Finally...blooms!

My camera is home from the 'hospital'. Diagnosis: One dead battery. It uses two. Just weird. It gives me a message when the batteries are about to go out as well as a slide deal that's always visible that shows how much power they have. Such a strange message. But I won't fuss...they didn't even charge me. Well, except for the batteries I bought.

And just in time for the amaryllis bloomed. My friend Mac and I each got one at the same time. I made sure that mine hadn't started leaves as I wanted to enjoy the whole show. Then for a bit, I wondered if it was ever going to show growth. But patience paid off and now I have...

Good thing I had new batteries. It's been so cloudy here that there was no way I could get a good shot in decent light. And with the flash, it showed up as a very RED flower. Which it's not. This is fairly true. A light pinky salmon-y color and ever so pretty. Too bad they don't just keep blooming forever.

Sunny today so I'm going out to clear off the patio of leaves and other debris from the storms. Cause tomorrow, it's supposed to get all cold and cloudy again.

Hope some sunshine comes your way wherever you are.

Oh...a question for any flower people. At Walmart they had some orchids in little pots and they were called 3 Cube Orchids. On the tag it said to water them using 3 ice cubes every week. Anyone ever heard of this????

Black and White

I awakened to new snow this morning. Not heavy, scary stuff like my mid-Atlantic friends have been dealing with. No, this was big, fat, fluffy flakes. I was really taken by the starkness of the day.









This one is my favorite. I love how the crispness of the black and white is broken by the red street sign at the bottom.

Whoa! 2 Days in a Row???

Apparently being here yesterday, inspired me to entertain (?) you with more stories about life here on the snowy prairie. So right after I got up I started thinking of things I could share with you.

But then..a crisis. Got some coffee; blew my nose; threw the kleenex in the stool; flushed it and uhhhhhhhhhhhh nada. Plunging action just got my houseshoes wet..thank goodness all that was in there was a kleenex! Think, think. Drink more coffee and think some more. This is a real deal because there is only one bathroom here. But then, 2 ah-has! in a row! First, bring up the tornado potty. Which is a 5 gallon bucket with a plastic liner and partially filled with shredded paper. Because if the storm is so bad that I have to go to the basement, I can dang well promise that I'm going to have to pee as soon as I get under the stairs. And then the 2nd aha! Occasionally I put root killer down the commode and there is still something left. I figure if it can kill roots, it can surely eat up a kleenex and whatever. AND it worked! Oh hooray. However, the tornado potty will stay in the utility room closet until I'm for sure.

So then, filled with confidence, I decided that I really, really need to get my vehicle de-iced. The bread supply is zip (and sloppy joe on a stale English muffin is pretty yucky) and the milk is getting low. So, I worked on that for awhile without a whole lot of success and came in to get warm. Dang it...I need to go to the store!

While warming up, I decided to take a pic of the amarylis I got for Christmas. It's getting ready to bloom!! The bud is just opening and my thought was that I could do a series of flower opening shots. the stalk is now 22 inches tall and I've been rotating it a 1/4 turn every day to keep it as str8 as possible. But um, when I turned on the camera I got a message that said "This card cannot be used" Uh what? Why? Yesterday I had some trouble getting the card reader to read it so maybe the contacts are screwed. But..just think, if I'd got the car uncovered and went to the store and THEN found out I needed a new card I would have been very unhappy!

So, I'll keep working on the car in the hopes that I can travel to the big box store and pick up milk, bread and a camera card! Wish me luck