There it be

Ok, so obviously we missed an entry last week, primarily because I just didn’t have anything I felt like writing about. With all that has been continuing to happen in recent days, it just hasn’t felt appropriate to be yelling about stories with elves in them, even though I recognize very much that we absolutely all need our escape moments, especially in trying times.

So this week I was going to write another whole thing of some more of my thoughts on what is going on in Canada of late, hampered somewhat by my undying awareness that my thoughts on what is going on in Canada of late have probably already been said better by someone else, and we’re not dying for White Dude Opinion #8238 to begin with, and further that this is not really what this blog is usually for.

So I was back and forth on what to do this week until I was out on my back deck, and looked at the purple pansy plant (formerly Mystery Plant) and saw this:

Yes, that’s a tiny piece of lobelia. Obviously not the same plant as the one from this previous entry, the one I tried to over-winter, but some of its offspring, for certain. I’m not gonna write another long hacky metaphor about meanings to be attached to this plant but – I really, truly thought with all of the less-than-ideal conditions, and then another plant growing in its place, that the lobelia was fully gone. But there it is. A little bit of it made it through, and is blooming in the sunshine of another summer.

I’ll be back yelling about Iron Fist real soon, I promise.

Thanks for reading.

Christmas (?) Cactus

First of all, I flat-out forgot that yesterday was ‘write a blog entry day’ until I was just about to go to bed, and with my usual struggles in getting my brain to turn off and let me sleep, I decided not to take any chances. Obviously things are a little weird right now, my schedule is all messed up, and hopefully we’re all making allowances for ourselves as a result. And I’m going to get back on the ‘Tuesdays’ schedule going forward, as best I can.

However, this is also kind of perfect based on what I wanted to write about on the blog this week.

My Christmas Cactus.

No, seriously.

See, I have had this plant for quite a long while now, and right up front I’ll admit that I’m quite sure it hasn’t been in ideal Christmas Cactus conditions (mostly due to me not really knowing what those are). Mostly it has been a nice little splash of green that survived the rather iffy lighting conditions of a series of apartments.

It hadn’t bloomed for the past two Christmases, and I pretty much figured it wasn’t going to, any more.

Then, a little while ago, I noticed it had buds.

It is, you will note, April.

My first instinctual reaction (and this is not to my credit) was ‘Man, this cactus is bad at it’s job. Doesn’t bloom for two years and then finally produces some in the springtime.’ I was going to make a Hilarious Internet Post about it.

But then I thought a little more, and you know, there’s a lot to be learned from this cactus. It is not, as I said, in ideal conditions. It’s not producing what is expected on the expected schedule, nor at the rate of other similar cactii.

But, by the gods, it has produced something, and (one has to assume) done the very best it was capable of. This is much like many of us, including myself. I don’t write as much as a lot of other people I know, I definitely don’t do so with any kind of predictable regularity these days, but I plug away. I like to hope eventually something will come of it.

And really, this is all any of us can do. We are all in our own situations, unique to ourselves, and if we do the best we can, then we have no reason to feel in any way ashamed of the results.

By all appearances, my cactus’ flowers are going to be lovely.

It’s great at its job.

Thank you for reading.