Fig and Cosmos

I just realized yesterday that I waltzed past my 20th Blogaversary with nary a mention! As of May 24 I have been writing this blog for 20 years. It blows my mind to think I've been going that long -- and pretty consistently, too, with the exception of about seven months in 2010-11, when I briefly quit because I was too busy writing for work. (So maybe technically my 20th Blogaversary is next year.)

When my friend and former colleague Kenneth (whose gay-culture blog is still linked in my sidebar) inspired me to try this platform out way back in 2006, I never imagined it would have such a long-lasting effect on my life. And yet here we both are, still blogging away, along with many of you.

Once I adopt an online platform, I tend to stick with it. Hence I'm still on Blogger and Flickr and Facebook -- all very mid-aughts -- and I never adapted to Twitter or BlueSky or Threads or Instagram, which came later. I've periodically experimented with Instagram but I just don't like it. I know my photos would get a lot more attention there but I just can't bring myself to use it.

Anyway, that's my first cosmos flower (above). Woo hoo! It's always gratifying to plant tiny seeds and see them grow and blossom. Frankly, I would have preferred some colored cosmos as opposed to white ones, but beggars can't be choosers. (I got those seeds free in the mail with a magazine subscription at work.) The zinnias and sunflowers are still plugging away and not yet ready to bloom.

As predicted, the squirrels have knocked a couple of figs off our tree. I cut this one open just to see what it looked like inside. Nowhere near ripe, as you can tell. But they're a nice size, and I'm hopeful I'll get at least one or two to taste.

This was yesterday's plant project. These begonias have been looking straggly and the leaves get crispy and dry, and eventually they fall off. I think it's because I put the plants in that terrible sawdust-and-wood-chip compost I bought last year, which dries out quickly. I bought better quality houseplant compost yesterday and repotted both of them (one in front and one behind on the windowsill), and I'm hoping that will give them a boost.

I cut off one lanky stem, and of course I couldn't bring myself to throw it away, so now it's rooting in two pieces on the kitchen windowsill. Like I need another begonia!

This was my treat yesterday evening. One of Dave's students gave him a tiny bottle of pink champagne at the end of the school year, and Dave can't drink it because alcohol affects his Crohn's disease. So it got passed along to lucky me!