Cactus Kate

I have lost a dear friend. My laptop died last week. This was almost entirely my fault, and I am wracked with guilt. I can offer one tip – DON’T get frustrated enough with anything (and by ‘anything’ I mean your laptop) to slam it shut. Really. I am very sad at the amount of data I lost. However, I am incredibly grateful that I had MOST of it backed up to an external hard drive.

The death of this friend has led to something good. I got a new computer. It is my holiday (I say that because it really wasn’t for any particular holiday…just happened to fall within the ‘holiday season’) present from Rich. It’s sleek and fast, and tethered to my desk. That’s because it’s a desktop computer. heh heh heh. I love it. Eventually, I will get myself a nice little NetBook for travel, but for now, I can’t possibly ask for anything better. Here it is before it was set up, and after set up, with me staring intently at the beautiful glowing screen:

It runs Windows 7, has more RAM than I thought was possible. I can actually listen to music AND use PhotoShop at the same time. Can you IMAGINE?! I am enjoying it immensely. Mmmm. Windows 7. Ahhhhhhh.

Every day, I discover new stuff I had on the old computer that I need, and have to re-install it. Today, I realized the new computer didn’t have Google Earth, which is essential, as far as I am concerned. I have now re-installed it, and uploaded all my GPS waypoints, including geocaches that I have not yet found.

This beautiful new machine is so exciting! Thank you, Rich, for your help in keeping me geeking out connected!

Hi, all!

It’s another plant with a story! This is Huernia insigniflora. I think. I posted it on The Garden Forums to try to get it identified, and this is what was suggested, and it looks right to me.

This plant was originally bought by my friend Barb at the cactus ranch on Hwy 126 in SoCal in August 2007. I was there when she bought it, and didn’t think to steal a cutting then. Barb sent me a cutting of it in my Christmas box that year. Actually, she sent 3 cuttings. I planted 2 in nice pots, and they get nice treatment…they get watered on a regular basis, and they spend the summer in partial shade in the front flower bed, and they winter indoors where it’s warm in the dining room. The third one is neglected, has frozen more than once, etc.

I placed that third cutting in a long, trough-like planter with 2 other cuttings of other things and with a LOT of herb seeds. I harvested herbs, the cuttings grew well, and I forgot about them when I took all my other plants inside during the winter of 2008. This poor little Huernia cutting lived through many nights which dipped down into the single (Fahrenheit) digits. This may be fine for some cacti and hardy succulents, but Huernias are almost JUNGLE plants, as far as their temperature needs are concerned. I guess it made it because it had had no water at all for almost 4 months. Poor thing.

In any case, that poor tortured little plant is the one I am writing about today. The other two look SUPER healthy, and shiny green, but have never bloomed for me. This dessicated little plant, however has rewarded my neglect with a beautiful flower. This kind of thing always makes me feel sad, and guilty. I should have taken better care of it. However, its indoor brothers have not so much as developed a bud.

Here it is, in all its glory, blooming October 26:

Cheers!

…Brings new birds!

Yesterday, I was visiting my parents, and a strange bird landed in a back yard tree. It turned out to be a Townsend’s Solitaire. I saw the first one of these I had ever seen this past spring, but this time I was able to get some good pictures of the cute little guy. I love the little white rings around his eyes!

This morning, when I went outside to scatter some birdseed on the front lawn, I heard strange birds singing in the tree above my head. Before even looking, I went inside to get the camera. **I have learned that this is the best way to do it…if you look, and locate the birds, and they are something rare or unusual, the disappointment is MUCH greater when they fly away before you can take pictures if you know what they were.**

When I returned with my camera, I took this shot up into the tree where I could see them moving, just to see what they were.

That photo wasn’t great, but I could tell that they were Cedar Waxwings! I didn’t see them at all last winter, so I am glad to see that they are back in town! I did manage to get some fairly good pictures of them, though the light was wrong for perfection. Here they are, denuding a tree of juniper berries:

There were a few young Waxwings with them. The young ones look so awkward and mangy next to the sleek adults! Here is one next to an adult, and one in awkward flight:

This afternoon, I parted the curtains a crack to look out and see all the Juncos that my seed-spreading this morning had attracted, and there was a Spotted Towhee (another of our wintertime birds) amongst the Juncos (AKA ‘junkers’ around our house). He is not such a cooperative photographic subject. I only got a couple of decent photos of him.

I like it when new birds come through!