It's Time

 It's finally getting cold enough for humidity to condense on my windows, which means I need to take my plants off the window sills. I do not run a humidifier, and though I could run a fan, that won't entirely address the fact that the sills are colder than most of my plants would like. So.....I need to empty all the shelves, take down the curtains, wash the windows, and figure out how to arrange the plants. I know I need to order at least one more light for that dark shelf to the left. I removed that one so I could increase lighting for my orchids. They responded by going into spike, at least 11 of them are!

Living room. The "valance" is a sheet I hung to block the raging summer sun that glares through this window in the afternoon. Now that it's November, what welcome sun we could get is so far south it has almost no effect.

Spare bedroom, also a west window, now getting a little sun on the right side.

My orchid set up doesn't need to move. But I have 20 of them now!

In other "news" I found a yummy cocoa powder. It doesn't have any other ingredients, and it tastes way better than Hershey's. I use it to make myself a 90 second mug "cake". I use no flour, of course, just egg, cocoa powder, keto sweetener,  spoon of yogurt, some cream and a splash of vanilla. It satisfies my chocolate cravings and I can add an egg to my diet without the eggy taste.

On my mind a lot....interspecies communication with buttons. Something I and a lot of people didn't think was possible, although we have all watched animals and birds who learned to press a button to gain a result. I am amazed and delighted to watch the interactions between pets and owners. I also feel a bit guilty because I did not have that level of interaction with my own pets, especially Macey. She would have had a lot to say.

Macey, my daughter's cat who I fostered for the 6 years my daughter lived in Australia.

Some of my favorite talking cats

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Cat, Elsie. Owner, Mary Robinette:

Mary is packing to go on a trip. She travels a lot for her career. Elsie loves to go with her, and she often does when Mary flies. This time Mary is taking the train and Elsie can't go.

Elsie presses "Sad"

Mary explains that she can't go with her and Elsie will be going to "Rob's parents house"

Elsie presses "Feather" "Want"

Mary thinks she wants to play and swishes a feather around for her. Elsie does not respond. Mary figures correctly that Elsie wants to pack the feather for her own trip.

Elsie presses "Laser"

Mary says, Ok I will pack your laser toy

Elsie presses "Puzzle"

Mary answers yes, I will pack your puzzle.

Elsie the cat has now packed her toys for her visit to grandpa. 

https://www.facebook.com/reel/1576446910385884

Cat, Flounder, who insists she is a fish because she loves to swim. Will get angry if you tell her she is a cat. Her favorite movie is Pocahontas. Owner, Nina, animal behaviorist, Dolphin trainer and children's book author.

Flounder (watching her movie and sees Pocahontas teaching her language to John Smith) presses "Want"  "Different" "Noise" "Hello".

Nina, who knows the movie is playing on the TV, notices what is going on and hears the word Wingapo. She gives Flounder a Wingapo button, and then pretends not to know what it means. Flounder gives her a look and presses "Hello".

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/jhLRDwz3XSM

Todd is a Tuxedo cat. I don't know his owner's name, I'll call him "dad". Todd loves his "jingle ball". He has a certain jingle ball, of a certain color. Dad accidentally stepped on and broke the jingle ball. Todd was extremely upset. Dad tried to comfort him and told him there was another jingle ball. The next day dad was packing for a business trip. He was throwing the spare jingle ball down the hall and Todd was chasing it. The ball fell down a step where it wasn't visible.

Dad stepped on the second jingle ball.

Todd ran around the house in panic.

Dad had to leave. When he came home from his trip, Todd did not come down to greet him. A review of the camera footage showed this:

Todd got up and slowly walked to his button board.

Todd pressed "Ouch"

He moved to the other side of the board and sat down, looking down, he gently touched the jingle ball button several times, not pressing to activate it. He listened to Dad talking downstairs but did not go down to greet him. Again he gently tapped the jingle ball button.

After the trip, Todd needed oral surgery, and daily he pressed the buttons "Ouch head happy" to let Dad know he was feeling better.

The happy ending. Subscribers found jingle balls and sent them to Todd and Dad.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dxnFVc9aGA8

I love watching this stuff!

I Found One!

 I found a purple orchid! A little mini. I hope it survives. The roots look ok. The pot is impossibly small. I need to leave for 2 weeks next month, so I don't think repotting will be wise. Moss tends to hold water longer than bark.  I also bought another mini with white blooms and teeny tiny purple dots. It had some root rot, so it's "in hospital". The previous weekend I found a dark pink orchid on clearance for $5. My new acquisitions below:

Mini blue Big Lip peloric. "Big lip" because the bottom petal is large, "peloric" because there is a tiny extra petal on the big petal.

Here is the white mini with tiny purple dots. It had root rot. I am working on recovering its health

I removed as much of the rot as I could, sprayed with peroxide and treated with rooting hormone

This the $5 rescue

It's growing a new leaf!

And it's growing another bloom spike!

I have been missing the apartment we had in Hartford. It had 4 windows plus the sliding glass doors, a big patio, and a view to die for. I never wanted to leave. I really miss the patio and the view. I took dozens of beautiful pictures there.

For now, we are stuck here. The new apartments being built in town are a design we would not be happy with. For some reason, this company does not build private patios/balconies. Everyone can see everyone else, in a row, facing the garage. Why not at least turn them around to face the woods?

At least it's quiet here. We often have a Great Horned Owl in the field. Lately we've been hearing coyotes in the distance, only twice so far.

Ok, I will stop complaing for tonight.

Tide of Change

 Yesterday were the Midterms. It was more than a blue wave, it was a tsunami. It was even referred to as close to an "extinction-level event" by Florida governor Ron DeSantis. I am incredibly grateful that the Democrats have regained control of the House and Senate. I hope we can undo the damage, or at least as much as we can, and move forward. 

My parents were Democrats and typically I follow in their footsteps. My first husband was a Republican, as was his dad. His mom never said, although she always voted. My family is mixed. I do not and will never hate any of them. What is heartbreaking is the lies, the conspiracy theories, the hate and the misinformation this administration has strewn all over us like vomit. We are supposed to be a two party government. I remember when Democrats and Republicans could have lively debates, agree to disagree, and remain friends.

I couldn't sleep last night. I started reading Threads and the congratulations from around the world were amazing. People from Australia, New Zealand, Sweden, Canada, Denmark, Italy, France, lots from CANADA, Scotland, UK, Melbourne celebrating in the streets, people crying with happiness. Someone wrote,  "I'm in Scotland and I can't sleep, Did you do the thing?" 344 people answered, "YES, we did the thing! We did ALL the things! We F'n did the THING. Texas is Blue up and down, soup to nuts. I just kept reading and crying with them all. I tried to go to bed a 3 and got up at 5 and kept reading. Italy lit the Coliseum in Blue, France lit the Eifel Tower in Blue, there was probably more. I'm watching a tictoc now that there was an Iowa state House race in a Republican district where a Democrat got elected who wasn't even running. He had dropped out for health reasons. So everyone wrote him in. It's just amazing. So many people around the world making videos of themselves thanking us and standing with us and celebrating and crying with joy.

I'm tired and it's late. Gotta sign off and get some sleep tonight.

All The Leaves Are Brown

 ...and the skies are grey. 

But they were blue all last week. It's been too dry. A lot of trees didn't color up. Maples are good, but maples are mostly in people's yards. Since we didn't go anywhere Saturday (we were both tired, and decided to rest), we shopped on Sunday. We wanted to walk somewhere around Oshkosh because that's where we were shopping. We decided to go to the Sheldon Nature Center. We walked there before, back when we were looking to relocate. I remembered it because "Sheldon".

It was a beautiful day for a walk, mostly sunny skies and mild, breezy, fresh air. The fields of dry weeds smelled sweet. We passed a gentleman and said hi. We passed again and stopped to talk. It turned into a 20 minute conversation. He had been to Israel twice. He talked about his travels. Hubby talked about Kosovo. We all agreed our country is in trouble, and agreed there is too much division and hate. No politics mentioned.

Here are a few pictures from our walk.

Maple at the entrance, which is near a school

A playground in the pines is being built

We think this is a new bridge because we don't remember it the first time

Field of dry weeds and grasses. Smells nice

We walked over a creek

Some colorful trees on a nearby property

The creek again

While we were talking, I took this pic of a tall tree

When we were done shopping in Oshkosh we met a young man who is trying to become an independent reporter. We talked for awhile, gave him some ideas on how he might be able to get his content out there. He has no website or business email. He thinks he might start by placing fliers on people's cars. We wished him luck and headed home. It was an interesting day.

Trying Something New

I bought some Keiki cloning paste. A Keiki is a baby orchid that grows from the bloom stem, so it is an exact clone of the mother plant. A Keiki might grow on its own, but not all that often. Keiki paste is a growth hormone that can trigger a Keiki to grow or just more blooms. I have been wanting to try it. Currently I only have one spent bloom stem to experiment with. 

I peeled off the sheath and found a tiny nub. I accidentally cut the tip off with my fingernail

Here a small glob of paste is applied

Tagged. Now we wait. Might see something in about 3 weeks.

This is the one I'm trying to clone. Normally I trim the spent bloom stem all the way off. This one I did not, so it's the only one I have to experiment with.

Ugh

 Migraine with aura. I was getting them every day for awhile. I was also taking some new supplements. I decided to drop all the new supplements for awhile. 

I haven't had any migraine episodes for awhile. I kind of forgot about them. Today I said, to myself, "I should start taking the Krill Oil again." So I did.

Half hour later and I have this:

I took two headache tablets as soon as I noticed it. It's going away. Still blurry on the right, head is tender, proof-reading twice, LOL

I have no idea what it is about the Krill Oil that triggers this.

I'm going to throw them away.

What's Up With the Plants

 The orchids are doing very well, except for the dying purple one, which seems to be beyond recovery. It hasn't completely died, so it lives is a zip bag on top of the orchid shelf. 

Oh Purple, how I miss thee

I may have mentioned before I was learning about fertilizers and I chose RePotMe brand MSU as it was recommended by a grower I follow. It was spendy, $29 for 4 ounces. It has made a huge difference in the health of my orchids. They are growing shiny new leaves, healthy roots, and I have at least one bloom spike!

Michigan State University formula fertilizer, with all the minerals orchids need when watered with rain, distilled or RO water. I'm using cheap bottled water most of the time, sometimes distilled. There is a different formula for tap water that has appropriate minerals but is not too hard for orchids (like mine).

The leaves are showing a lack of proper minerals

A flower spike!!

My set-up, showing filtered afternoon sun.

LED lights 

My succulents, for the most part, are doing ok. Everything is inside. I didn't have that much outside anyway. I decided that if something kicks off I'm not going to get stressed about it. I put all my Jades in the spare bedroom window. They seem to need their watering monitored more closely than some other succulents. 

Spare room window. The "empty" pots have sleeping oxalis bulbs in them.

My Sedum Cape Blanco is struggling from accidental overwatering

I got a Lithops bloom this year!

Adromischus Little Spheroid, one of my faves

Pachyveria Powder Puff growing crazy

Croton

Beautiful sanseveria Moonshine

More sanseveria

Sanseveria Samurai

Titanopsis

Lavender steps

close up

Oxalis blooms

I need to go through my collection and rearrange them for winter. I might need more lights. After I do that I'll take more pictures. I am done writing for tonight. I'm sleepy and we have a fun weekend planned, chasing autumn leaves.