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Houseplant Mysteries & Cleaning

September 8, 2019 at 9:48 am by Claudia

This is intriguing. My now-quite-big monstera (aka split leaf philodendron) needed repotting a couple of months ago, which I did – with the help of Don. Several leaves on the bottom had yellowed and died, which often happens with plants at certain times of the year. But I must admit, this plant is very special to me (it was found in the sale area of Terrain and I nursed it back to health) so I was worried. I though it might be root-bound. After the repotting, I started to notice the beginnings of new stems, which was a good sign. All in all, 6 new stems/leaves appeared!

Here’s the interesting part: usually, once a monstera gets mature, the new leaves have several splits in them. When a monstera is young, the leaves are either whole, without splits, or have one split. Out of the 6 new leaves, 4 were whole, and 2 had a split. I’m not sure why. Did repotting it have an effect on the leaves themselves? If I’d kept it in the smaller pot, would they have had several splits?

I don’t know. But I’m glad I repotted it – it was getting very top heavy. This is why I find all plants – indoor and outdoor – so fascinating. I also repotted my parents’ sansevieria – it definitely needed it as the roots were breaking through the pot – and I’ve since read that they only bloom when they’re more root-bound. Since mine has bloomed for the past 3 years, it will be interesting to see if it blooms this year.

Don is at the Farmers Market today. We both woke up way too early, so we had a lot of time to chat before he took off. Sleep is erratic lately. Ah, well, nothing I can do about it, except stay in the moment.

Another lovely day, partly cloudy – though it’s sunny at the moment – temps in the seventies. I plan to yank some weeds and water the plants. I thoroughly cleaned both bathrooms yesterday. I don’t know why I hate doing it so much, but I’ve decided I need to create a bathroom cleaning schedule, so that big cleans like yesterday’s aren’t so big. I have this app I use called Wunderlist, which is a great way to create reminders. I’m going to add ‘bathroom cleaning’ to the list. Anyway, I felt a great sense of accomplishment once I finished, so there’s that.

Hope you’re having a nice weekend.

Happy Sunday.

Saturday Thoughts: Decorating

September 7, 2019 at 11:20 am by Claudia

Another beautiful morning. Another great walk with my husband.

It’s beautiful here.

We’ve walked six days in a row and we’ll probably take tomorrow off as it’s Farmers Market day and Don has to get going early in the morning. I’ll probably mow the lilac side of the front lawn, so that will give me some exercise.

There’s much I could and should be doing around here, but all I want to do is sit on the porch and read. Maybe I’ll clean somewhere in the house this morning so I’ll feel as if I’ve earned my reading time – maybe the bathroom – my least favorite thing to do around here.

I’ve been thinking about decorating and the continual emphasis on defining one’s style. I’ve never understood this need to categorize something. Is it that it makes one feel secure in a style choice? Like, “country” or “mid-century modern” or “boho?” Does it bring comfort to conform to one style? Or maybe it’s simply that the home/apartment owner likes that style exclusively?

As you know, I like things eclectic and undefined. I think it’s much more interesting, because that lack of confinement within just one style allows the owner’s personality and passions to shine through. We’ve definitely become more eclectic in the past several years. Almost everything here is vintage/used; different time periods, different styles. We have an overall color scheme and I think I have a pretty good eye for pulling it all together. You can’t look around our house and say that it is anything definitively. It’s just us.

You could say it’s funky, I guess. I’m fine with that.

And hopefully, cozy. I’m fine with that, too.

I’m always bemused by the whole ‘boho’ craze. I’m of an age, you know, and boho is basically the way everyone decorated their dorm rooms and apartments when I was in college. It was an inexpensive way to adorn a space. Been there, done that. And I have a confession to make: I was never a fan of macrame, except when necessary as a plant hanger. Macrame wall hangings? No. Houseplants, yes. But houseplants are eternal and are not defined by ‘bohemian’ or ‘boho’ even though we see a lot of them in those spaces.

But we know that decorating styles recycle and eventually become the hot ‘new’ look.

Except they aren’t.

It’s all personal taste, of course, and that particular look was never my taste even when I was living it in the seventies. Neither was mid-century modern, because my parents decorated in that style. And just as my mom eschewed her mother’s style, I’ve apparently done the same. The difference being that I admire the lines of certain mid-century furniture and like to see how homeowners use it in their living spaces. (And I like decorating my modern dollhouse in miniature versions of mid-century furniture, but that’s another story.)

Anyway, I’ve always tried to dodge any sort of label, whether it’s about me, my personality, my reading choices, my political beliefs, my spirituality, or my home. I think labels are limiting and we’re all much more complex and interesting than that.

Just a little of what I’ve been thinking about on a Saturday.

Happy Saturday.

Friday Ramblings

September 6, 2019 at 10:32 am by Claudia

Friday, already! The school bus is back to being a daily occurrence, a particular sound on my radar. Students here have just about finished their first week in school. This morning on our walk (and boy did I not want to go on that walk) it was cold! It’s all relative, of course, but in early September morning temps in the fifties seem quite, shall we say, brisk!

I’ve had too little sleep for two days in a row, so it took every ounce of effort for me to chug along on our walk, but I’m glad I did it. Back inside, I made our second cup of coffee and we sat on the sofa for our morning chat.

Black walnuts, which are abundant on our property.

I finished Shakespeare and Company Paris. It’s a fascinating history of that historic bookshop and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Then I pulled out Grief is the Thing with Feathers by Max Porter.

Max Porter is a British writer and this novel is unlike anything I’ve ever read. The use of language, the upending of the usual style of a novel, the subject matter – all of it makes for a compelling read. It’s short – 117 pages – which is why I finished it this morning and most likely won’t post it under “Currently Reading” on my sidebar. So I’ve posted it here for you.

Porter is really quite brilliant. And the ending is beautiful. I have his newest, Lanny, on my TBR pile here in the den.

And now I am faced with choosing another book to read within 12 hours of having to choose the last one!

I cleaned the dollhouse yesterday – by dollhouse, I mean the big one in the den. That usually means straightening up things that have become messy, reattaching things that have fallen off the wall, and ‘dusting’ with a small paintbrush.

I don’t know if you’ve been following on Instagram but I posted a couple of ‘series’ about the similarity between Caroline and me in Stories. The second one is still up there. The first is in my Highlights section under Miniatures. They were a lot of fun to do.

Incidentally, you’ll rarely, and I mean rarely, find me facing my iPhone camera and talking incessantly on Stories. I only did it once and it had to do with children being kept in cages at the Border. There seems to have been a memo sent out to young (and not-so-young) IGers that their audience wants to hear from them face-to-face as it were, sharing every single thing about their day with us. I know that a lot of people love these chats, but I just see them as extended selfies. Some people do it only occasionally. But others? On and on and on until I routinely skip over them. Or, depending on my mood, unfollow. (This is only my opinion, of course.)

I know it’s generational and also my own aversion to constantly posting pictures of myself. Who wants to see that all of the time? I sure as heck don’t. Most of my posts are centered on the garden or the house or something I’ve seen on the road, or books I’ve read. An occasional picture of Don or me.

But this is the selfie generation and it sort of drives me nuts. One of the most troublesome examples of selfie-mania was something we observed in the Louvre. All these young people waited in line to see the Mona Lisa and when they finally got up to the front, what did they do? Took a picture of themselves with the Mona Lisa behind them. They didn’t stop and look at the painting. They immediately took the selfie and then moved on.

“Let’s see, a picture of the Mona Lisa itself because, how cool, I got to see the exquisite Mona Lisa in person, or a picture of ME in primary focus with the Mona Lisa a bit blurry in the background?” It takes a lot of chutzpah to opt for the latter.

Oh well. It is what it is. My parents raised me not to talk about religion (it’s private), politics (I obviously failed that one), or to make every conversation about yourself. These things were verboten in our household. Humility was Shirley’s mantra. That, and saying please, thank you, and being respectful to your elders.

Not a bad way to be raised.

Happy Friday.

Houseplant Mysteries & Cleaning

Saturday Thoughts: Decorating

Friday Ramblings

Lambs Like to Party

A Note

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