Hi Y’all,
How are you doing? Can you believe all the election fuss? Has society gone mad and forgotten what is really important in life: Plants and Cats? Astonishingly, Plants and Cats have been sidelined by 2020 political silliness. Who knew! Joking aside, Plants and Cats are a wonderful hobby and distraction amid the madness of late.
African Violets have become a love of mine.
They are:
Easy to transplant
Simple to propagate
Beautiful to look at
Fun to touch, and
They bloom again and again
These are my African Violet babies:
Grandparent plant right, offspring left, grandbaby top
I brought the plant on the right home last summer. The plant to the left and the small one above both came to be from a single leaf that I clipped from the original plant (right). Propagating is so easy! Just snip a healthy, mature leaf with about a two inch stem and plant the tip in African Violet soil. After a couple of weeks a small plant will sprout and after a month or two you’ll have a beautiful bloom.
The flowers stay healthy and colorful for several weeks. As long as they have plenty of light they will thrive, bloom and rebloom. Healthy leaves like the ones in the photos have tiny hairs, almost like fur, and are fun to “pet.” Even when the plant is between blooms the leaves remain lush. The bloom on the original plant (right) is it’s third blossom. With proper care and attention African Violets are a labor of love that keeps on giving back, almost like a real pet.
And speaking of Pets! Another way to drown out craziness of late is by relishing the beauty, kindness and preciousness of cats. — Well, UK travel might supersede Cats and Plants but that just isn’t in the cards right now.
If we are on the front porch she’ll sneak out to say hi from time to time
Purrl is an indoor/outdoor girl.
She’s quite nocturnal, preferring to explore outdoors after the sun fully sets. As soon as it’s dark, we’ll hear a “mew, mew” queue and will let her out. After about four or five hours, she’s ready to come back in with a hearty appetite. She always heads straight through her private cat door to the basement where she eats and sleeps in a comfortable, suitably-designed “cat-condo” until the routine repeats.
Purrl is a purrfect blessing for drowning out political chitter-chatter nonsense. Especially since we know she doesn’t give a turd what the outcome is. And the plants don’t give a f…lower either.
Thank you for reading!
Love, Shelley
HAPPY HALLOWEEN
This gruesome looking ghost graces our front door. The other day, the wind blew him around and he was gazing into our home. SPOOOKY!
