Cacti and the Pink Blanket

Another day, another leaf! Nature's little miracles of design at this time of year.

Yesterday was pretty nondescript. It was board game night in the library, and there was some last-minute setting up to do for that -- and I DO mean last-minute. The event started at 4 p.m. and at about 3:45 my boss realized she needed a table to display all the games and had forgotten to request it. I just assumed she'd decided to leave them on the cart, but no! So I ran downstairs and found someone to bring us a table and we set everything out, just finishing up as people were walking in the door.

I didn't stick around to play games. It's not really my thing. I have occasionally enjoyed board games in a group -- like when I'd go to my friend Kevin's for Thanksgiving years ago -- but I bet I haven't played one since then.

Now that the dahlias are fading, here's the next thing to bloom -- the Thanksgiving/Christmas cacti! As you can see, my bright pink ones (on the left) have buds already. The second one from the left at top is my salmon-colored one, which I brought back from the dead and which has a few tiny buds as well.

The other two are the white/light pink variety that blog reader Frances sent me years ago as a tiny cutting. You may remember the first plant I grew from the cutting got root rot and died, but I took more cuttings and kept them going. I think this is the healthiest all my cacti have looked! I don't see any buds on the white ones yet, but fingers crossed. (Or do I have the white and salmon ones mixed up? Hmmm...)

I can hear my brother now: "STOP TALKING ABOUT PLANTS!"

I just talked to him last night on the phone, actually -- an unexpected pleasure. He called about some family business but it was fun to catch up on other stuff too. I don't know why we don't talk more often. I've turned into such a terrible communicator.

I'm thinking it's about time to throw away Olga's pink blanket. It's got that gigantic, frayed hole in the middle and we've actually cut it into two pieces, so she won't get tangled up in it. (This is the biggest floor space I could find in the house to lay it out and take a picture!)

As I'm sure I've written before, this blanket used to be on my bed in the winter when I was a kid. It's about as old as I am -- almost 60 years.

And it is still much-loved! I suppose we'll keep it a while longer.