The sisterhood of the traveling plants

As you may or may not recall I have a special affinity for spider plants.  I got my sister one several years ago when she first moved in to her house as a housewarming present.  When I moved back to NYC she gave me a little baby to take with me that I nurtured in to a my own giant beast of a plant.  Over the course of my time in NYC I gave babies to several different people, explaining to them the history behind them.  When I left to move back down to Florida I gave my spider plant to Dan and started over with a new baby from my sister.  As of maybe 6 months ago it's finally grown big enough to have babies of its own so I took my first cutting and started this little darling.

I brought it to work with me on Friday to give to my favorite customer as a housewarming present.  When I told her the story behind it she said, "It's like the sisterhood of the traveling plants!"

a bad bad boy

He's the missing decoration that my coffee table needed!  Of course, why didn't I think of that?!

Wedged in between my spider plant and my light coffee table reading (the complete unabridged works of Shakespeare).

Part of the reason I went to the beach yesterday was to try and get some peace and quiet from this guy.  He's just been consistently bad for the past several days.  Especially all through the night.

He knows I'm talking about him.  He's angry!

Actually, he's not even really angry, he just wants constant attention.  I have my computer set up on my kitchen counter as it's the only place that makes any sense to have it.  I sit on a bar stool kind of chair whenever I work at my computer, which means that I'm high up and out of reach of the detective.  At some point a few months ago he started with this new thing to get attention from me when I've spent too much time on the computer.  He stretches up and puts his front paws on my leg, which is super adorable at first.  Then he digs his claws in to my thigh, until he pierces through the fabric of my shorts, at which point it stops being adorable and starts being horribly painful.  There are tiny pinprick holes in my pink shorts that I still haven't been able to work out.

Anyways, this is the solution that we've come up with for now.

Cause it's so comfortable for both of us.  And yet he won't leave and just purrs and purrs.  Even now as I type this he is resting his head on my forearm and hitting me in the face with his tail.

We love each other.

beautiful flowers for the day

One of my neighbors got flowers today but she wasn't home to accept them.  The guy asked if I would mind keeping them until she gets home, which I don't.

It makes me miss nyc though, I don't ever buy flowers for myself down here.  I find it impossible to walk past a bodega with all their amazing flowers on display and not get something.  There were definitely times when I spent my last 5 dollars on lilacs instead of food, but it was always worth it.

These flowers are beautiful, I'm glad I get to enjoy them all day today while they are at their freshest, then turn them over for the annoying maintenance phase of flower ownership.

My sister gave me a spider plant while I was up in Sarasota last week so at least I still have some new greenery to tend to.  For some reason the detective has decided to chomp on it any time he gets the chance  so it's looking a little rough right now.  Hopefully it will just be like a haircut and it will make it grow even more now.  Hopefully.

Speaking of the detective, last night I confirmed that he must have some kind of learning disability.  I had spent the past two days cleaning my apt and decided to light some candles to celebrate it being clean.  I had also amassed quite a collection of half burnt tea lights from various places and wanted to burn them to the end so I could throw them away.  I had several tea lights lined up on my windowsill, where the detective likes to sit when he's on neighborhood watch.

So I'm standing looking out the window when he jumps up on the sill and walks directly over to the candles.  He stops with his paws amongst the candles and his body directly above them.  I am literally watching the hair on his legs start to singe and smoke as he literally is just standing there.  Worried about him catching fire and then running on a rampage around the apt lighting other things on fire, I go to try and brush his legs where his hair is literally catching fire.  He apparently thought I was giving him pets so he promptly sits down, on a lit tea light.

It must have finally burned him bad enough that he figured out what was going on because he got right up and ran in to the closet meowing in anger.  I had to air out the apt from the smell of burnt hair.  And I don't even understand, do you really have to learn about fire?  I thought it was like a primal kind of thing. And besides, that is not the first time he's ever been around fire either.  Which is why I am convinced that he is learning disabled.

It's no wonder he couldn't hack it on the mean streets of manhattan.

a week in florida

I took some pictures of this plant at my grandfather's house last week because I liked the craziness that was growing out of the center of it.  I never ended up putting the pictures up just because I got distracted with other things and then the moment passed. 

But apparently this plant was meant to be shared with the world.  I couldn't believe my eyes when I realized that this is what the plant looks like now, exactly one week later:

That's how things go in Florida though, once something starts growing it just doesn't stop.  Speaking of which, my new spider plant is about to have its first baby!

sunrise, sunset.