thorns in the mail...

Actually, it started out as a thorny day... I had to do a couple of what I thought would be simple errands, so I called dispatch and told them I'd start late... well, of course, simple errands turned into bizarre rituals, and I ended up missing a day of work, which I really didn't want to do... but when I finally got home, I found three little plants in the mail...

I had sent out the cemetary cactus a few weeks ago, and that wonderful Aiyana had sent me some plants back...

The plant at the top of the triangle is Chamelobivia 'Fire Chief' the one to the right is Chamelobivia 'Rose Quartz' The one to the left is what we believe Echinopsis 'Elegant Lady'

Really, it was totally unnecesary to send me anything. But, these really cheered me up, and for that I'm grateful.

And once I started potting things, I kept going... I started by cutting up a few pieces of fence wood to make a tray. I use these to display little plants that I root up to sell in the Flea Market and I have some to take in next weekend... The first one I made, years ago, surprised me... people want to buy the things! I have no earthly idea why, but who am I to turn down 10 bucks... it's just a piece of fence wood that you find by the side of the road on trash day after a good storm blows through, and an old belt that you cut up to use for handles. Old horse-shoes make better handles, but they're hard to come by.

The boot with plants in it sells well too... something to do with Texas no doubt. Then I planted a bunch of Semperviviums chicks in an old tin can... I'll either use this to size them up to sell or maybe just sell the whole darned thing. There's a very old tradition of Hen & Chicks in old tins, galvanized buckets or enamel pans, growing on front porches...

I then I planted up this Strawberry jar...
I collect pots from rummage sales, and I like to plant them up, but I really don't have room for all of them, so I wait for them to root good and sell them off... I can probably get 15 to 20 for this at the flea market. It would be more than double that at a nursery, but I'm just pulling these out of the yard, so I don't really have any money in them...

And the final pics are of the infamous "Prickly Pear Jelly Cactus"

Looks like I'm going to have a great deal of fruit this year...

So it turned into a pretty good day after all...

nothing much...

I took this pic of one of my sempervivums a couple of weeks ago, but I didn't publish it for some reason... anyway, here it is now, as it's not been a good couple of days for pic taking...

We've had gusty winds stirring up the dust, and wildfires west and north of us, so the sky has turned a little yellow on us. And the smoke and dust has made everything look foggy... not much fun if you have any sort of breathing problems. But the wind will be changing over the weekend, and they say there's actually a chance of rain coming in... which we desperately need!

Anyway, I was just posting so that everyone would know I'm still around...

later folks.

Mom came to spend the night yesterday, and left today about 2 PM, so I spent the rest of the afternoon doing yard work... specifically the front yard. The alley still isn't finished, but it's an alley, the front yard is what everybody sees and it desperately needed some attention. After about 3 or 4 hours, I'd achieved quite a bit, and then, since the sun had softened down, I decided I would take some pics... Not much new here, and they're in no particular order, but I was more having fun than anything else...

Here's the Sweet Williams, in full bloom now...

And here's the M. sonorensis ssp. craigii, even though the blooms were bigining to shut down for the night...

And here's Phennig, keeping watch for any mockingbirds in the curly willow tree ...

And this is a shelf that I rigged against the fence in the back yard... it gets the perfect amount of sun for the cactus & succulents, and as rough as it looks, it still looks better than the bare fence... It'll do until I can get something better there... you can see some Agave americana pups that I've potted up on the left. I'm waiting for them to root good, then I'll take em to the flea market to sell for a couple bucks each.

And here's another tray of succulents that I'm doing the same thing with. The Echeverias keep producing baby's and my friends run when they see me with one... so, off to the flea market they go... Not turning any profit on them, but at least they have some chance of finding a good home.

And I don't know if you remember me telling you about the abandoned crown of thorn plant that I found on my front step in a previous post... well, he's been repotted, and he's growing and blooming. Kinda cute... and that's the pachypodium beside it...

And here's on of my Sempervivum's going haywire in the pot tower...

And that's it.

Hope everybody out there had a wonderful weekend!

Later...