First Rose, and Chilly Plants

Here's the first rose to appear on our bushes this year, blooming well ahead of any of the others. I'm surprised it's produced a flower in these chilly temperatures -- it's 45º F out there now (7º C), and will hit a low of 40º F (4.5º C) on Saturday. This year seems quite reluctant to warm up! Or is it usually this cold in April and I've just forgotten? I tried to sit outside in the sun to read yesterday morning but it was just too brisk. (The daytime highs are in the mid-60s F.)

I've started shuttling my flower seedlings in and out of the house so they can stay indoors overnight. They seem to be growing quite slowly and I think they may just need some nighttime warmth.

I also brought my rescued rubber tree back inside. The poor thing is still in a sulk. I repotted it and the root ball looked solid enough, but it has produced no new growth and has lost a few leaves. The stem (trunk?) is still green but it looks a bit wrinkled, as if it isn't absorbing water well. So who knows -- the roots may be dead. Again I think the outdoor cold was doing it no favors. We'll see if it does better in cozier indoor temperatures.

I thought about cutting the whole thing back to see if it will sprout anew, but as long as it has green leaves I'll wait on that.

Here's another rescue I found next to a neighbor's trash cans two days ago. It's a fiddle-leaf fig and it was dry as a bone, loose in its pot. Again, I repotted it and gave it a drink. It has a tiny green sprout at the top so there's hope. I need another fiddle-leaf fig about as badly as I need another rubber tree.

On the bright side, remember the orchid the Russians threw away last summer before they moved? I pulled it out of the trash and adopted it, and it is now rewarding us with flowers.

Also blooming are our geraniums, at least this variety. They were incredibly prolific last year and I've repotted them so hopefully we'll get another good showing. Once again I didn't trim any of our geraniums and some of the plants are looking a bit straggly. I just can't bring myself to prune them. I don't know why.

OK, enough plant news. What else have I been doing around here? Well, I spent yesterday morning reading and running errands, as usual, and then in the afternoon I took a long walk, partly so I could catch up on my podcasts. Now that I'm not walking to work every day I don't have that listening time in the morning and evening, so I have to reconfigure my routines.

I passed these interesting murals along a pedestrian path on my way up to the Clitterhouse Playing Fields -- sort of an oceanic horizon on the left and leopard skin on the right. Colorful!

I was out for about two hours and got lots of listening done. I suppose I could listen at home but it seems weird to just sit on the couch and listen to a podcast. To me, that's something I do when I'm out moving around.

I see Trump is now going after the Southern Poverty Law Center with his weaponized justice department. Maybe I should double my donation this year? Honestly, that man is just vengeance personified. He's like Richard Nixon with his "enemies list," but even worse. I wonder if my donations to the SPLC and other progressive groups have landed me on some roster of citizens-to-watch. I probably don't give enough for them to worry about me, but you never know. I may be stopped by ICE on my next visit to the USA!

I've started watching a series on Netflix called "Black Rabbit" with Jude Law and Jason Bateman. It came out last year and I never had a chance to screen it until now. I'm two episodes in and it seems pretty good, though dark. Dave didn't really take to it so I'm watching it on my own. We typically don't turn on the TV until the evening and I don't want to change that. When my dad retired he started watching "Guiding Light" but I don't think I'm ready to surrender my life to daytime television!