Since we solved the groundhog problem, I've been getting a real kick out of growing my own food.  And this year, we've grown a surprising amount of it from four 4' x 8' beds.  Today was the first tomato harvest:


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I've been a lot less successful this year hunting orchids, in large part due to the fact that I'm getting much more ambitious in the plants I'm trying to find.  I've got quite the backlog of pictures to edit, and even though I've got some orchid pictures, most of those sets don't contain the plants I was looking for.  winktwice and I had a dynamite trip ( Read more... )

Busy, busy, busy, which I suppose is a good thing.  Work, eat, sleep, garden, house, hike, rinse and repeat.  We've had a lot of unsuccessful hikes hunting for orchids this year, but that's a side effect of hunting a bunch of rare plants.  I'm still working on catching up on editing pictures; here's a set from this past spring at Norvin Green State ( Read more... )

I blink, and nearly two more months have slipped by.  Time flies when you're having fun, or not ( Read more... )

As the weather grows warmer, I've been working on planning my orchid hunting trips for the year.  I always try to keep a good mix of wishful thinking and instant gratification on the schedule.  I will admit, though, that as my information has grown better over the past few years, my plans have become increasingly more ambitious.  First on the list ( Read more... )

I've been spending most weekends this winter working on the house, wiring things.  It's been both frustrating and gratifying, and I'm getting stuff done slowly but surely.  Nearly all of these projects involve running cable from the basement to the attic, and I figured out that I could do this through the central load bearing wall.  I pulled off ( Read more... )

This is the light at the end of the tunnel.


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I have had my fill of winter, and I am ready to see a thousand (or more!) crocuses blooming in my yard.  Sadly, winter is only half over and my yard has been buried under snow since last year.  I do have a few bright spots indoors, like the Streptocarpella in my office that's covered in flowers, or the 30 Impatiens cuttings I recently potted up ( Read more... )

This weather sucks.  We've been getting a monster snow every four or five days, and I haven't seen the ground in over a month because it's been buried under white.  What better way to pass the time than to roll the clock back half a year and edit some pictures?  Way back at the end of July, I took a trip to Clayton Park searching for orchids.


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I never really see the point in making resolutions for a new year.  I mean, if they were important, then why wait to start until January?  I did think it might be novel to reflect on the past year, but normally by the time the thought occurs to me it's nearly March.  That and I suspect that not many people read this these days, so this is mostly ( Read more... )