Ugh.... this has not been a good week. Definitely not a good way to start February.
But I try to look at the good things. And one good thing are these blossoms!
In my last blog, I had posted about the blooms on this amazing amaryllis plant. I have never had a plant like this before. It was given to me during the fall and I never really knew how to care for it. I didn't even know it was 7 or 8 individual bulbs in the one pot!
My friend Connie sent me this email with some really nice explicit instructions:
This is how I treat mine.
Usually the single flower stalk will have four blooms. It's good that you have propped up the flower stalk. Cut each blossom off as it droops down and be careful of the sap as it can stain. After all are done cut the stalk as close down into the leaves as you can do it without damaging the leaves. Set the pots outdoors when the weather gets warm enough and water all summer. I usually put them on one side of the house for partial shade. Stop watering about Labor Day and it'll take a long time for the leaves to dry out. Bring the pots in before a severe frost and take off dry leaves as they get brittle. Then I put them in the basement. This year I brought the first one up in mid-December watering it and putting it in a sunny window., I've brought one up every two weeks since but the three are all at about the same stage of development. The first one took forever, it seemed, to put out a shoot and the third one popped right out so maybe the sun intensity has something to do with it. Last summer as I put them outdoors I divided the new shoots, which are little bulbs off of a big bulb, into separate pots. As gifts they came in pots without drain holes which I think is a BAD idea. I've repotted all of mine into pots that can drain."
I now have four tall stalks full of beautiful peachy orange blooms. There are five more stalks poking up their heads, ready to give me more as these die off.
It's hard to get a good pic against the open window---
I tried with the mini blind down.
I think all of the blooms will be the same color.
It sure is a cheery sight to walk around the corner and peek into the office each morning. Seeing the sun streaming in on these beautiful blossoms reaching 2 ft or more higher than the flower pot that they reside in.
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I am finally starting to feel a little bit better after being sick for more than 7 days. About 3 days after I started feeling sick, Steve fell right into step after me. So he's about three days behind me on the increasing wellness factor.
I did take a home covid test that said negative. But I am beginning to doubt that. I have heard a lot of these home kits give false negatives. I suppose short of actually going in and taking a PCR test at a clinic or at the doctor office is the only way to know for sure.
But since I'm starting to feel better and Steve is slowly getting better behind me, I think we will leave it as it is. But I'm pretty sure we have covid again because this is no ordinary flu. And yes, we both have had our flu shots, as well as our covid vaccines and boosters. Sigh.
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We put on hold our beadboard project of last week because neither of us had any energy to do anything. I did wake up yesterday morning feeling the urge to get the final coat of paint on the beadboard that Steve had added around underneath the windows and by the cuckoo clock. Honestly, it took all of the energy I could muster to get that much painted. But it's done!
The last step will be to add the rest of the little bit of trim where the bead board meets the baseboard. Plus the top cap of what ever of the two designs that I had previously talked about. But we can't do that until we feel better and take a run to Green Bay to the Home Depot to pick them out.
Sometime later this month, when we feel better, we will start the beadboard in the bathroom.
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Last week the littlest granddaughter had helped me weave the caterpillar rug. I posted about it in my last blog. I had finished it up but never got around to unrolling it or cutting it off the loom yet. After a little bit of rest from my painting, I got up and decided to unroll the rug and see what we had created.
The next step is to cut it free from the loom, fold-over the woven header ends three times, and hem each end securely on my grandmother's antique Singer sewing machine.
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Steve was finally feeling good enough today to get up and put on some clothes. We've been wandering around the house in jammies and slippers and sweats for the last 7 days. Today he got dressed because he needed to get down into the basement and change our whole house filter, as well as check the little filter on the new tankless water heater system. We are proud to say that both are operating perfectly and it was worth it to double-check everything and maintain it. Even if it took all of our energy to do so.
(the ceilings are very low in this half of the basment,
that is why he is down on his knees.)
While he was taking care of the water heater, I was watering my boxes of coleus that I am wintering over in the south-facing windows of the basement. I also have a pot of ivy growing down there as well.
The basement windows are large enough that they can bring in the sunlight even though they are at ground level. If I kept these plants up on the main floor they get a little messy when the leaves fall off and new ones grow, as well as the stems get rangy and kind of awkward.
I'm glad that I can keep them down in the basement. I can water them liberally and let the excess trickle out and down the basement drain. It doesn't matter if they are messy, I sweep up the dead leaves every few weeks. By Spring, they'll be ready to be brought outside after the danger of frost has past. I distribute them in the flower beds around the yard for summer color. I have kept the same ones going since Connie gave them to me in about 1990 or so.
From time to time I snap off the longest rangiest pieces and stuff them into a vase of water, and place them upstairs in the window. There they have a chance to grow new roots. Then I can plant them alongside the other more mature plants or I can put them into a new pot. See the tiny roots starting in the vase below?
I also take snips off this ivy plant from time to time and root them the same way. This ivy is from way back when we first had our house in Chilton in 2012 and I had the pot growing inside the front porch. It's just plain old basic ivy that used to grow outside and then moved inside to one of my flower pots, common garden-variety stuff from garden center for 99 cents.
I stick it in a vase of water until it grows roots
and then I pop it into some potting soil to create a new house plant.
Amazingly, I have been putting some of these ivy plants out around the pergola each summer and they make it through the entire winter to grow again in the spring. I had no idea that ivy could winter over in Wisconsin. Especially this plain old regular potting ivy. I guess it's pretty hearty stuff.
Well I really don't have a lot to blog about today other than my beautiful flowers that are blooming. I might get a little quilting done but I haven't gotten an awful lot done this whole week. I do have a nice beef roast in the pressure cooker today and I'm just about ready to add potatoes and carrots to finish it off for dinner this evening. We don't have very huge appetites but a pot roast is always good to save for leftovers or to turn into a hearty beef stew. Good to stick to the ribs on these cold winter days.
In the meantime, we are inside, staying warm. The dog is helping to pick out next week's specials at the grocery store. Our soninlaw offered to pick things up for us as needed. What a sweet guy.
I am relaxing and planning on just watching winter happen:
Today, my wonderful sister, Linda, started the radiation treatments for breast cancer. She will be receiving localized radiation treatments twice a day for 5 days in a row. Prayers or kind thoughts or loving feelings towards a healthy outcome and positive healing are appreciated.
With everything else going on in our family, this is the last thing she needs to be facing at this time!
She sent this message after her 2nd treatment was completed today to everyone on Facebook. Letting everybody know that she has her "Schmootie Attitude" in high gear and is meeting this head on.
The prognosis is good for a clear outcome as well as she has something very, very special to look forward to...
A NEW-TO-THEM CAMPER!!!
Steve helped them locate a wonderful newer camper to replace their aging one. It's in like-new condition, it even has that "new camper smell". The sellers think they maybe only slept in it 3 times while they owned it. It was stored indoors and kept in pristine condition.
Before leaving town for her radiation treatments, she was able to start loading it up with their gear. Just look at that happy girl!
She had so much fun finding new places for everything and storing it all away. It is something very positive for her to look forward to during this radiation process.
She just can't wait to get it out to the lake, set it up, start a campfire, and sit down in her woven lawn chair next to her husband. She never asks for much in life, just this. She loves camping and campfires and cooking outdoors and fishing and hunting. This is her life. She is a true Yooper Woman. All she wants is to get through this and go camping. Let's all pray that she is granted her wish.
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Last night we had a crazy biker gang pull up an invade our yard. My goodness, such a radical biker bunch. Please notice the little pink helmet peeking around the corner from behind her daddy's butt.
They hung out on the front porch for while, and we had a nice visit. I brought out a big bowl of freshly cut up watermelon as a treat. The weather here has turned warm and sunny. It felt like summertime!
They only live a mile away, so they made it back before dark. Just in time to wash up and get them off to bed for school the next morning.
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Speaking of morning, this morning I really enjoyed seeing the beautiful golden sunlight streaming in our new windows!
We still need to complete the inside wooden trim around the windows and hang the Heritage lace curtain valances again. Then I can also put all of my colorful little blown glass paperweights along the window sills.
Little Claire, 4 years old, was quite upset last night to see that all of grandma's paperweights are off the sills and stored away in boxes. That just didn't settle right with her. It's her job to wipe them down and dust them for me when she comes over. When we are done, I think I will have her over to help put them back in place again.
Today, Steve made himself busy working on the soffit and facia of this little overhang on the kitchen nook. It had never been covered up before, and was a perfect spot for wasp nests and spider webs and bugs! ewwwwww
It was kind of a One Man Job, not much for me to help him with. So I made myself busy with potting my precious tomato plants temporarily into individual flower parts. Actually, I had to put 2 plants per pot. They will reside here for a week or two. I can bring them in at night, and bring out in the morning to get fresh air and sunshine. They need to harden off and acclimate to the new weather.
My garden plot for my tomatoes happens to be located right where Steve is working. The space is invaded right now with ladders and tools and pieces of siding and soffit and facia and rain gutter. There's really no room to put any tomatoes in the plot right now. This is the best spot in our yard for growing tomatoes, plus it's within a fenced area to keep the sassy deer out.
The weather crept up into the high seventies and it was very nice working on the shady side of the house in the afternoon. I think my misplaced rain barrel just happened to become a work table?
Once the soffit and facia are done, and getting the rain gutter hung back up, the downspout will start filling my rain barrel. I like using fresh rainwater on my plants as opposed to city water.
I had rooted and grown some ivy indoors over the winter, saved from the last few summers. I put some of it in the silly hanging baskets on the pergola. Little Claire calls them "birdnest" planters. Lol.
They came with the pergola when we bought it last spring from facebook marketplace. The sellers threw them in for free. I don't think the husband liked them at all. hahaha
Last summer, I let the ivy grow down and weave itself among the lattice work of the pergola. So this year I gave it a little head start and helped guide it through some of the lattice already.
Last year, I had also planted some ivy down at the base of the pergola on each side. I figured it would die off over the winter, and I could plant some new stuff this spring. But to my surprise, the ivy that was planted in the ground wintered over in the sub zero temps of Wisconsin! It is growing and sprouting new shoots and greening up!!! So this will weave upwards in the pergola trellis and meet up wit the ivy growing from above. It made a nice covered secret entrance to either side, into the She Shed or into the garage.
This is the backside of the pergola, and looking through it is forward into the front yard and the street. On the front portions of the pergola I have red and white Clematis vines that are just starting to grow. Soon there will be blooms, as I see a lot of buds.
Steve finished up the soffit and facia right before dinner this evening. What a nice neat job he is doing. Next up is the window trim and siding.
The weather man is predicting some rain tomorrow. We are going to take a break from all these siding and window projects. We are going to go up in see Steve's dad, Pops Pfundtner, to spend some time with him in the morning and do a few projects for him around the yard. Also we are working in a visit with my sister on the way back through Green Bay where she is staying at a hotel nearby the hospital.
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