Digging RI

Please indulge me as I post some random thoughts and photos.

Here are two funny but very serious dogs waiting in a Mercedes in a store parking lot. I thought they looked like a married couple, about to drive away.

This barred owl fluttered down onto our railing just as I was about to go outside and fill the bird feeders. I took the photo through the screen, because I didn’t want to open the door and scare him or her off. Nature’s  vermin control.

I pass these pigs on my way to work sometimes. The big black one is the boar, and he is kept away from the piglets for good reason. He is huge and quite intimidating in person. The sow is impressive, too. I am happy to see that some pigs get to spend time outside and root in the dirt like they’re supposed to. I thought the brown spotted piglet was especially cute.

I drove down to one of the marinas, and there was a sad poster on the bulletin board. It was for a cat that had been lost since last May…..

Also on the bulletin board, an ad for a private island. This one is just $1,495,000. I’m sorry, but sometimes, money can buy happiness.

So now we have a better idea of how monstrous the neighbor’s garage is going to be. Notice how it just about perfectly eclipses our view. It’s almost as if he had it designed to do that.

Here’s a closer look:

And the giant earth mover remains, squatting on the heap of mud that was once a wildflower meadow.

In economics they call this an “externality.” I call it a disaster.

Dendrobium “Little Joe”

I’m tired of writing about bummer stuff like horrible neighbors and snow, so for a change of pace, here’s HerbDoc with an orchid success story:

Although I’m nowhere near ready to enter an orchid show like DN, I was pretty pleased with myself prior to Christmas when I brought my first orchid into bloom! This is Dendrobium yellow chinsai “Little Joe”. To be honest I bought it from a grower’s catalog because the photo sported very large sprays of beautiful yellow flowers with peach throats. Of course it arrived in a 2 ½ inch pot with no flowers. About 2 weeks later I panicked when the little darling dropped all of its leaves!

Only then did this silly neophyte check the growing instructions. Little Joe is indeed deciduous so I held my breath for a while and tiny buds appeared. I understand that this is a bit early as it usually blooms around Valentine’s Day, but I am delighted with the spray of five flowers.

Last week I found that a phal I had rescued from its impervious pot of water at a local supermarket was also setting buds. Looks like I’m well on my way to a new hobby and have to thank DN and my friend, Carol, for all of their input and encouragement.

Next project is finding a nice summer vacation spot for my growing collection as I understand they love to be outdoors in the warm weather!

Editor’s note: I feel an orchid addiction coming on…..

Power was restored in our area on Monday evening, and we returned home yesterday (Tuesday.)

I am in a constant state of annoyance and feeling snappy and stressed out. My first task was to throw out lots of expensive food that had gotten too warm in the fridge and freezers. And for the second time in several months. Remember Sandy???? Then I had the pleasure of putting out tons of trash, and storing all our power outage stuff.

We have a wire almost down on our front lawn, – about five feet off the ground –  and the electric company says it is a telephone wire. This morning, I had the  ridiculous experience of listening to the automated Verizon Fios woman over and over, trying to get me to set up a PIN number for “my security” when all I wanted was to report the downed wire. I said some rude things to the automated Fios woman. Very rude indeed.

After hitting “0” repeatedly, I finally got a human, who took my information and informed me that the next available appointment was Feb. 17! This is a damaged wire, people, one my husband has to bend down to get under. The agent explained to me, speaking as if to a toddler, that “there were others ahead of me.” Oh okay, Verizon, you just take your sweet time then, while we do the “phone wire limbo” to get to our front door.

But I will end on a positive note: my orchids. Every one of them came through its ordeal unscathed. Not only did they survive being taken in uncovered cardboard boxes to the car in very cold weather, they sat all cramped in those boxes on the floor in my in laws’ stuffy, overheated living room without nearly enough light. Then, I brought them home and transported them, once again exposed to the cold air, from my car to the house.

My orchids are badass. Verizon – not so much.

Here we go again…only this time it’s a blizzard, not a hurricane.

Will we get three feet of snow? Will we lose power? And if we do, what will happen to my orchids?

They say the worst of it will hit between 5 pm and 5 am tonight. If I can post tomorrow, I’ll let you know what happens…..

One good thing is the quiet – except for the wind. Everything is closed and work is suspended.

Waiting.

Before

My regular readers may recall my posts about my extremely rich and extremely obnoxious neighbor, and the wildflower meadow he planted. The photo above shows the meadow in happier times.

After

That was then. Now, the meadow is gone, and in its place sits an immense and sinister earth mover. The obnoxious neighbor is not just building a garage (he already has one of those) but a bigger, better, more expensive garage, and he got a variance from the town which allows him to build it even higher.

What that means is that our view of the water will be obliterated. Instead of looking at the salt pond, we will be gazing at the back of his garage.

So unfair. So obnoxious.

If you know what the bug in the above photo is, please tell me. I’ve been looking it up everywhere I can think of, and I think it might be an assassin bug (which is good!) but I’m not positive.

I found it before the holidays living indoors on my rosemary, and since it wasn’t doing any damage, I left it there. Over the ensuing weeks, I found it in other houseplants, just hanging out.

A couple of weeks ago, my husband found it in the bathroom. What it was doing in there, I have no idea. He wanted to kill it, but I saved it and brought it into the bedroom where I thought it would be ok.

Imagine my surprise when I found it again just a couple of days later, in the living room right back on its old favorite rosemary! This bug really gets around.

Nothing like a (very) little drama to spice up a dreary winter….

OK, so it’s January, and it’s cold and there’s snow on the ground. Rhode Islanders just can’t seem to stop complaining about this, as if somehow it’s something that shouldn’t be happening.

Many of my readers know that I spent most of my life in Canada, where you had to get on with your life even if it was wintery. We walked to school, we drove our cars, and we didn’t all escape to Florida. How did we ever survive?

First, we dressed for the weather. If you’re wearing your Nikes on a 10 degree day, your feet are going to be cold. Wear gloves, and a hat if you’re going to be outside for a while. And while you’re at it, ditch the flimsy  Patriots hoodie and put on something that’s actually lined and cozy. Don’t you feel better now?

Here’s another tip: your instinct tells you to hunker down indoors, when in fact, you should be doing just the opposite. Get outside for at least half an hour every day. Breathe fresh air and turn your face to the sun. Go for a walk. It works.

I went for a wonderful hike in the woods yesterday. The sky was intensely blue and the snow was dry and light. We were out for about two hours, and we had a terrific time. Learn to skate. Ski. Hike. Walk the dog. Dress appropriately for the activity. Make sure you have windshield washer fluid in your car that’s good to at least -25, or you’ll be sorry. And please stop whining.

Take a close look at the above photo. I’m sure you recognize the pink geranium, but can you tell what the other plant on the left is? It’s growing right there in the same pot, and there’s another smaller one on the other side. They’re tomato plants, and I’ve decided to let them stay.

Years ago, my mother-in-law pleaded with me to keep one of her geraniums over the winter. It still lives happily in my living room. I tried putting it outside one summer, but it sulked, so back inside it came. I guess it got used to the good life or something.

About a year ago, I started finding tomato seedling in the geranium’s pot. Like any good gardener, I plucked them out. But they kept popping up, and one day, after months of having neglected my plucking, I saw two defiant seedlings in there, several inches tall and surprisingly sturdy.

So I decided to try something different and just leave them alone. They’re growing so fast,  and I am curious to see how well they develop. A fellow gardener suggested I remove them and pot them up separately, but I’m afraid to disturb their root systems, and they seem to be so darned determined to grow there, next to their geranium friend.

Sometimes, I think you have to give in and see where your plants take you. I’ll be sure to let you know if they flower – the tomatoes, that is.