Cactus Catastrophe

 

Today I worked on campus, and late in the morning we had a meeting about the new ticketing system that ran way over, so Seabird said she didn't have time to walk before our afternoon training in the new system. I walked with Hardingfele, and we went to Allen Centennial Gardens. Here are some photos.

Meanwhile, Travalon went fishing at Salmo Pond, and he caught a panfish.

(He let it go again.) Then he came and picked me up, and we went to St. Charles Station for dinner. He said his chicken wings and shrimp and grits were delicious, and so was his banana hurricane. (I tried them all, and they were indeed delicious!) I had the four-course meal with the theme of strawberries, so it started with strawberry bruschetta, then the next course was supposed to be a salad with strawberries, but it didn't arrive until after the main course, a chicken leg with strawberries and mashed potatoes and peas. Then for dessert they toasted a cornbread muffin and put strawberries and whipped cream on top. The drink to go with it was a strawberry mojito, but I didn't feel like a drink after the shandy last night. 

Hardingfelde had been texting me yesterday while I was at the movie about a cactus someone was giving away. She sent me a photo.

Travalon and I went to pick the cactus up tonight after dinner, and it was fine in the car on the trip home, but as soon as Travalon started carrying it up the stairs to our house, the top couple of feet broke off. We both got pricked while trying to fix this problem. Eventually we got both parts upstairs, and I stuck the broken-off part in the dirt in hopes that it will root. (Why there is a spider plant in the same pot, I couldn't tell you - they have very different watering needs.) Anyway, this might work; years ago I saw a faculty member carrying the top of a yucca he had cut from its roots, and he had the pot in the other hand. He said it used to be Dr. Cheung's plant, and he didn't want it in his office anymore. I took both the pot and the hacked-off top of the plant, and the top rooted but the roots grew a new top, so Dr. Cheung the plant has two tops now. No idea why the faculty member didn't just ask if anyone else wanted the plant before hacking it to pieces...

In other plant news, a mostly dead corn plant dracaena that Hardingfele had scavenged for me on the street (sense a pattern?) came back to life under my loving care, so I called it Lazarus. I moved it outside with a couple of other monocots, a dragon tree dracaena and a ponytail palm, and now it has a bunch of buds. Since it's the same type of plant as Jolly Bob, which bloomed a couple of winters ago, I imagine it will smell just as good. I'm waiting impatiently for the buds to open. I'll take a photo, although the flowers aren't much to look at. It's the fragrance that's so spectacular.

Famous Hat