First Flower

Ta-da! The first-ever flower from my white (really pink) Thanksgiving cactus! This is the one that blog reader Frances sent me as a cutting a couple of years ago. It's never bloomed before now, but it looks like it will have several flowers this season -- at least three. Doesn't it look like it's leaning into the wind? Sort of like a Rolls-Royce hood ornament.

I got a couple of minor tasks accomplished yesterday morning. I put the last of the dahlias in the shed for the winter, and I also inspected the gutter over our front door. When we get a heavy rain, that thing is like Niagara Falls on the front porch, and I thought maybe it was blocked with leaves. I've certainly never cleaned it out. But surprisingly, it's leaf-free, so I guess it just can't quite handle all the water coming off the roof sometimes.

I read some more Dickens and of course, I walked the dog.

We went to the cemetery, where Olga paused near the grave of Russian Grand Duke Michael Michaelovitch and his wife. (We've talked about them before.) I love that bright orange/brown tree lit up by the sun.

The other day when I was walking Olga around the corner, I saw some debris from a building lying on the sidewalk. It looked to me like it had fallen, and it wasn't a small amount -- some bricks and mortar and decorative cornice. Sure enough, I read in the paper yesterday that it struck a woman and almost injured her baby. I've heard of this happening elsewhere and we've seen it around here before too, but never so close to home. The dangers of living around old buildings, I guess.

Anyway, after our cemetery walk, I ate a left over fortune cookie with my coffee. (We only got one cookie with our last order of take-away Chinese, for some reason.) 

To which Dave replied, "F*** off!"