The Orchid
My grandpa’s second wife gave my mom and orchid a year or two ago. She’d had it for a long time, but no longer wanted to take care of it. My mom tried splitting it and thought she had killed it. Then she noticed that all three starts were producing new growth.
When I came home from visiting her at Thanksgiving, she sent one of them home with me. After a little research, I put it under a grow light upstairs. Amazingly, within a week it started to produce buds. One fell off, but the other one is just starting to open up.
I’ve never grown orchids before, so this is completely new for me. I read that they like little water and lots of light. So far I guess I’m doing OK since it’s blooming.
Do you have any new houseplants this winter?
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Friday Favorite: The Old Apple Tree
I strung lights in the old apple tree the first year we moved in, they stay up all year long. In the summer they brighten up the front of the house, in the winter they create a warm glow outside the window on the long, dark winter nights.
While these lights look great all year long, they are especially lovely after a fresh dusting of snow. They perfectly highlight this very old apple tree, it was planted by with the original homestead back in the 1890’s. So it’s most likely around 125 years old.
These are C7 lights, incandescent of course. There are 2-3 strands of old lights, I’m thinking of eventually replacing them with one long strand, since you can order these in strands of varying lengths. I also need to purchase a box of replacement bulbs, I’ve used up all of mine replacing all the burnt out lights this fall. Considering these strands of lights have been gracing my porch and this tree for going on 12 years I think the bulbs lasted pretty well.
Do you have any garden lighting?
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Christmas Crafting
In the winter, I make things, I sew, I embroider, I create. This year I’m making myself an embroidered advent pillow for the living room. It won’t be finished until after the holidays, but it’s a great project to work on during the season. I’ve been carrying this project with me as I travel back and forth to Ohio. It’s the perfect thing to work on while chatting with friends, or while enjoying a lazy Saturday morning.
It’s been fun choosing which details to embellish. After taking this photos I got some metallic thread to add just a touch of sparkle here and there.
Are you making any holiday crafts for your home?
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The Indoor Garden
This winter, the indoor garden in flourishing. I’ve always had houseplants, probably because my mom always had them scattered throughout the house. I have a dwarf banana that should be fruiting here soon, I’m pretty excited at the possibility. There are also a host of different things under the grow lights upstairs, herbs, African violets, orchids, ivy, lemons, and so much more.
Some of these plants are new, some are old. In fact one of our houseplants was on the stage during our wedding 18.5 years ago. Some plants come and go, I don’t like some, some don’t like the climate in the house. I enjoy having them around, not only for their air cleaning qualities, for for the beauty and greenery during the long cold winters here in Maine.
Do you have lots of houseplants? Do you have a favorite?
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Baking up Christmas
With all the travel, we’re doing a more minimal Christmas this year. We put up a small tree, but the rest of the decorations stayed in their boxes in the closet. We’ll burn candles to add brightness.
Yesterday I spent some time making a few batches of Christmas cookies: butter cookies, gingerbread men, and date pinwheel cookies. These are some of my favorites. With only two of us in the household, they’re bound to be frozen in batches so we can enjoy them over a longer season before they go stale.
What’s your favorite holiday cookie?
