Friday 21 February 2014

Latest botanical adventures: growing from seed

hello hello!

I've embarked on a new planty journey- growing from seeds. My lovely flatmate, Laura (link to her bloooog), gave me a herby boxy thing for Christmas, and so I have planted those up and they all seem to be getting along nicely- though the Parsley seeds are yet to poke their heads above ground, they're so far behind the Oregano and Chives, that I'm doubting if I planted them at all...
Chives and Oregano just saying hello, Parsley still covered in cling film

Most excitingly, I bought some Mimosa Pudica seeds from ebay. Also known as the shy plant, a touch-me-not and sleepy plant, here's a fantastic gif that may clue you in as to why it's known by these names:

Honestly this makes me shriek with excitement
(i love the etymology of plant names: in Latin, 'pudica' means shy or bashful)
The seeds are doing well, I received about 50 and have sown them in a mixture of circumstances and conditions. Some with a sandy (more succulent/cacti friendly) soil, some with normal soil (nabbed from the herb box collection), some in terracotta pots, some in plastic. So far- the best results have been my from the smallest experiment, which is annoying. I sowed around 10 seeds in a tiny pot with normal soil, but before this I had sped up the germination process my soaking the seeds in warm/hot water for about half an hour. I then covered the little pot with cling film and placed them in a dark, but warm, spot just to the right of my flat's large storage heater- well they loved that! Within a couple of days the seedling were poking through. During the day, I placed them (still clingfilmed) onto the windowsill to encourage them to get taller, but put them back near the heater at night. They are a week old today, well I planted them a week ago, and looking just darling:
 I've uncovered them now, as they were beginning to touch the wet clingfilm and I was wary that they might get rotten or mouldy. I have already noticed their 'sleepy' nature, though they aren't reacting to seismonaistic movement yet, such as blowing, touching or shaking, they are definitely reacting to light and dark: at night the little sprouts close up as if they've gone to sleep for the evening.  

I think I mentioned before, but for Christmas, I also received Lithop seeds (all the way from China), I have it on good authority that the time for sewing those is coming up, so I'll let you know how that goes, when the times comes. Here's a link to my last post about my adult lithops: My Little Green House.

There you are, you're all caught up with my seedy escapades. Have a good weekend!








Sunday 9 February 2014

dejected do-gooder, dejected hot chocolate

Yesterday I went to stay for the night at my buddy's house in Kingston- to do so I make my way to Waterloo and always pick up a hot drink from one of the numerous food/coffee chain places available on the platform. Yesterday I bought a medium hot chocolate (and a banana because I was slightly hungover and 'nanas are great for perking you up after a night drinking), - anyway, I paid with contactless, grabbed the drink and noticing it was quite small I said, "Is this a medium?" the girl said, "No, because you paid for a small", I thought ahhh never mind, if that's all I paid for,  never mind. I was running late for my train. On the train I found the receipt and I had paid the extra 50p for a medium. So today, as I walked past the cafe chain on my way back home from Kingston I noticed the same girl was there- I told her that I had paid for a medium yesterday and she was really apologetic and gave me the refund and a free hot chocolate. Which was all very embarrassing for me, after living in London for a while you get quite used to being treated like shit by service workers, just I know most customers are arseholes. 

Thing was I'd just finished a really large cup of tea and i had no room in my belly for a large, free hot chocolate. So i thought, "I know, I'll nip outside and give it to a homeless person", it was very cold out today, and there's usually quite a few homeless people outside of major London stations. But not bleeding today, my dress was blowing up in the wind, and I was getting rained on as I marched about trying to find someone to give this ruddy hot chocolate to. Eventually I found a man all wrapped up in blankets with what looked like a broken leg. I knelt down and said "I'm awfully sorry if this is insulting, but would you like this drink? I got it for free and I don't want it", he was said "Thanks darlin', yeah that'd be great", so I gave it to him (promising it "wasn't poisoned", which made it sound like it was poisoned, luckily he laughed), he took one sip and went "No, no, no, I hate hot chocolate, you can have that back- will you go and get me a coffee?". I was a mixture of apologetic and put-out (excellent do-gooder behaviour). I was sorry that I didn't have the drink he liked and put-out that he wanted me to throw away this one and go and buy him a bleading latte. I said sorry- gave him some change and walked off still holding this fricking hot chocolate. At this moment I watched my bus drive off, so then went a stood by the bus stop for 20 minutes trying to hold my dress down with the gale winds and holding this now nearly cold hot chocolate, too anxious to leave the bus stop in case it came during my search for a bin. As the bus pulled up I put the hot chocolate down on the pavement and watched it as the bus and me pulled away. 

Thursday 6 February 2014

Dry flowers



These are a few of the flowers that i picked for my Nan's funeral arrangement. I think these should all dry fairy well. I love the thistle particularly. It's lovely to have them up here in London with me, now is a difficult time to be away from my family.