Snail Spirals

Has it really been almost two weeks since I posted? Gosh. It’s certainly not for lack of anything to say- there’s been a lot I wanted to post about, but there’s been so much going on and it seems like I could never get a post organized until something else happened that I wanted to talk about as well. The behind-er I got, the harder to catch up! Therefore, I’m going to split up one overwhelmingly long post into four smaller posts, even though I’m writing them all at one sitting.

Anyway, first an update on the garden:

One of the volunteer sunflowers is now almost as tall as I am. The other is much shorter, with a stouter stem. The tall one is starting to lean alarmingly when it’s windy, and I may have to stake it. I did see it leaning against the rosebush today, though, so maybe they will hold each other up.

The rosebush? See for yourself:



I believe I said in a previous post that each spray had 15 or so 3” flowers. What was I thinking? Each has more like 50 flowers!

The volunteer petunias (ten plants at last count) are also blooming full tilt, and so far they all look pretty much like the stripey parents. Yay!



I’m tickled no end that the petunias reseeded themselves and are blooming. It’s like a present! I’m feeling the gardening itch again, and hope that wherever we end up living next year has space for a garden. It’s been six years since I had a veggie garden, and I think I miss it. Of course, seeing pictures of beautiful gardens on people's blogs may have something to do with it.

I’ve also been enjoying the nature-made garden of San Juan Island, and in the past week or so have seen two new orchid species for my Life List.


Alaska rein-orchid (Piperia unalascensis)

This is a three foot tall species with tiny green flowers in a long spike. The individual flowers are unobtrusive (though beautiful close up), but the overall effect of a stand of them is pretty.


Lesser round-leaved orchid (Habenaria orbiculata).

I first saw this in leaf a couple years ago, but this is the first time I’ve seen it blooming. The flower spike is about a foot tall, with many small white and green flowers. Just lovely.

Another update- the aquarium. So far no Corydoras eggs have been spotted. Either all the activity last week was just practice, or they’ve been eating the eggs. Or hiding them really, really well. I did a water change and cleaning today, and didn’t see any babies, so I’m thinking that if there were any, they didn’t make it past the gauntlet of tetras and catfish. I know Corydoras will sometimes eat their own eggs, and I’d bet that the tetras would eat any babies they encountered. I fed the tank frozen brine shrimp Monday for the first time, and apparently brine shrimp, even more than tubifex worms, are “fishy crack.” Quite a spectacular feeding frenzy.



The last miscellaneous update from around the house is that I finished the daffodil filet crochet piece. No picture yet, though. I started blocking it and ran out of T-pins, so it's not ready for its public debut yet. But it's done!!!!! I also finished the first set of charts on the urchin shawl, and am having serious doubts whether I will actually be able to finish it by the Fair. If I do, it will be a serious marathon.