Happy New Resolution

Happy New Year, all! I hope you saw in the new year happily. I did, with Handsome Son coming over and lugging stuff around and to the dumpster, and generally helping, as well as claiming a couple of things I promised him.  

Then we had a great dinner of pumpkin sausage soup, then fritters and peas, and finally a great apple rum raisin crumble.  There was farm produce throughout, apples from local tree, maple syrup from Mittens trees, pumpkin from farm.

We brought in the new year early, he needing to go off on his own plans, with a nice prosecco brut, and declared it a very good time.

Yesterday was divided between getting started at all, and weaving up a storm in the studio, for which go here if you want to see.

I have completed both my New Year's resolutions, no need to get  all carried away with ambition, namely to update my copyright notice to read the correct year, and to predate my checks with the same idea, so that by the time I write further checks, I'll be used to the right year.

And my prospective car buyer came over on another inspection, is interested, will decide in a few days, fine by me.  We had a lovely conversation about art, freecycling, cars, language learning -- he's Filipino Chinese, has Filipino, Chinese and English, and is relearning Mandarin. 

He asked to come in and see my art, really intrigued by it, and interested in watercolor painting himself. Very interesting man, full of family anecdotes and gentle complaints about his inlaws.  So it's more than just selling a car.  He grasps that the social links are good, too, with the business taking place at the same time!  And I finally found out why he has a Filipino first name, which seems Spanish, and a Chinese last one.  Parents from Fukien province, he was born in the Philippines.

 It occurred to me just now that he was my first footer! old New Year's tradition, that the first person to cross your threshold in the New Year, usually right after midnight, has to be a dark haired man.  Since HS had left well before, he didn't first foot this year. So I will have good luck this year anyway, since C. is dark haired, yay.

 

Happy New Beginnings

Happy First of January!

And the houseplants are putting out encouraging new beginnings.  They are so microscopic that I have no pix!  you have to peer up close to see them at all, but they're there.  Later when they're ready for their close up, I'll provide one.  

The Norfolk Island pine has put out yet more growth, amazingly fast for this plant, which was so happy to be put in a smaller pot than the original owner had it in, and to have a pot to itself, not be asked to share with an ivy.  The ivy has done well, too.

The begonia's sprays of pink Spring flowers are already busting out in miniature, and I must check with the friend I gave one to last year, to see if he's observed that his are flowering, too.  He won't notice until it's pointed out, and he'll be thrilled.

And the sanseveria, snake plant, cutting I swiped from another friend last year after caring for hers on my deck all summer, and which I studied to see how to take cuttings, has put out, finally, finally, three tiny little shoots, yay.  The number of times I nearly gave up hope that they would ever grow, very glad I didn't get around to tossing them.  This is a slow grower.

I had to study how to do the cuttings and found that they will only take if you plant the little segment in the earth in the same orientation as on the plant, north and south exactly as they grew. Otherwise they get confused and don't grow.  I'm guessing something to do with the earth's magnetic polarity.

And today, looking up to make sure I got the name right, I found that they are associated with dragons!  apparently they are a dragon magnet, so I'd better look out.