>One last purr-piccie, computer-works are really tiring! Especially if you have to watch them…*g*
That is what a thankful plant looks like! 
When I got it, looked even less enthusiastic than this:
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>I have a fuzzy little guest currently.
She is here for 2,5 days now and already rules the place, LOL!! I find myself thinking constantly about how to make it all perfect for her. (But I am not so weak and feeding her whenever she begs, for example, no worries, LOL!! I do have some common sense left)
Meet Helena:
(She sometimes mews in sleep, how cute is that?!)
Oh right, occasionally she is awake, too, LOL!! Here:
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>After finding that my magueritas have greenflies, I had to move them both to one windowsill,so that they will not contaminate my other plants until the treatment works. (It has already begun to do so, I saw lots of „dried“ greenflies today when tending to the plants, mwehehe…)
The movement meant I gained some space for the others. I wanted to buy a big lavender today, but I was all over the marketplace and then all flowershops close by- no lavender. At the market was a smallish lavender in tree-form but it looked sick.
At one flowershop I found two nice handmade flowerpots that are frost resistant. One I wanted for my petunia, which hates hanging on the balcony railing and is only thriving since it stood on the ground. For the other, I found a cute little plant. It is called „Gipskraut“ or „Schleierkraut“ („Baby’s Breath“ (Gypsophila paniculata)).
I will keep everything so spacy and far away until I am rid of the little pests…So now the „tree“-like plants share a window and the small blooming plants stand on the windowsill before my kitchen.
The „white petunia“ that is not white anymore:
(after those pictures, I removed some suspicious looking leaves, but this one still seems healthy) -
>on the balcony this morning.
This little guy, which seems to be a „Distelfalter“ (Painted Lady or Vanessa cardui):
Click on image for larger version
Image © meCouldn’t resist this:
Appologies for the slight striped and grained piccie above, but this was taken through the window *and* a flynet and for that it is very well, I think.
When I got outside to repeat the piccie without obstacles between me and the butterfly, it had already fluttered on. -
>- for sitting at the computer and cheer and suffer with the football club. For this weekend, we have the third matchday of the Blindenfussball Bundesliga 2009.
At www.blindenfussball.net you can listen to the matches using the internet livestream.
And of course, at Saturday 19:00 and Sunday 11:00 you have to cheer especially for our Hamburg-based players of the FC St. Pauli! *cheers for Katja and Michael*
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>…because the blossoms are not blossoms but young leaves, LOL!!
Here:
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>Darn, embedding did not work because of the i-frame. Well, then, here’s the link, have fun playing:
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>My Stone-Heather (PIERIS JAPONICA) is going to blossom! Woot! And the flower-shop lady said it would not survive the winter in a pot outside. Mwehe… am now tempted to show her the piccies.
And my little firtree has miniature fir cones, verry cute. Will try to get piccies of that, too.
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>…I never really believed in those waterfilters that are supposed to make water from the faucet „pure“ and heighten its taste and that of the drinks and food made with such water.
Until lately, a colleague at work let me drink a glass of filtered water and it was good! The water at work has a very odd taste normally- I suppose it is because it is an old house with old waterpipes- not even letting the water run for a while did change this.
The filtered water tasted neutral! I was impressed.This occasion I remembered today, when standing in the mineral water section of the shop and finding that the water I use to drink was out of stock again. This happens a lot of late. Grumbling I loaded a pack of another brand into my cart. That one is drinkable, but it does taste differently.
On the way to the tills, I suddenly remembered that filter incident and veered off to the household stuff section. And there I spontaneous picked up one waterfilter and took it home with the rest of my shoppings.
Here I was curiously assembling it and then made the required testruns of water through the filter.
When everything was done and I could taste the water for the first time, I was impressed- all the metallic tang and the chalkiness was gone. ==^===^== (Especially the chalky stuff is annoying, my water here leaves white traces in the glass often, when untreated)
Hee, now that will save me a lot of bottle-carrying in summer, because I needn’t buy that much water now, when I can finally drink tap-water, too.Here is the filter I got:
http://www.brita.net/de/jugs.html?&L=5 Mine is called „Marella“. -
>(Pardon the word-creation, LOL!!)
Today, I wandered over the local market for fun (and to get flowers for Mum) and was mightily inspired by all the colourful plants on display.
So, when I got home, I woke my balcony from its hibernation, so to speak, removing the greatest parts of protective wrappings from the plants as well as dead leaves and branches.
And then I filled the two baskets with primroses who colour my view outside now.
Like this it looks where they stand now:
All my rustling, moving, crawling, cutting was supervised by qualified personel, namely my neighbours cat, who very seriously watched me to make sure I did everything right:
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>Why? Last night I had the charming pleasure to find a 1:100 scale model of the spaceships that the „Shadows“ in Babylon 5 used on my wall… Spaceship looks like this (click)
But honest, a five centimeter spider at half past one? Eeeew!!Sure was but one thing- no way was I going to sleep with it one room!
After considering the options, I decided on the vaccuum cleaner and hurried to fetch it before the spider could sneak off. Then after finding enough room for a quick jump from my chair if necessary, I readied my trusty vaccuum cleaner and gone was the ugly critter. (Since I am paranoid, I let the vaccuum cleaner run quite a while, neighbours or not and then closed the tube with adhesive tape before putting it away. Today I was house cleaning, so there is no return after the added amount of debris in there, now, I hope.)
And then I checked under my bed for more spiders, LOL!! And only then I went back to sleep…On a nicer note- these are the two nice flowers that I recently bought, they have such a great colour!
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>…with lots to do and recovering from the flu I fell sick with over New Year. But I am still here and so it was definitely time to post something again.
Right now I call it a blessing that I live on this side of the corridor and on topmost floor…Why? Because the guy across the corridor seems to have some party, (there are at least ballons at his door) and on the corridor, or in my hallway you hear loud music and the neighing laughter of one his visitors as if you stand among them. I am extremely thankful that my other rooms are not affected, as badly sound insulated as they may be otherwise. So unless they take it out on the corridor tonight, sleeping should not be affected by their stupid music.
Today I got a snowdrop from Mum!
My kitchen windowsill (spring-y flowers in the middle are not real ones)
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Image taken by me last night -
>…God Jul, Merry Christmas! :o)
My first very own Christmastree -
>One of the young holly plants that I have for decorating my Advent-table when I have visitors is blossoming! :o)
(The berries are fake. Hmmm… when I look at the blossom, it looks a lot like the floral version of an eight-pointed star. *g*)
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>Today, I let the pictures talk for themselves. I share some of my Advent decoration with you here.
I start with a lantern I got as a pressie, I need to get some more Christmassy decoration for it, but it looks very nice with the fake wineleaves anyways:
And now the more seasonal stuff:
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~*~
I can see lights in the distance
Trembling in the dark cloak of night
Candles and lanterns are dancing, dancing
A waltz on All Souls Night.
(All Souls Night by Loreena McKennitt)
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>Today the weather is terriffic and I took a little stroll actoss town, as I needed absolutely necessary things (*g*) anyway. (I got home with pills against too much gastric acid, sanding paper, leather pieces for fiddlings and two little pots of special paint and a folding paper-star for upcoming seasonal decorations) We have crisp air but it is sunny, the trees still have some marvellous colour and so that walk was really nice. I started out painfree (foot) and got along without pain 90% of the way. Only on cobblestones, the foot was not ok. This is really good. I have great hopes that with the help of the shoe-inlays that I ordered, I will soon be able again to walk a little further. And then I will go see the outer range of the Boberger Dünen where one walks on a solid asphalt track and see how that goes. I doubt I will be able to walk far, as I need to take the way to the station into my calculation, but I really miss that place.
After that little outing, I was really busy and gave my balcony a last cleaning before the winter, as it turned out, that was very necessary, LOL!!
I was even rewarded optically for doing so, as I found this beautiful arrangement:
(How typical that my digital camera’s batteries deserted me here and I had to use my cellphone’s inferior camera…)This is the paper-star with and without lights:
Thanks to Benni, who gave to me his old screen, my computer place now looks like this:
And I am no longer in a terrible hurry to replace my old screen which I could now retire before it would have exploded, LOL!! -
>(Found this in a comment response on the Fugly Horse of the Day Blog and really had to share, for it is sad but true…)
London Times Obituary of the late Mr. Common Sense –
Today we mourn the passing of a beloved old friend, Common Sense, who has been with us for many years. No one knows for sure how old he was, since his birth records were long ago lost in bureaucratic red tape. He will be remembered as having cultivated such valuable lessons as:
Knowing when to come in out of the rain; why the early bird gets the worm;
Life isn’t always fair; and maybe it was my fault.Common Sense lived by simple, sound financial policies (don’t spend more than you can earn) and reliable strategies (adults, not children, are in charge).
His health began to deteriorate rapidly when well-intentioned but overbearing regulations were set in place. Reports of a 6-year-old boy charged with sexual harassment for kissing a classmate; teens suspended from school for using mouthwash after lunch; and a teacher fired for reprimanding an unruly student, only worsened his condition.
Common Sense lost ground when parents attacked teachers for doing the job that they themselves had failed to do in disciplining their unruly children.
It declined even further when schools were required to get parental consent to administer sun lotion or an Aspirin to a student; but could not inform parents when a student became pregnant and wanted to have an abortion.
Common Sense lost the will to live as the churches became businesses; and criminals received better treatment than their victims.
Common Sense took a beating when you couldn’t defend yourself from a burglar in your own home and the burglar could sue you for assault.
Common Sense finally gave up the will to live, after a woman failed to realize that a steaming cup of coffee was hot. She spilled a little in her lap, and was promptly awarded a huge settlement.
Common Sense was preceded in death by his parents, Truth and Trust; his wife, Discretion; his daughter, Responsibility; and his son, Reason.
He is survived by his 4 stepbrothers; I Know My Rights, I Want It Now, Someone Else Is To Blame, and I’m A Victim.
Not many attended his funeral because so few realized he was gone. If you still remember him, pass this on. If not, join the majority and do nothing.
(I am bit surprised that the stepbrothers seem to be well, for I recall to have strangled „I Know My Rights“ and „I Am A Victim“ in person just recently…)
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>…This quote comes from the vermin exterminator who I had to call at work today, because each morning, my colleagues from the logistics are overrun by wasps. They hang on the windows as clots and crawl everywhere. Of course some manage to get in, too and one of the ladies up there is deadly allergic to wasps and sits there with an antidote shot right next to her… o.O
Of course, when the exterminator guys finally showed up, the wasps weren’t home. And apparently we don’t have a nest under the roof- the guys crawled around on it, banging suspect corners with a broomstick (I wonder what they would have done if an angry hoarde had come out at that…) No nest. They closed several venting slits where they found suspicious activity but no nest. (I assume the nest is rather more likely on the grounds of our messy-neighbour. He offers so many wonderful opportunities to stick a nest to.)
When they crawled out onto the roof, my colleague Benni called after them if they could already spot a thing- the answer that came was that they just saw a huuuge spider that was very gross. LOL!! And that came from vermin exterminators?! Good that they didn’t ask any of us to remove it for them… *snickers*
