Tag Archives: papyrus plants

Oh, My Aching Back!

19 Dec

Or, you can’t fix stupid.

Many years ago a fellow I’d dated when I was between husbands gave The Squire and me a papyrus plant. He’d been keeping it in his living room and watering it every day, but it really wasn’t thriving, so he brought it to the Rice Paddy so it could live in our pond. It grew to absolutely massive proportions, and had to be repotted once, and then split. It is about ready to be split again.

The one drawback was that the plant has to be kept above 55-F and needed lots of sun. We kept it in the living room during the winter, but that really isn’t what you’d call sunny, so by spring it looks pretty dismal. This winter, rather than allow it to fade away, we decided to move it from the house to the front porch, aka the Sun Room, during the day and bring it back in every evening.

The Squire estimates the plant weighs at least forty-five pounds.

Guess who has a bad back and decided not to “bother” her husband last week to haul the pot in and out? Yup.

My back was bothering me a bit on Saturday, but yesterday I could barely move. It was BAD. To make it the cheese more binding, I was supposed to be the chalicist yesterday. Fortunately I was able to sweet-talk another lady into switching with me.

I found some “dynamite” pain pills left over from my neck surgery last year and took one when we got home from church and another last night before bed, and I think I just might live. Not only live, but it may actually be worth the trouble!

Grandson and his wife took the baby to the doctor today; Austin has gained three ounces, but she has made an appointment with a specialist and they will see him tomorrow.

Film at eleven.

 

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A New Baby – and Winter is on its Way

9 Oct

Winter, as Chaucer said, is a cumin’ in.  We had a light rain all day Saturday, but last night was suddenly much cooler, and today the wind has been blowing about 15 mph.  That is pretty much the extent of our glancing blow from Hurricane Matthew.

And speaking of Matthew – our grandson of the same name austinbecame a father today when his wife had a son named Austin. That young man came into the world weighing in at 8 pounds, 13 ounces, and 21 inches long. Not exactly a “little” boy. He has the full head of hair that comes to all the family babies, and is a good strong nurser.

Everybody is doing fine, including Mum, Dad, grandparents, and great-grandparents.

Since the papyrus plant cannot be left out when the temperature goes below 55F, we had to drag it into the house after church today. While we were at it, The Squire removed the window a/c from the living room, and I gave that corner a good wiping down. We used the blower on the sidewalk around the front porch and generally battened down any loose hatches we saw. So much for fall housecleaning!

 

 

 

 

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It Was Spring, Yesterday

26 May

I missed it last year. I was in the bathroom. *

We had one or two days of lovely weather and then seventeen consecutive days of rain. Yesterday was soft and breezy, but today it was 84, and it is supposed to be in the 80s all week. Next Thursday, they are predicting rain, and temps “only” in the upper 70s.  At least, the night-time temps are in the 60s, so sleeping is pleasant, and we can make do with the fan, without turning on the A/C.  We finally got the papyrus plant out of the living room and into the pond last night. This is the best it’s ever looked after a winter in the living room.

We went over to Charlestown today to visit my brother-in-law. Shared lunch, and then he showed us some photos of his canal trip from Amsterdam to Alsace.  Such beautiful country side, and everything is so clean! They offered quite a few day trips at each city along the way. Some were free or relatively low-cost, but others were, to my way of thinking, outlandishly expensive. There was one beer-and-dinner night on the town which was $99 per person. George said he skipped that one. Lots of photos of castles and cathedrals, and one shot of a restaurant that sent me into a fit of giggles – it sold shish-kebob and pizza. He also paid particular attention to the various pipe organs, as he plays the organ, and often fills in for his church.

He mentioned how nice the organ is at our church, but we had to tell him it isn’t any more. We had a contract to get the leathers treated and the electronics tuned up four times a year, but it was decided to drop that, and the thing is getting, Sunday by Sunday, more and more out of tune. It is virtually impossible to purchase a new pipe organ, so in a fit of penny wise and pound foolish, we’ve let a valuable asset full (almost) to ruin. Ah, well. They won’t let me run it, so there you are.

He was an electrical engineer before he retired, and it amused us that he took pictures of outlets and such in the cabin. One thing they had on the ship was a gizmo that caught the sliding closet door about two inches from the end of its “run” and closed the door slowly and firmly. You had to click something to reopen the door, but this prevented closet doors from slamming shut and disturbing the person in the next stateroom as well as keeping the door closed in case of rough weather.

The river cruiser was fairly narrow and quite low, to go under all the old bridges, so as a result the ship was very, very long. He said he was never aware of any roughness, and they did have several days of rain and wind.

*That is not an original line, BTW. I borrowed it from the late Michael Flanders. He and his partner, Donald Swann, wrote some lovely, and VERY funny songs.

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