So Much To Say, So Little Time
Cereus Flowers, 5:30 a.m.Dear Blog-
You know, I have been wanting to sit down here and write to you for several days now. So while DH is off keeping the Starbucks local franchise from going bankrupt, I have time for the two of us to catch up.
I know that I have mentioned to you that I am now writing a weekly blog for the LYS where I teach, Kiwi Knitting. Much as the notion that someone would actually pay me to teach knitting still seems like a huge confidence scam to me at times (after all, to get paid to do something that I would be doing anyway? Great concept!), so the idea that someone might pay me to write - my other great love - and to write about knitting no less, seems just too good to be true. Instead of feeling guilty for time spent here writing I am coming to see it as my job, whether I am paid to do it for Kiwi, or if I do it for my own pleasure here with you or on my other blog. It used to torment me that sometimes it took several hours to write up my blog - starting with making certain I had the photos I wanted, then doing the actual writing, followed by editing, updating the sidebar, etc. All I could think of were the dishes left unwash, clothes left unlaundered, bed not yet made. I have convinced myself now that I should look upon it as my very enjoyable other job, and set aside time each day to work on it.
Mondays are reserved for the Kiwi blog, and weekends I become a knitting potato, but on other days I shall spend here as I am able.
All this to say that I have been craving this time these last few days since you have heard from me. Being here has been very much on my mind, with titles flashing through my brain as I drive to work, such as, 'Happy Birthday to Meeeeeee!', 'OMG! I Have Ordered My Kauni Yarn!', to 'My Brain is Melting!". In that order.
Perhaps, though, I ought first to explain the flowers to you, then we can spend time talking about knitting. Previously, I have shown you photos of flowers on one or two of our other varieties of cereus. This particular one, that I refer to by the technical name of 'the lumpy cereus', has been in a pot at the edge of our miniscule front patio for some time now. They love the combination of heat and rain and after a good summer rain they will set up buds. The buds grow quite quickly, although if there is a group of more mature buds already near blooming, the smaller buds will stay on hold until the larger ones have flowered, then they, too will suddenly grow very rapidly - sometimes an inch a day or more. So they are something I look forward to, monitor every day as I pass by, always anticipating the big night. Because cereus cacti bloom at night, the flowers of most varieties will only last the single night and die as soon as the day gets too bright for them.
The unfortunate thing is, other creatures out there are watching my cereus buds, too, and the past several times, just on the much-anticipated night that they are to bloom, something comes along in the dark and eats the buds off. You cannot imagine how disappointing this has been for me. But this time around, capable of reasoning as I am, I grabbed that pot the other morning and put it up on a small table outside, so that anything that wanted those buds would have to have danged long legs to get at them. And my plan worked. As soon as it got dark, the buds started to open. In my obsessive younger days I have sat outside in the dark to watch them bloom, and the flowers do open so rapidly that you can actually see them move. I'm older now and hopefully wiser as well - not to mention more tired at the end of a day - so I figured they would still be there in the morning.
You know, I have been wanting to sit down here and write to you for several days now. So while DH is off keeping the Starbucks local franchise from going bankrupt, I have time for the two of us to catch up.
I know that I have mentioned to you that I am now writing a weekly blog for the LYS where I teach, Kiwi Knitting. Much as the notion that someone would actually pay me to teach knitting still seems like a huge confidence scam to me at times (after all, to get paid to do something that I would be doing anyway? Great concept!), so the idea that someone might pay me to write - my other great love - and to write about knitting no less, seems just too good to be true. Instead of feeling guilty for time spent here writing I am coming to see it as my job, whether I am paid to do it for Kiwi, or if I do it for my own pleasure here with you or on my other blog. It used to torment me that sometimes it took several hours to write up my blog - starting with making certain I had the photos I wanted, then doing the actual writing, followed by editing, updating the sidebar, etc. All I could think of were the dishes left unwash, clothes left unlaundered, bed not yet made. I have convinced myself now that I should look upon it as my very enjoyable other job, and set aside time each day to work on it.
Mondays are reserved for the Kiwi blog, and weekends I become a knitting potato, but on other days I shall spend here as I am able.
All this to say that I have been craving this time these last few days since you have heard from me. Being here has been very much on my mind, with titles flashing through my brain as I drive to work, such as, 'Happy Birthday to Meeeeeee!', 'OMG! I Have Ordered My Kauni Yarn!', to 'My Brain is Melting!". In that order.
Perhaps, though, I ought first to explain the flowers to you, then we can spend time talking about knitting. Previously, I have shown you photos of flowers on one or two of our other varieties of cereus. This particular one, that I refer to by the technical name of 'the lumpy cereus', has been in a pot at the edge of our miniscule front patio for some time now. They love the combination of heat and rain and after a good summer rain they will set up buds. The buds grow quite quickly, although if there is a group of more mature buds already near blooming, the smaller buds will stay on hold until the larger ones have flowered, then they, too will suddenly grow very rapidly - sometimes an inch a day or more. So they are something I look forward to, monitor every day as I pass by, always anticipating the big night. Because cereus cacti bloom at night, the flowers of most varieties will only last the single night and die as soon as the day gets too bright for them.
The unfortunate thing is, other creatures out there are watching my cereus buds, too, and the past several times, just on the much-anticipated night that they are to bloom, something comes along in the dark and eats the buds off. You cannot imagine how disappointing this has been for me. But this time around, capable of reasoning as I am, I grabbed that pot the other morning and put it up on a small table outside, so that anything that wanted those buds would have to have danged long legs to get at them. And my plan worked. As soon as it got dark, the buds started to open. In my obsessive younger days I have sat outside in the dark to watch them bloom, and the flowers do open so rapidly that you can actually see them move. I'm older now and hopefully wiser as well - not to mention more tired at the end of a day - so I figured they would still be there in the morning.
We also had a hard rain that evening with lots of wind, and during the night one of the buds fell off of the plant and was lying on the ground next to the table. Bud this is what greeted up in the morning as we left to take DH to work.
The smell of the flowers is quite strong and very heady and sweet.Well, so... my birthday. As a Cancer, I hold my birthday to be one of the most important days of the year. I joke with everyone else that my birthday month starts, after all, with parades, flag-waving and fireworks in honor of my imminent big day. Rather than dreading the day as many others do, I look forward to it, seeing each birthday as another goal reached, something to be grateful for, a day to give thanks for all I have. And no matter which milestone birthday I reach, I hope I always continue to see it as I have so far - as something that beats the HECK out of dying young. Because I was born in the summer I have never had to go to school on my birthday. When I began working, birthdays were an automatic day off each and every year at my first several jobs. So the day is sacrosanct, in my mind, reserved in my salad days for things such as pedicures and massages. Not so this year. My two main waxing clients were both due, and Tuesday was the only free day in my week that I could squeeze them in for waxing. A free, self-indulgent day on one hand, money on the other. Hard choice.
The good news of this is, I had a little extra money that allowed me to order some Kauni yarn, as, like the rest of the knitting world I have been craving a Kauni cardigan, AND Ruth Sorensen says on her blog that she has finished the second Autumn Leaves cardi prototype and will be writing up the pattern in the next several days. I will be prepared! By ordering from Germany I was able to buy enough yarn for two sweaters and pay almost $40 less than I would spend ordering it here from the States, even with airmail shipping.
Hmmm... It seems as if a large thunderstorm is headed our way, so this might be shorter than I had planned. If I don't get the chance now to put in links to the places and things I have been talking about, I will put them in tomorrow afternoon instead.
Our class schedule at the shop for the next three months is now carved in stone. I spent a few hours after work yesterday afternoon typing up the info for my class sign-up sheets and the class descriptions for our newsletter. By the time I had finished my brain was on overload and further lucid thought, let alone coherent typing, was beyond feasibility.
Well, the storm has arrived in almost full force, looking to the south I can see how fierce it is to be, so let me post this now so that Blogger doesn't eat it. I'll show you my MS3 at the end of Clue 3, and how my first etsy bag is coming along. Stay dry out there!
Lynda
posted by Lynda Michaluk Sorenson at 5:20 PM
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