Little Green Oranges

The Hellebores are coming out again. Mrs. Kravitz's Polish gardener used to call them "Christmas roses" -- before he vanished, as all Mrs. K's gardeners eventually do. I think she fires them all. Anyway, I still think of Hellebores by that name. The white ones are blooming now -- the red ones haven't appeared yet and always come a bit later. 

Speaking of Mrs. K, I haven't seen her in ages, or even heard her being belligerent with her gardeners. Of course it's not exactly a gardening time of year, so she may just be indoors, but normally I see some sign of her. I think she must be away again. And our neighbors upstairs are so well-behaved we barely know they're there. It's quite a change from how things used to be around here!

No Olga, no noisy neighbors -- what's my blog coming to?!

We had a bit of a scare yesterday. I was going through the bank statement when I found a charge for $31.72 -- yes, in U.S. dollars -- that I did not recognize. The debit was named UNHYYTERJP2, which was not helpful, and the charge came from Hong Kong. Of course this sent up alarm bells right away. I hadn't ordered anything online, and I asked Dave if he'd ordered anything and he said no.

It seemed a very weird and specific amount to be fraudulent, but I racked my brains and could come up with no legitimate reason this would be on our bank statement. So I tried to call the bank. This led to a vortex of automated phone hell that eventually told me their fraud office was closed (!) and I'd have to call back on Monday. I couldn't report it online unless I had their app, which I do not because I don't do any banking on my phone, ironically for security reasons.

When I Googled that payment name, I found a discussion thread of people questioning transactions with similar names, and they all had to do with Apple Pay. I don't use Apple Pay, but Dave does. So I suggested he go back through his payment history to see if anything would explain that charge. He wasn't sure how to do it, but he figured it out -- and BINGO! It turns out he ordered a board game online for his Dad and then forgot about it.

I was so relieved I forgot to be mad at him. I had visions of reporting fraud and having our cards canceled just as we are about to go to Tenerife later this week. What a headache that would have been.

I moved our little Mandarin orange tree outside again, now that the weather has warmed up. It has numerous little oranges on it (above) and seems to be having a very productive year. That spidery thing to the right of the fruit is a fallen leaf from the Russians' miniature Japanese maple on their terrace upstairs. (Yes, they moved, but they left all their plants behind with an automated watering system.)

Otherwise yesterday was quiet. I read more, took care of all the houseplants, and did some minor housework. Aside from the banking scare, a nondescript Sunday.