past weekend; too fast for our liking! One cannot have everything, however, now can one?!

We spent a quick Saturday evening, into Sunday afternoon at Los Altos again. This coming weekend is their annual fair, and, it looks like it should be fun. Some of the rides were already setting up, on a street we needed to pass through, no less. No big deal. There are several streets through which we can pass. And, we did.

We brought home some lovely veg from the family “shop”. Raymund, and his wife, Maria, Jesús’s parents, sell veg from a small store on the top floor, in the front part of their house. We brought carrots, (zanahorias), zucchini, (calabaza), spinach, (espinaca), limes, (limones), and, tomatillos, (the small green tomatoes, used for salsa verde). I am going to make a cream of veg soup today, or tomorrow. But, first, I am going to wait to see how much energy I have today. Truth to tell, it is overcast, and I can definitely see myself tumbling back into bed sometime later this morning. As you already know, sleep is an illusion for some of us, so we take it when we can get it, however long it lasts.

So, while I am napping, please, stay happy, stay healthy, stay safe. Wash your hands, cover your mouth, and protect your loved ones.

Post script: the plants are loving the electric sunshine. Everything is looking happy, and healthy. We hope you are, too.

We now have four of them. They are making all the difference in our plants.

Two of the lights have bulbs in the blue spectrum, and are helping my herb seeds sprout. The other two have bulbs in the red spectrum, and are giving “sunlight” to the established plants.

I wish I could show you the difference forty eight hours has made in the more mature plants; the spider plant, for example, is a vibrant green now, instead of the incipient pale green it has become since living in our apartment.

When the plants started drooping, I thought they wanted water, when all they really wanted was some loving sunshine. Now, I can learn, and will recognize the difference between thirst, and hunger.

The blue in the photo above is from the blue spectrum bulbs, concentrating on the seeds.

Here is a photo of the red spectrum bulbs, on either side of the open windows, giving much needed sunlight to the rest of the plants. Once the seeds sprout, I will move those two lamps to the back bedroom, and use two more red spectrum bulbs for all of the larger plants. The poor things need more light; soon.

We are on our way to Los Altos again; we are dropping off Liz and Gaby, and will return home tomorrow; unfortunately. It is so peaceful there, it is hard to leave. We are returning next weekend for the annual fair, however. We have been told that the whole village turns out. We are anxious to see it ourselves.

Please, until we talk again, stay happy, stay healthy, stay safe. Wash your hands, cover your mouth, and protect your loved ones.

We have walked to the bank, where I am, at present, waiting outside, and, enjoying ever moment.

The air is fresh, and the sky is a beautiful turquoise blue, complete with sparse, yet, puffy white clouds. It is a moderate seventy five degrees Fahrenheit, twenty four degrees Celsius. What could be better?

This is my idea of a perfect day. Plus, we are out of the apartment, and getting some much needed exercise. I feel like we have awakened from comas, and are up, and about for the first time in a month. We really need to do this more often.

We are home now, and have just come downstairs from the living quarters of our friends, Jesús, Lizbeth, and their three year old son, Gabi. I do not know what else to call it, as it is just a room, (on the roof of the condo), about ten feet by ten feet, with a bathroom. The “kitchen” is in another, separate “room”, about five by five, which you can only get to by going out of their room, and, into an adjoining room; they are not connected. It has no windows. The walls, and floor are concrete, and the roof is corrugated tin.

There is just enough room for a full sized bed, that the three of them share, a regular sized dresser, with about six drawers, and a small chair.

The laundry is done outside, in their washing machine, which is up next to the wall of the back side of their living space. Everything is hung up to dry there, as well. The only window is in the bathroom. I do not know what I expected but that was not it.

In Los Altos, when their home is finished, it will have three bedrooms, two full bathrooms, a large, eat-in kitchen, a dining room, and living room; if all goes as planned. It will be huge; not just in comparison to what they endure now, but to what anyone, here, has. It will have three livable levels, and it will be amazing. We cannot wait for it to be finished.

Until then, please, stay happy, stay healthy, stay safe. Wash your hands, cover your mouth, and protect your loved ones.

So many nights we have gone without much sleep; much interrupted sleep it has been.

Not so last night, by golly. Last night, for the first time since Los Altos, I, at least slept almost the entire night. Had a bit of help with my friend twenty five milligrams of Benadryl; that friend.

It rained, quite hard, for about twenty minutes, just before I went to bed, so I got to enjoy that. (Unfortunately, I only heard one clap of thunder, much to my dismay.) Once again, however, my jumpy legs had me up, walking the floor, a half hour later; only for about thirty minutes, though. Then, back to bed for the night. Wow. What a difference a nights sleep makes.

The plants all seem to be doing well, especially now, with the new grow lights. I have some different bulbs coming; these, it appears, are for starting seedlings, which I am not doing, at the moment. After the next new set of clamp on lamps arrives, I am going to try to sprout some Genovese basil, as well as chives, cilantro, dill, oregano, and sage. I bought the seeds, on line, from somewhere, some time in the winter, hoping for warmer weather, I guess.

We do have a bit of basil at the moment, but the leaves are very small, not like the Genovese basil, which is what I am used to. In fact, they look so much like the mint, that I planted a mint plant, and, the basil plant in the same pot, when they arrived last week, thinking they were two basil plants. I did not even notice until yesterday. It made me laugh.

They have been successfully separated, each having its own pot.

Yesterday, I decided to start rooting some cuttings from most of the herb plants, as well. It is called insurance. In spite of my best efforts, I feel the need, at the moment, to have backup, just in case I lose control of the watering can again. I mean, I have spoken with Ivan about not watering the plants so much that they drown.

That was funny. He does not have any idea what is happening in the jungle. He just knows that it makes me happy, to have all of these living things around us, helping us be happy, especially in this time of semi-self incarceration.

Again, we have not been out of the apartment for at least two, maybe, even, three weeks. It gets depressing, seeing the same stuff, day in, and, day out. But, as I have said before, at least we are alive to be bored. Always a plus in my book.

Well folks, it is that time again, when I beseech all of you to stay happy, stay healthy, and stay safe. Wash your hands, cover your mouth, and protect your loved ones.

Post script: happy birthday to my older brother, Eric. I absolutely cannot believe how old the four of us are getting.

For the first time in several months, (as you will know if you are “following the dream” with us,) I have had two, maybe three, nights of only slightly interrupted sleep. Yay.

Normally, we go to bed about eleven o’clock, and are up, again, about eleven thirty. We watch some computer stuff, then, back to bed, around twelve; up, again, about one am. Then, back to bed about three, sleeping, maybe, until five thirty. Up, again, then down about six. Some deep sleep after six, and, finally, up for the day around seven thirty, or eight. Ivan is usually up more often than I am, but sleeps later in the morning.

In the past few days, I have gone to bed at about the same time, getting up only once, about eleven thirty to watch a show, or two, on the computer, then back to bed about twelve thirty, sleeping until about three, not getting up, except to go to the bathroom, then, back to bed until seven thirty, at which time I have been getting up for the day.

My most productive time is in the morning, while everything is still a bit dark, but, more importantly, quiet. I really enjoy, sitting at the table, (read, the “office” 😉 having a nice big, hot cup of fresh coffee, listening to the different parts of the building, and our fellow inmates, arising to a new day.

I give a good look-over to all of the plants in the living room, and, adjust things accordingly; water this one, leave the rest alone. This morning I came out to see the heliotrope leaning over, hoping to be noticed. The water meter showed it was on the dry side, so, it got a drink. I will see if it helps.

We must be in one of the rainy seasons here, these past few days, as there has not been much sunshine. Fortunately for the plants, I have two new grow lights coming in the mail today. Thank you Amazon. Now, if I can find a couple of working outlets, things should improve.

That is one thing of which one can never have enough; outlets. We have counted, and, decided that we need about twice the number of outlets currently in the apartment. Not really sure how that will come about, as the walls are concrete, but, as I am not the contractor, it is not my job to figure it out. My job it to explain the need to him, and provide the necessary funding, and he can do the magic. Job done.

I am going to stop now, as I am trying to listen to a book on Audible.com, while writing this post, and, am having very little success with either. I cannot think, and type intelligibly at the same time. (Wow, that was an understatement, if ever I read one. Hahaha)

I am listening, currently, to the fourth book in the Cormoran Strike detective series, by Robert Galbraith, (a.k.a. J.K. Rowling; that is correct, the creator of Harry Potter,). If you think the HP series is creative genius, read the CS series. She goes from amazing Sy-Fy fantasy, to murder, without skipping a beat. It will keep you on your toes. Guaranteed.

Please, in the meantime, stay happy, stay healthy, stay safe. Wash your hands, cover your mouth, and protect your loved ones, will you? Thanks.

Post script: those with Amazon Prime Video, and/or, an HBO subscription, can watch the first two books as a TV series, starting with the Cuckoo’s Calling, then Lethal White. Amazing.

What did you find, you ask? The name of the flower that I bought called a Mona Lisa!

I searched the internet, for about thirty minutes, this morning, before finally giving up, and going to bed. But, when I got up, just now, boom. It hit me. Read on.

I have been up since about six thirty, after having, finally, fallen asleep, this morning, around two. I could not find the name of the very pretty plant that was delivered yesterday, called Mona Lisa. All I could find, under that search, was an obviously, very old, but weirdly familiar looking painting. Argh!

After a few hours of fitful rest, I got up, and searched for Monalisa, in Spanish. Here it is. Eschinanto. (Sleep is so highly overrated.)

Absolutely beautiful, is it not? Unfortunately, it is not identifiable in the plant care app I have, Plantin. I have sent them a request for it to be added, so I will see if that happens anytime soon. For now, however, I will have to get my care instructions from the internet, then, somehow, remember to follow them. What could possibly go wrong with that idea?!!

There are a few others I need to look up, but that I will do later today. Actually, I will probably wait until the sleepless wee hours of the morning, giving me something to do, since sleeping is out of the equation.

Now, if I can just find out what the common name for the Millonaria is. The best I can tell, it is a Swedish ivy. It does not look like an ivy to me. The leaves are growing directly out of the prior stem.

Until that time, please, stay happy, stay healthy, stay safe. Wash your hands, cover your mouth, and protect your loved ones.

Post script: a very happy birthday to our wonderful b-i-l, Brian. Many more. Hope you are happy, healthy and safe, all the white enjoying a well deserved retirement.

I got another batch of plants today. So many of the herbs I bought earlier, drowned. I simply do not understand how that happens.

I am going to start hiding my beautiful watering cans; out of sight, out of my hands. Even the aloe vera drowned. Who else drowns their plants? Probably no one but me. If I was not in the apartment all of the time, maybe that would help. But I am, and there is no getting around that; not for the foreseeable future, that is.

Here are a few photos of our ever enlarging jungle.

This little beauty is called a Darling Orchid, of the common genus, Phalaenopsis, and is only about eight inches from flower to the pot bottom. I figured, it I kill it, it is so small I may not grieve too much.

I am trying to get the most use out of this one window box. Most of the plants, in the middle, are herbs; basil, sage, oregano, thyme, rosemary, lavender, parsley, a few scrawny chives, and some epazote. I was able to use some fresh thyme, and rosemary the other day, in a dish, and some rosemary tonight, when I basted the fish with butter, and rosemary. It was delicious.

We also got a new Areca palm, (five bucks folks), as the other one is, what? You got it; drowning. I bought twenty four plants total, for around ninety dollars. Five dollars for a palm tree! You cannot beat that with a stick.

Other than the pink orchid, the pink flowers, at either end, are Cyclamen; they are so pretty. I have never had the opportunity to grow those, so we shall see if I can grow them here.

The small orange flower, top photo, middle, front row, is a Calendula; it has medicinal properties, none of which I can remember at present. I have to tell you, though, that I tried growing this from seed from when we bought our first house, in Moline, IL, in nineteen hundred and eighty two. Nothing. They never grew.

The bright red plant in the middle, is known as an Anthurium; here it is called Anthurio. It is commonly called a Flamingo flower, because of the bright red flower disc’s. I am not going to explain it all here because A) I am too tired, and B) I really do not understand all of the terminology; (most especially at one o’clock in the morning.)

We wanted some flowering elements, so the aforementioned are the flowers I bought. Oh, I forgot, the Heliotrope; last photo, fourth plant from the right; three snake plants then the Heliotrope. It is tall with purple flowers; also medicinal.

Last, but not least, in the first photo, just to the right of the tall ZZ plant, is, what here is called a Mona Lisa. What its true name is, I cannot say. When I look it up, it says it is a lipstick plant. Not so, I say. The leaves look similar to a violet, and the flower is tiny, and looks like an orchid. Who knows? I certainly do not.

The Anthurium was the second most expensive plant, coming in at sixteen dollars, but the new Rubber tree plant won first prize, at twenty dollars. Each of the herbs were one dollar each. What is not to like?!

Until next time, please, stay happy, stay healthy, stay safe. Wash your hands, cover your mouth, and protect your loved ones.