Black Moon

If only this moonlight snowshoe trail...
 Had been in the same direction as our full Wolf Moon....

Then I would have scored a picture to be seriously pleased with!

* Did you know?  Just as the moon pulls the tides in the oceans, it also pulls the subtle bodies of water. Tests have proven that seeds will absorb the most water at the time of the full moon - and germinate faster during this time in the lunar cycle.

So, we told scary ghost stories and then we planted:

• Green Onions
• Sweet Peppers
• Fabulous Tomaters

Happy Full Wolf Moon to one and all!

And, Who Might You Be?

Kate to Florist: "Howsabout orange? What have you got for orange flowers?"

Florist response: "We don't have much. People don't like orange." 
Outraged Kate: "Whaddyamean people don't like orange? I love orange!"

[You don't fully appreciate me until you hear me fight with a florist.]

Been pondering the strangeness of the blogosphere for about a month, now. This began when I saw a blog post title from Bloomingwriter that gave me the impression she was quitting her blog. (Thankfully, that is not the case.)

Next came Fairegarden's thought-provoking post on what would happen to our blogs once we ran out of steam.

Impeccable timing. The following day I was hopping from blog to blog saying hello and catching up on people's lives when I hit a heartbreaking snag.

Seems a woman who's blog I've been following for several years had fallen ill and was in the hospital.

I 'met' this blogger through her daughter's blog. The daughter and I are about the same age. At least I think we're the same age. Hard to know, for sure, because this is the blogosphere, where identities are a bit obscure.

Even so, I feel I know a lot about these gals. I know how the daughter suffers when the sun doesn't shine. I see how her Mom, GJ, strives to preserve the eclectic craziness of her tiny retirement town.

And, yet we've never met. Half the time I don't even know what my blogging friends look like.

So, GJ is ill. She's in the hospital. Blogging daughter updates GJ's blog saying it's doubtful her Mom will continue blogging since mobility is now a problem.

I'm blinking back tears. AND madly scouring the internet for a local florist because no friend of mine is gonna get stuck in a hospital without some brightly blooming goodies to boost her spirits.

Got the hospital room and address from blogging daughter and proceeded to drive the local florist nuts with my demands... Eventually, we reached agreement.

And, then the florist made the simplest demand of me: 
"Now all we need is GJ's full name and we'll deliver it this afternoon."

My response? 
Um. 

I didn't know her name! 

Here I am anxiously trying to send a bouquet of flowers to GJ and it had never occurred to me that I don't know her real name! She's GJ the blogger. That's not enough?

It got me wondering about Buffalo. Site of this year's Garden Bloggers Annual Gathering ~ where everyone meets up in the real world, full names and faces included. I wonder if I should go. Are you planning to go?

* GJ is feeling better. She did get the flowers ~ though I have a strong hunch there wasn't nearly enough orange in that bouquet. And, while I'm thrilled to hear she's feeling better this is bittersweet since we no longer get to keep tabs on her via the blog.

Wordless Wednesday: Adventure Garden

* Utah Locals: Visiting the Red Butte Gardens is just as much fun (maybe more!) in winter. Be sure to break the rules in order to have some big fun.

* For more Wordless Wednesday participants, click here.

Lethargathons and the Deep Soak

This Lethargathon [Lazy Indoor Day] is sponsored, in part, by Mother Nature ~ with generous donations from Ice Crystals Unlimited and the Wind Chill Foundation.

It's a tad too cold to be playing outdoors today.

What began as a way to pamper my orchids, has evolved into a full-blown Sunday Spa session for most of my flowering friends.

I'm gonna need a bigger sink!

It's called the deep soak. When everyone makes the long commute all the way to the kitchen sink. Here, they get snipped and coddled, rubbed, tubbed and scrubbed.

Soothing weary roots with a wildly effective soak in organic compost tea.

Kate's Beauty Parlor is a full-service operation, complete with shower treatments ~ and suds ~ when we need to get rid of pesky bugs:

What's the point? In January, the air indoors is deadly dry. Some of these bright bloomers adapt. Which is why, after the holidays, we become the foster home for wayward Poinsettias needing more sunshine:

Some can't get a drink any other way. Like my baby Schefflera who is growing, without any soil of any kind, inside this lava rock:

Many of my hobby plants love the sun but can't take the dry air. They glare at me constantly. Teasing me with flower buds that won't open.

I get their telepathic messages loud and clear. They need more moisture.  So, during the worst of winter, when I'm in no mood to trudge outdoors, I shift gears, open up the beauty salon and give these gals the kind of special treatment we all deserve.

Friday's Flower Fantasies

The wind is blowin'

It's cold and snowin'

And, while the plan is...

(Was?)

To bundle up, hike to the stables and hug my horse this morning...

I find myself goofing around in iPhoto...

Looking for a new tropical flower picture, to grace the desktop of my computer.

So when I sit down to [allegedly] do some work, I can begin by gazing dreamily at an oh, so, pleasing tropical flower...

Conjuring sights and sounds a world away from my snowy mountain top.

That got me wondering if you ~ yes, you ~ I'm talking to you...

Might enjoy a Zen moment, too! :)

* I photographed these pretty girls in their happy home at the Kula Botanical Gardens on the island of Maui ~ a magical place if ever I've seen one.

PS: Curious as to the names of these tropical beauties? Me, too! I haven't a clue.

Wordless Wednesdays: Zermatt Ice Castles

 

* Utah Locals: Find these bigger than life ice castles (one is a cave you can sneak into when nobody is looking!) at the Zermatt Resort in Midway.

* For more Wordless Wednesday participants, click here.

Sweet Buds for a Tuesday Blues Day.

Rescued from the dollar table, Ms. Cyclamen makes a fancy comeback.

Oh, I do love a 3-day weekend. Don't you? That one extra day seems to put everything right with the world.

Pinkie, here, is the only mini rose who likes me well enough to re-bloom.

If only we could have a 3-day weekend every week. Wouldn't life be grand? But that, of course, requires the torture of the obligatory 4th day...

 Howsabout an A+ for me being DISGUSTINGLY late with delivering the goods? This Amaryllis bud is a Christmas gift that may never get to her rightful 'owner.'

That 4th day, what I call the Tuesday Blues Day, is the first day back in the office when a surprising number of people are demanding the same dang thing:

Where's this?

Where's that?

Where's the other thing you promised to do??

How they amass such a coordinated effort over a long weekend is beyond me.

 

Seems there's no end to Ms. Orchid's polka dot party. Two plump buds promise fun stuff.

So, this Tuesday Blues Day could have been a nightmare were it not for the most amazing discovery in the kitchen window...

 

Oh, good Heavens! You're looking in the wrong place!

Look again:

Okay, so maybe it's not a bud. But, it's a promise of a bud! On a Phaleanopsis Moth Orchid who has been sound asleep since July.... She's workin' on a re-blooming. My very first attempt at the scary Orchids and this young lady has tossed her proverbial Orchid hat into the ring. 

PS! Did I title this blog post 'Buds'? Perhaps I should have called it BUGS. Because that's the threat from these little white specks below...