So, I haven’t put up a significant post in a while, some would say ever, and I really haven’t posted any photos in a while.

I’m currently trudging through a pile of magazines that seems endless. Maybe I should seek help for my magazine addiction. I’m about two chapters into The Golden Compass, and I’m finding that I really like it, but then another magazine says, “No, read ME!”

Christmas was alright, and I slept through New Years. New Years has just never been that exciting to me. Dan and I each received a ten dollar gift card to Borders, which I used online to get Wordpress for Dummies and DragonArt. I am sorely unimpressed with DHL’s delivery service. I ordered both books separately (which is a whole ‘nother story), and the first book arrived about 10 days late, while the second book came two days before the first one was due to arrive. Why one book needed to go from Arizona to Ohio to Utah to Montana, while the other only went from Arizona to Montana, I’ll never know.

I had the distinct pleasure of restoring our computer to factory settings. The sfc /scannow command yielded a lovely corrupt file it couldn’t repair which was causing software to stop running. I tried every possible fix I could find online, which included a system restore to a point saved on December 29. That was a mistake which caused I-don’t-know-how-many registry errors. If I try to look on the bright side, it’s almost like getting a new computer all over again. Wait, there’s all that advertising to remove, Windows Vista security to turn off, patches to install, yada yada. There is no bright side. None at’all.

Ah well, it’s done now. And I always have cats to entertain me.

It may be known that I take home more plants than pets, much to Dan’s delight. Otherwise I’d have about 20 cats. I’m hinting, of course, that I bought a new Orchid.

The new Dendrobium Orchid is the mostly green one. The purple one behind it I’ve had for several years, and blooms regularly. This one sent out the bloom spike in January. I expect the new one to still have flowers for quite a while.

EDIT: I have photos of the purple dendrobium on January 9th.

Remember This Post? With the cool USB microscope and the portable, pet cactus? I told you I had to have them, and today the cactus arrived (the USB microscope was out of stock and I’ll have to wait a while before I can get it anyway). I had no idea it was that tiny! (I apologise for the poor quality photos — I can’t keep my hands from shaking today.)

I purchased this through Think Geek but the manufacturer is Pet Tree. I had a little trouble with their site, if you click English and then click a sub tab, you can see pics of others mini-plants, and care instructions.

Flowers arrive at the door for me today…

Nope, Dan didn’t send them…

My sister, Kimmy, did!

(And yes, I just tried to call her to thank her, but there was no answer.)

This comes from this afternoon’s Home Science Tools Newsletter, and being at that point in autumn where leaves are at their best, I thought it appropriate. Sixty-Four silver dollars to anyone who knows the connection to the title!

I’m not really going to send sixty-four silver dollars.

Preserving Autumn Leaves

One method to preserve leaves is to put them into a glycerin/water solution. This method will preserve your leaves yet leave them relatively flexible. This preserving method works because the natural moisture present in the leaves is replaced by the glycerin solution, maintaining the leaf’s texture and form.

Materials:

* Glycerin
* Water
* Flat pan or disposable plates
* A weight or something to keep leaves submerged
* Leaves

1. Mix the glycerin and water so that it is one part glycerin and two parts water. You only need enough to submerge the leaves.

2. Put the solution in a flat pan, place the leaves in the solution, and then put your weight on the leaves to keep them submerged. (Tip: try using two Styrofoam or other disposable plates. Put leaves and enough glycerin solution to just lightly cover the leaves in the bottom of one plate. Then put the other plate on top of the leaves and solution. Now you can put a weight of your choosing on the top plate without getting the weight in the solution.)

3. Keep the leaves submerged in the solution for 2-6 days.

4. Dry the leaves gently with a paper towel. They should feel soft and pliable.

The first three photos were taken at Hungry Horse Reservoir. The first two are where we found the willy worm (or wooly bear), the third at Lost Johnny a few weeks prior, and the final two were taken near Flathead Lake. Honeysuckle, lupines and wild roses were thick around the lake.

Ginny’s Box Turtle, Boxie, decided he wanted to take a tour of the house. After she went to the trouble of putting a weighted screen over his enclosure, he still found a way out. And doesn’t he look proud of himself?

This is a dinosaur plant. This first photo is right out of the box (and in the upper, left corner you can see the dumbest Betta in the world), the second is an hour later.

A close up of a Geranium from Ginny’s garden.

Wild Lupines. These were near Flathead Lake.

Flathead Lake

A video of Solomon I took this evening. I guess I’m feeling guilty because I listed the cats and dogs with Catster and Dogster, but there is no Birdster to list Solomon with. At the end you can see just how much Solomon lurves me. When a bird regurgitates, it’s sort of Psittacine Foreplay. Ewww… (Edit: I’ve been playing “Black Horse and a Cherry Tree,” by KT Tunstall a few times, if you haven’t heard this song, check it out, Solomon highly recommends it!)

Anni has a lot of sunflowers… a lot. Here are some of them:

Dan took this photo because I was too short to reach it!

This is the same flower, can you tell there’s a huge height difference?