Giving Thanks

• I'm thankful for my family, first and foremost. I wouldn't be able to function without them. Knowing that nothing I do will disappoint my parents is so important to me. I need their love, their advice, and their support, even at 26. I'll probably always need them. I wish I was closer so I could see them more often, but I'm just thankful we have a good relationship. 
• I'm thankful for my friends, especially Mike and Tessa. They are my best friends and I would consider them family. They invited me to dinner yesterday, which was huge for me because I would have been alone (and probably pretty sad) otherwise. I had a great time and felt so happy to be around people who care about me. I know they would always have my back and I've got theirs. 
• My cats...I'm so glad I have my cats. Yeah, they're dumb, and they do things like pull their poop out of their litter and play with it, but they're always happy to see me. They argue over who gets to sit next to me on the couch and they both cuddle. Memo always "feeds" me every night with the toys he thinks are food, and Leo attempts to knead my arm every night. They are both really sweet and they both know when I'm upset. 
• Plants. When I was younger I thought plant science was boring. I was kind of stupid back then. Now all I want to do is grow plants, raise plants, and sell plants. I hope I can make this dream a reality. Even if that doesn't happen, I love growing plants. It is very zen, very relaxing, and I love being able to be among growing things. 

Cat Appreciation Post

It's time for a cat appreciation post! One of my favorite internet cats, Colonel Meow, is sick right now, and that's just reminded me how blessed I am that my kitties are happy and healthy today. So here are some pictures of my fluffs!

 It's Leo! His full name is Leonardo da Vinci. He's a Maine Coon mix and is full of fluff. That's me holding him. He was not impressed with the Halloween tie.

 Memo and Leo were having a pre-wrestling discussion here. I believe the issue was who was going to get to sit on the catnip mat.

 Then they noticed that I was paying attention to them, so they looked at me and acted like nothing was going on. I caught Memo mid-wink, while Leo is giving me his wide-eyed kitten face.

Memo was much better about wearing the Halloween tie. He always shuts his eyes whenever I take a picture though! But he still looks pretty dapper. I'm just so happy that they are healthy. It makes me so happy to come home to them every day. They really do make my life better.

Flowering Mugwort

My Mugwort is finally flowering! I guess it took some colder temperatures to get it to flower. Aren't they pretty? This variety of mugwort is called Oriental Limelight. The foliage is very pretty, and now I know the flowers are too. I grow this in a nice big pot because it can be invasive if you plant it in the ground. It's a nice foliage piece and it's nice to see it still doing well even as it's gotten colder.

More new plants!

My awesome friend Katie at Garden Hoard sent me a bunch of plants when I ordered some seeds! Here they are, I am very excited!

 First up is this cactus! It's a cutting from an older plant. I think it's an Opuntia but we're not sure. I like cacti a lot so I'm looking forward to this little guy getting bigger!

 This plant is not very common, but I love it already! It's called the Vicks Plant because it smells like Vicks VapoRub. They smell so good and you can make lots of cutting from them. They're a succulent and they are also soft and fuzzy, which is awesome.

This is a variegated Wandering Jew cutting. I really like how bright and purple the leaves get. Once this guy gets bigger he'll go in a hanging basket. 

Bonus picture! This one isn't from Katie, but from another friendly gardener I traded with. It's Kalanchoe 'Mother of Thousands' and those are some of the babies growing on the leaves. This is a neat plant from Madagascar!

Passiflora pruning?

So it's gotten quite cold here. Highs are going to be in the 30s this week. I'm not exactly thrilled. Earlier this week my heat broke sometime during the night. Thankfully the maintenance people were able to fix it right away, but that was not what I wanted to wake up to! I was completely paranoid about it getting too cold and killing some of my plants but they all made it just fine. I was probably worried for nothing.
I am a little confused about one thing, and that's what I'm supposed to do about my Passiflora caerulea. It's a hardy Passiflora so I've left it outside. It's dropped almost all of its leaves now. Do I prune it now? Or do I wait until the spring? I'm assuming I'm supposed to prune it back to the ground essentially, I'm just not sure when to do it. Any other gardeners know what I should do?

Winter is coming...

Tonight is the end of Daylight Savings Time. In about an hour, I have to set my clocks back. While I like getting an extra hour, I really dislike how early it gets dark when Daylight Savings is over. The darkness makes me get tired so much more easily, and it stinks to go into work when it's dark and leave when it's dark. I need to set up my Ott Lite. It's good for using for crafts, but I mostly use it to combat seasonal affective disorder. It does help some, but winter can be kind of rough for me.
It's also rough because there's less gardening I can do. Gardening isn't just a hobby or a potential business for me. It's also very therapeutic. I have an anxiety disorder and gardening is one of the best treatments I have. So now in the winter, when I have less outdoor plants and less to do, it can be a bummer. I did sow my epiphyllum seeds yesterday, so hopefully those will grow successfully and they can be one of my winter projects. I also started a little bit of catnip for Leo. He loves the fresh leaves so much. I grow wheatgrass for Memo year-round, so it seemed unfair to not grow something for Leo (he doesn't like grass for some reason). I'm sure that I can find some other little projects to do during the winter. I just hope winter doesn't last until May this year!