My Thelma & Louise

THELMA

 I've told this tale before, so if you've heard it--skip on by! 

The story begins around 1989.  I was living in Central Kentucky and teaching elementary school.  My closest friend had recently graduated and was also teaching music in the same county.  He was planning for his marriage and needed to shore up his finances, so he took on a evening job cleaning an office building.  The offices of an architectural drafting company to be specific.  Because I knew our time together would change once he was married, I would sometimes accompany him to this job and help him do it.  It shortened his evenings, and gave us time to talk and be together--mostly in the car on the way to and from the office building.

The last thing to do was take down all the garbage bags and toss them into dumpsters at the rear.  On one evening I espied the stalk of a plant.  Upon further investigation it was two little clusters of Snake Plant, Dracaena trifasciata--just stems and roots--cruelly tossed out by someone from one of the offices.  I rescued them then and there.  Re-potted them and have been their caretaker ever since, nigh on 38 years!

LOUISE

In 1994, they moved with me to Washington, D.C.  Winters they find a place inside.  Last frost to frost they live outside.  To my complete surprise and delight around 2018 they bloomed!  AND produced fruit!  I had no idea such a thing was even possible. 

As the years passed they added stalks and outgrew one planter after another.  When they hit their current homes, I realized that any larger and I would no longer be able to carry them.  So I stopped transplanting them.  Apparently the memo never got to them!  They just busted out!  Literally, they grew threw the upper trim of their fiberglass pots ripping the fiberglass apart.

Around this time, the only place they could over-winter was the window box in the dinning room where the two plants in the two windows left the dinning room nearly void of natural light and giving of a sort of Pilgrims at Plymouth Rock 1609 ambiance to the what otherwise was a cheerful place to eat a meal.

And so it was that in the autumn of 2022, I took Thelma and Louise to work and placed them in the foyer of my elementary school next to benches where people may wait for their appointments with staff.  They have lots of indirect light from enormous windows that rise to the second floor.  Lots a commotion and human intrigue to occupy their thoughts, and over the summer I placed them in the courtyard atrium in the middle of the school where they could be safely together outside.

But then things happened.  When I had surgery in June of 2024, they did not get placed outside.  This past summer, the same...  I noticed they were struggling back in the autumn of 2025, and by the winter, it was clear they needed a vacation from school.  So they're back home with me.  I've given them a serious culling, and their first feeding.  Last night the temps were in the mid-50's and a gentle rain helped cleanse them from the dust of two years spent inside.  I don't plan to return them to school before next autumn, if then.  

Home

 I love my little home.  On an end of November Saturday morning with the air temps inside a gentle 67F, while outside the blustery wind chills the air to around 27F--there is no better good morning ritual than to make a fire in the hearth before brewing the coffee and setting about to fix a proper breaky!

Audrey's Big Day

 Audrey, my Tree Philodendron, has been with me now for just shy of 40 years.  She spends her summers outside on my deck, and her winters in my modest sun room.  Today was the end of her summer basking.  My neighbor, Tim, has for the past few years now done the heavy lifting for me in lieu of my back surgery.

I prep her by binding her fronds so they move through doorways much easier.  She is not the only migratory plant, but she is by far the largest.  The others will come in over the next few weeks depending on the forecast.  

I cut up a stretchy garbage bag to create the ribbons I use to bind up Audrey's fronds.

Once bound, they take up much less space, and are far less likely to be damaged.

Inside the sun room, but still bound as I add a few more plants near her.

Fronds free.

What's new? My Refrigerator...

 The previous incumbent died.  It was only 12 years old.  It was a Frigidaire.  Frigidaire appliances are shit.  In 2013 I had my kitchen torn down and built back up from the studs in order to take it from 1942 originals to the over a decade inside the new millennium.  I love the design, and the new space has been a joy.  The appliances?  A total and utter disappointment.  The dishwasher was the first to go, I had the panel replaced in 2021.  Next, the microwave's door latch stopped catching--I use it as a bread box!  Finally, the main oven on my two oven electric stove went toxic.  While baking bread the kitchen filled with noxious fumes that force my dog and to evacuate.  I got the stove shut off, but not before "burning" my throat with whatever the hell it was.  Now it's casserole dish storage (the pizza oven and stove stop are still working...  The Fridge started heading south in 2023 when the lights in the main chamber died.  Then in the fall of 2024, the thermostat for the fridge portion also popped.  I had it replaced.  The freezer kept on working.  Then a week ago today, I opened it to get something and all the cooling genies had left the premises, specters loosed from a sinking ship...  I repeat: FRIGIDAIRE APPLIANCES ARE SHIT.

My new shiny fridge... GE.  The jury is still out. 

Seasonal Move: There's a Chill in the Air

 Time to transfer all of my tropical plants inside.  Step 1 - prep my little Sun Room.

Step two move the children inside!

Window Winter Flowers

Impatiens

Shooting-Star

 

03:35 Hours - 17 FEB 2024 - View From My Bedroom Window

 

My Door of Yearlong Cheer

 Every year I place the Holiday cards that I receive on the inside of my front door.  Greetings from friends and acquaintances wishing me a Merry Christmas, Happy Solstice, Joyous Hanukkah, and even the Prosperous New Year.  Never too many to cover the door and for the next 12 months they are the first thing I see when I come down the stairs of a morning, the last thing i see as head out into the world.  They are a constant reminder that I am loved and part of many communities.  What joy!

Audrey!

 I've told the story before, but it's been a while.  Audrey is a tree philodendron that I've had since 1986.  She started out as a wee little thing in a planter among other plants that someone sent to my father's funeral.  All of the other plants outgrew the little planter, and all the others eventually died.  But Audrey just kept growing!  For years she migrated from inside my home in winter to the deck in temperate weather.  Last summer, I was unable to get her out, and she was stuck inside.  It was not good for her.  Now, she back out and loving the fresh air, rain, even the heat and humidity.  She makes me happy.  

Christmas Door

 Every year I do accumulate my holiday cards and place them upon the inside of my front door for the year to come.  It's a lovely way to remember all the joy I am fortunate to be the recipient of.

Nothing Gold

NOTHING GOLD CAN STAY

Nature's first green is gold,
Her hardest hue to hold.
Her early leaf's a flower;
But only so an hour.
Then leaf subsides to leaf.
So Eden sank to grief,
So dawn go down to day.
Nothing gold can stay.

~ Robert Frost, 1874 - 1963

Halloween Helpers

 Knowing that I do not decorate for Halloween, my spider friends have decided to take matters into their own legs!

Invasion of the Begonia Snatchers!

 

Scenes From The Jungle In My Little Sun Room

 Tender and tropical plants are again inside.  

Audrey's Big Day

 Audrey is the name of the tree philodendron that has been my companion for the past 27 years.  She came to me as a little thing in a 4 inch pot.  Like more relationships, it was an innocent beginning.  However, she has grown into her own over the years.  Grown being the optimal word.  Her single bud of a stalk had turned into 8!  Her roots have outgrown pot after pot, and now she resides in the largest planter that I can manage.  Her year consists of 6 months in the sun room and 6 months on the deck.  At over 7 feet tall, she has become too large for her own good.  Something had to be done.  I've felt this decision coming for some time now.  Today seemed like as good a day as any.  The surgery involved taking off her lead stalk as low down as possible.  The result was the removal of a 5.5 foot section of trunk and fronds.  Had they remained, once back inside, they would have been pressed against the ceiling of the sun room where acquiring light would be impossible.  From what I've read, and been told, she should recover from this trunk-ectomy fine.  The next task will be moving her back inside!  At over 200 pounds, it's a job that requires more than myself to complete.  

Determining the best place to made the cut.  The complicated relationship between the main trunk and its siblings with intertwined roots and the proximity of tender fronds that I do not want to harm.  It's also necessary to make the cut at an angle to help it dry and thus discourage the growth of any harmful mold while the wound "heals".  

The removed stalk.  I can introduce it to soil and possibly start an offspring, but honestly, to what end?

I know she's shorter, but she still seems rather formidable.  

Cleaned My Aquariums

Sanctuary

Still life with Kufi cap...

Verdant Micro-jungle--From My Sun Room in Winter

Independence Day Visitors

Rainy Sunday Morning

Be good to yourselves.  Always be good to yourself.