Thanks! I would love to see the northern lights in real life, but for the time being I'll rejoice in having a web cam view.If you google "Northern Lights web cam" you find a bunch of them, ranging from Alaska to Canada, Iceland and Norway/Sweden, take your pick. I couldn't find the one I had before but any of these will do but as I said they are pretty much closed for the summer, the sky is too light due to the "midnight sun" and there isn't much going on anyway. Winter is the time to watch and it is dark early there so your kids, depending on old they are, can watch before it is time to go to bed and even in the morning before school and before it gets light in those high latitudes.
That sounds really neat to watch! if you do find the site again; can you please let me know? I really like to share that kind of thing with my kids; possibly with a lesson planned around it.
We watch a kitten cam now and I used to watch one of a watering hole in Africa and a bald eagle nest.
Forget about catnip seed, buy a nice big bushy plant instead and treat it like a basil plant, pinch it to make it more bushy. There are so many seeds in a packet that nobody will ever need unless they want a whole lawn full of catnip. I kept one of those alive for three years by not leaving it where the cats could get it but snipping pieces for them every few days. Then one of them managed to get to it and rolled in it, breaking all the branches and that poor plant never did recover.
Thanks! I would love to see the northern lights in real life, but for the time being I'll rejoice in having a web cam view.
Well, I had bought a new rose bush to plant out front, Peace, and the day that I had planned to plant it Roger came home from dialysis sick enough that he couldn't get out of the car and into the house on his own. Just after I got him into the house I received a phone call from dialysis saying he was sick and needed to be in the hospital, but was "resistant" to the idea, would I please see whether I could get him to the hospital? I spent the rest of the day talking Roger into agreeing to go to the hospital. By the time he did I couldn't even get him off of the sofa on my own; I had to call 911. Turned out he had a blood sepsis; if I hadn't gotten him in when I did he would have died. Instead, my new rose bush died (I would, of course, much rather lose the rose), and it's too late to get another this summer; they simply aren't being sold locally, and it's much better to get it in as early as possible so that it has all summer to get itself established before it has to deal with hard freezes.
(The good news is that last year's new bush, Love & Peace, is going strong. I'll post some pictures once I get my camera problems worked out.)
So, now I'm switching inside, primarily. I bought a couple of miniature rose bushes in 2 inch pots from Trader Joe's. They were seriously pot-bound, so I transplanted them to larger pots, with good drainage, and Miracle Gro Moisture Control Garden Soil. I gave them a good watering to start, and then watered every time the soil got dry. They were in a room with plenty of light, though little direct sunlight. And they simply gave up and died. I'm wondering whether the problem is that I simply removed them from the original pots and put them in the new pots with their original soil intact -- should I have rinsed the soil away and planted them with bare roots instead? In case it's not obvious, I've never done this before, and before I buy another miniature rose I want to know how to do it right.
Anyway, about the time the miniature roses died, I saw a nice wax begonia in a 4 inch pot at Trader Joe's, and I bought it. It didn't even give me time to get the right soil and transplant it, it just died, period. I'm beginning to think that, nice as Trader Joe's is, it may not be the best place to buy house plants.
I also bought a packet of catnip seeds from Home Depot this spring. Planted some of them in a small pot, following the directions on the seed packet, with the same soil as I used for the roses, put one of those water absorbing pellets with each seed so it would be harder for them to get too dry, watered whenever the soil felt dry, and nothing happened. They haven't sprouted at all, in over two months. And no, there's no chance at all that they did sprout and Jasmine got to them; I've been keeping her out of that room except under strict supervision.
This is becoming very discouraging. Does anybody have any good advice? I clearly need it.
Margret
just cut it in half and eat with a spoon, it has a delicate slightly sweet flavor, some people find it to be bland. There are also
pink and red fleshed varieties
This one was my very first and only fruit that year when it was still growing in a pot, the next year it was too pot bound to fruit so it was transplanted into the garden and I got 7 fruit. I think the fruit is bigger now that it grows in the ground. This year the plant is going nuts. There are about 10 fruit in various stages and at least 20 more buds, it seems every few days I notice more buds. Considering that a fruit weighs about 1 pound and they sell it here for up to $10 per pound that's a lot of money growing in my garden and I'm not surprised anymore that people will try to steal it like they did last year when I lost 3 of them to thieves. This year I put up a barrier, not very pretty but it will do the job.
I have not tried lychee fruit, it does not look appetizing to me. When I was still working I saw my Vietnamese coworkers eating those, but they were dried and called lychee nuts. The fresh ones you are supposed to peel and eat the flesh but not the seed inside which is poisonous. That seems like an awful lot of work for little to eat like having to peel cherries.
The closest you come in another fruit is Kiwi, pretty much the same texture, has tiny seeds like strawberries and the taste is very delicate. Bet your daughter likes all that hot spicy Mexican or Thai food.
I have to admit I found them a little bland too, but for me the best part was eating something that pretty. That lovely pink skin and the polka dot inside look so good together. And it's called a Dragon Fruit! How exotic is that
I put them on sandwiches or on pizza mostly. I don't need too many jars to get me through a year. Mariachi peppers are a hot pepper; but not too hot. I pickled some of those last year too. Pam mentioned them on here as being hot but not too hot; so I was interested. I have to order them as pants direct from Burpee. They are probably 3-4" cone shaped peppers. Pretty colors too. Last year I had tons of peppers on the plants but the bugs were getting them faster than they could ripen. This year their growth was stunted; so they are 2/3 the height of my banana peppers and don't have nearly as much fruit. It's partly my fault for not loosening the roots when I planted them after the wet month.
