Whatcha Doing Today?

[early]

Originally Posted by rbarata

Yes, we have a castle in the city. That's an old city (more than 1000 years) and, most of the time, it's a quiet place. Our climate is mediterranean, mild in winter (for our standards it's cold) and hot in summer. That creates a lot of problems in orchid culture regarding many species. One of them is that the cold season is the wettest, something that only occurrs in mediterranean climates.
You should come visit us, a lot to see and to do in such a small country. And the food is great!

I am 78, and would love to visit but probably too old and two poor to come to Europe. I am still driving from New Mexico to see daughters one in Calif and the other Alabama.
My youngest daughter, a disable veteran from years ago, spent 3 months this past summer in Europe. She didn't make it to Spain or Portugal but spent a lot of time in Scotland and Budapest her favorite places. I am so happy she regained enough health to travel. She and my other daughter have wanderlust like me. my travels when younger was most all USA states and 3/4 of the states of Mexico and I travel alone. would not do that today, too dangerous in Mexico.

Both daughters have more income than me. Other daughter and husband went to a language conference in Japan in Oct. Was in a hotel during a typhon.

---------- Post added at 06:55 PM ---------- Previous post was at 06:51 PM ----------

Have to figure out how to upload from my photo on phone AGAIN. will edit and include. it is the only online photo of me I have. okay got from phone to puter.

[camille1585]

This thread is a great idea! It's been a long, long, long time since we last did this, thanks for reviving it.

Originally Posted by WaterWitchin

Okay, I'll go first. Today is Sunday. Husband is off to Cowboy Church (yes, that is a thing) and I'm getting ready to move the latest puzzle I finished down to the BatCave. I'm an avid puzzler in winter months, and it keeps me from getting in trouble or fussing over my orchids too much.

Me too, I love puzzles in the winter! What sort of puzzle did you finish? I'm nearly done with a 1500 piece one, which is a painting of a greenhouse garden with many flowers. I think my next one will be a 2000 piece, probably a landscape scene.



I had a busier weekend than usual. Saturday morning I ordered my seed potatoes and seeds for my vegetable garden for the coming season, and then we went into town for our weekly produce/meat/cheese shopping at the market and for lunch. We had fries at a great little shop that hand cuts and cooks their own fries. Favorite topping is nacho (cheese sauce, grated cheese, tomatoes, guacamole and sour cream). Dessert was then a warm stroopwafel made by an elderly gentleman at the market.

After than we made the 2 hour drive up to Friesland/Groningen to visit some friends who moved back here after nearly a decade in Scotland (thanks to Brexit). We had a nice weekend of beer, whisky and boardgames (Dead of Winter is an excellent cooperative game, where you are a colony of survivors in a zombie infested world).

After work today I'm going to the gym, and I'm looking forward to restarting a weight lifting program I was doing before my SI joint started causing severe pain more than a year ago. I've been slowly easing back into lifting over the past 2 months, and now have the all clear to start moving the really heavy weights again.

[Mountaineer370]

Yes, thank you to WW for starting this thread! I think a place where we regulars can come and share a few things about ourselves, about our everyday activities, orchid-related or not, is a nice way to get to know one another.

I went to my first orchid show of the season on Saturday of this past weekend. I'm pretty maxed out on space for orchids, so I went mainly for something to do, to get out of the house. I told my husband I wasn't planning on buying anything, but I couldn't make any promises. This was a fairly good-sized show for my state, quite a few vendors, but almost nobody had any Phalanopses. That was good, since that is all I grow, so there was nothing to tempt me, but still I was surprised at the lack of selection for that particular genus.

My Phalaenopsis japonica that I bought at a show last spring is finally spiking! I had recently moved it from one room to another, thinking maybe it was getting a bit too much light where it was. This was no more than about three weeks ago, so I have no idea if the spike was going to happen anyway, or if the change of location prompted it that quickly. Anyway, fingers crossed that I get some flowers. Another nice little compact Phal that I bought at the same show last year has put out a single flower. It's Phal. (Katie Morris 'Burnished Copper' HCC/AOS x equestris).

Today I'll be making dog food. I have one elderly dog who cannot eat hard chunky kibble anymore. I got in the habit of making my own dog food many years ago when another dog was having digestive issues with commercial dog food. Then he got better and I got away from it, but I'm back to it at least for the rest of this one old girl's life. These are big dogs, so large quantities are required, and it's very time-consuming, but she's still with me, so it's worth whatever trouble I have to go through. I do mix the homemade with a variety of canned food. I'm very careful about nutritional completeness, and I've done lots of research on doing the homemade right.

February has been a tough month weather-wise around here. I have had a bad case of cabin fever. But things have looked a bit better over the last several days. Almost all of the snow and ice is gone, and the sky has been blue and sunny in the daytime and filled with stars at night, so that always cheers me up.

[WaterWitchin]

Camille, I usually stick to 500 piece, occasionally a 1K piece. I enjoy the 500 best, as I can usually get one done in a week, and it fits better on the puzzle keeper I made for myself. I like ones with lots of intricacy. I'm not as good at matching shapes, unless it's a Springbok puzzle. Springbok is by far my favorite puzzle maker. If you can get one there, you should check it out.

Worked outside most of yesterday. A 60F day, preceded by a 45F day, followed by today...30F, snow anticipated later on. Definitely Kansas weather.
I pruned my peach trees like a tornado hit them. We'll see how they produce this spring. Also whacked back all my hydrangea that bloom on new year's growth. Also pruned quite severely this year.

[Ray]

Ugh... I guess.

In PA, jury duty was "one jury or one day" service - if you don't get selected that day, you're done. Here in NC, you're stuck for a week, so I'm off to the courthouse and no internet in about an hour.

In a way, I view jury duty as an opportunity/civic obligation like voting, but on my third call in PA I was placed on a panel for a murder trial, which was pretty brutal. Being escorted to and from your car by the police each day was stressful enough. Don't know that I'm ready for that sort of thing again.

[Connie Star]

Spent the weekend working our local orchid society show, one of my favorite events of the year although I hadn't been for 7 years as we had been living in Costa Rica for the winters. Now I am looking up care requirements for the 6 orchids I bought to start re-establishing my collection. It's supposed to be unusually warm for New England in February and I am planning to get outside for a walk.

[WaterWitchin]

Originally Posted by Fuerte Rav

Well I've been stuck indoors most of the weekend. I live in/on Fuerteventura, one of The Canary islands in the Atlantic ocean, and we have suffered the dubious delights of a calima. This is a severe dust storm originating in the Western Sahara desert in Africa and it arrived on gale force winds.....

Wow, Fuerte Ray, I'd never heard of a calima before. Yuck and triple YUCK. Blowing wind makes me crazy(er). That weather service photo was intense. My husband was SF in Army. He was telling me about dust storms somewhere in Africa and it was hard to believe... now that I've seen the pictures, it appears he didn't exaggerate. I couldn't bear it.

---------- Post added at 11:10 AM ---------- Previous post was at 11:00 AM ----------

I've been watering orchids in between puzzling last couple of days, taking a few pics of my bloomers, etc. I need to drill about seven vases to pot up my two newbies, plus upsize a few pots. Procrastination is the name of the game. The LECA is ready, but the BatCave is chilly and I don't want to drag everything upstairs just to pot/repot, then drag it all back down.

I also have five more phals I ripped off mounts (gently of course) and have had them regrouping themselves for a couple of weeks. Can't procrastinate much longer.

I'm not normally much of a procrastinator, but we had two days this week where I could get outside and work in the yard. Now it's back to cold outside, me inside, pouting. I think those two days got my hopes a little too high.

Gotta go finish watering. I'm trying to rig up a pulley on several hanging plants so I can lower them to water. If you hear a big crash, that's just me with a failed experiment.

[Fuerte Rav]

Well I'm catching a ferry across to the neighbouring island of Lanzarote in the morning to do some shopping. It's not that they have different shops, just larger versions of ours and therefore more selection. They also have an IKEA - our island just has a catalogue! You never know I might see a garden centre on route and find some clay pellets!
A biggy for the day will be visiting the Overseas Shop, UK readers will understand when I say I can get Galaxy, Crème Eggs, HP sauce, Paxo, Salt & Vinegar crisps, Ginster's pasties, proper sausages etc. While we love the local cuisine sometimes it's nice to indulge in old English favourites!
Now just pray that the wind dies down a bit so the crossing won't be too rough ………..

[JScott]

It's Monday now and I am a teacher and this is the first day of spring break. I mostly just relaxed, but the weather was beautiful, so I went out and planted some Dahlias (I know it's probably too hot in North Texas for them, but they were tempting and I thought I'd give them a try) and some Calla Lilies and some Japanese irises. I was outside gardening in my bare feet because I love the way the grass and soil feet on my feel, until I stepped in a giant fire ant mound, so that was unpleasant, but I'll survive.

I'm planning on making three raised beds for vegetable gardening (not the kind that are raised up all the way so you can garden standing up, but the soil here is so heavy, I think I'm going to till in some compost and looser, better soil into the ground soil, than build 12 inch tall beds over that and fill them with good soil and compost, and hopefully that will give the roots enough depth of good soil to do well) in my back yard. I've sketched it out and priced everything, but planting season is already well under way in Texas, and I just don't think I can get it done in time to get tomatoes and peppers and squash and stuff in, so I'm planning to have it done by fall so I can plant garlic, onions, mustard greens, and other cool season crops.

The orchids are inside under the lights right now, which means I have to take each individual pot to the sink to water it, and I did some of that today. I stagger the watering schedule so I never have to do all of them at once. Just a few a day.

Then I watched The Walking Dead from last night, and now I'm just hanging out here. I've got another section of flower bed I need to clean out and get ready to plant. I just bought this house this winter, and the people who owned it before were not plant people, so there's lots of work to be done in the flower beds. I think tomorrow, I'll go out there and dig out this out of control lantana, pull some weeds, and then till some good soil and compost into that section so it's ready to plant. Not sure what I'll put there yet. There are some shrubs in the front that are just ugly and need to come out. I'm debating whether I should have the lawn guy do it, or if I should just tie one end of a chain to the base of the shrubs and the other end to the trailer hitch of my truck and just yank them out like that. That seems more efficient, although more possibility for things to go awry. I'll let you know what I decide to do hahaha.

Enjoy your week.

[early]

Originally Posted by JScott

I think tomorrow, I'll go out there and dig out this out of control lantana, pull some weeds, and then till some good soil and compost into that section so it's ready to plant. Not sure what I'll put there yet. There are some shrubs in the front that are just ugly and need to come out. I'm debating whether I should have the lawn guy do it, or if I should just tie one end of a chain to the base of the shrubs and the other end to the trailer hitch of my truck and just yank them out like that. That seems more efficient, although more possibility for things to go awry. I'll let you know what I decide to do hahaha.

Enjoy your week.

You are my kind of person. I would probably attempt to do it myself, even if I am 78/ but fortunately I took care of all the unruly plants last summer. Lots of chain sawing and using trimmers on 40 yr old blooming kind of shrubs. I got everything except the GOAT HEADs
I have stepped on a fire ant hill, and believe me, compared to goat heads, that my dogs track in most days, I would rather have fire ants. I am barefoot all the time and also love my feet and hands in the soil and grass, if I could grow it here in NM>