Nothing Going On, A Lot Going On

 It seems like April is three months long. We had an insane amount of rain, which caused flooding in many parts of Wisconsin. Rivers flooded and people needed to be evacuated. In addition to the huge amounts of rain, we also had widespread tornados. There were three that did damage. Aside from drenching rain and thunderstorms, we were not affected by flooding, giant hail or tornados here in Ripon. 

On top of all that, my hubby got sick. There was some type of respiratory thing going around at his work. He said one guy was coughing so hard he threw up, and went home. In any case, hubby caught it because he was coughing and wheezing. He took Tuesday off, and worked sick on Wednesday. He came home with a fever and coughed all night. Thursday he called off and went to the doctor. He got antibiotics, asthma spray, and a note to be excused from work for Thursday and Friday. He had a chest X-ray, covid test and flu tests. The tests were negative, but his X-ray showed some inflammation. They told him he has pneumonia. He's getting better.

Today is one of those days. I miss my mom. I miss my daughter. I miss my other daughter, the one here on earth. I miss gardening. I want so much to have a patio of big flower pots full of flowers. How the heck am I going to water them and not drain water on the downstairs neighbors? It gets hot up here, upstairs. The apartment faces west. I miss sunrises. Some of my succulents hate me. I lost a couple. My Lithops look like death warmed over. My Adromischus look like crap, except for a couple. The plants that are doing well look good. I have a few Sanseveria now. They are easy. Orchids seem to love me. So I am loving them back. Now that I know how to grow them I have jumped in with both feet. I now have 15. I need to slow down.

Last weekend we went to Harrington Beach State Park. Hubby was feeling better and we both needed a walk. We were shocked by how many trees were down. A google search said about 170 trees were knocked down by the recent storms.

I don't know if the damage was a tornado or wind. We had a good walk around Quarry Lake exercise-wise but the downed trees were sad.

I hope next month is better. My daughter is planning a get-together, not sure when. We are hoping for better weather for walks.

Orchids

 I'll always love my succulents, but surprise, I am now collecting orchids. My hubby is my partner in crime, because what's better than plant shopping together? 

"Do we have that color yet?" 

"Look at the patterns on those blooms!"

And so on...

He LOVES flowers, blooming plants and brightly colored plants. I've had a few succulents fail (every apartment seems to have its quirks and limitations, at least since leaving the apartment in Hartford. I don't know if I will ever have two east windows and a south window again. Rearranging again and again and tossing a few failures has made room for new additions.

I never believed I could grow orchids. 

"My house is too dry". Probably not. Currently my house is 46% humidity. I have nine orchids. Seven are blooming, one has a bloom spike and will bloom yellow in a couple months, and one is actively growing more roots and leaves before blooming again. Since I wrote that, I now have twelve. We added three last weekend.

"They won't bloom again." I know the trick now. In winter they need a few nights where the temperature drops to the low 60's degrees. We had a severe cold snap this winter. We dropped to 22 degrees below zero. The heat was barely working. I called maintenance. He said turn the thermostat up all the way. It barely helped. We drove over to Thesians Hardware and bought a space heater. The apartment dropped to somewhere between 63 and 65. The cold only lasted a few days, and the space heater helped a lot. Two or three weeks later all my orchids grew bloom spikes. If the apartment stays warm next winter I can always move the orchids to the spare bedroom and close the door and the vent.

I have been following orchid growers on YouTube. I like to choose several (currently 3) because opinions vary. I think I like Ohio Tropics Houseplant Care the best. I'm not going to get into the details of growing. If you are interested. tutorials on YouTube abound. Don't use ice.

Anyway, I am going to spam you with orchid pictures, of my own plants.

My first orchid, a mini and a very vigorous bloomer. I actually removed the blooms recently so that it would turn its effort into leaves and roots.

This lovely pale yellow mini with magenta lips and freckles fades to white as the blooms age.

This is the whole plant. Once the flowers are done I will give it a repot.

We couldn't leave this one behind!

We found a Big Lip

The one on the right is a re-bloom

This is a re-bloom

It looks different in different light

One of the new ones. Hubby picked this large yellow with brown centers and big lips

We both picked this waterfall white

This pale pink with orange lips is an unlikely color combo. It's weird!

The big yellow and similar mini

Orange/rust color, re-bloomer

Cute little burgundy mini re-bloom

This clear yellow will be re-blooming in a month or so

The day I bought the mini burgundy

That's all for now. Hope you enjoyed the pictures.

This and That

 I'm thinking of giving up my website. I don't use it anymore. It's hard to think about giving up my domain name. I've owned designbycandy since 2002. I suppose I could keep my domain, but without hosting it's pretty useless. Hosting is $50 per year. Not a lot, but a lot considering I don't use it. My domain is $25 per year. So basically I'm paying $75 per year for my ego, or something like that.

Today I made a bowl of coffee jello and ate it all. It was yummy, and made with beef gelatin.

I've been using my air fryer. I like it now. Egglife Wraps make great pizza shells. Add toppings, cook at 400 degrees for 4 or 5 minutes.

This one was made with cheese slices as crust, but the egg white is easier. You get the idea.

It was 54 today. I drove to the store with the window cracked open. Peaceful and enjoyable.

I have been hearing Sandhill Cranes. I saw one fly across the soccer field. We have Chickadees every day. We have a Nuthatch that visits the balcony looking for seeds and a noisy Blue Jay that demands peanuts. We have a squirrel family that visits as well. 

Last fall I tasted a french fry from a batch I made for hubby. It was horrible, tasted like it was prepared in automobile oil. I told hubby, "No more Ore Ida fries! We will find something better." We did find something better. Now hubby only eats this brand, from the UK.

Some of my plants

That's enough randomness for tonight.