Dragon and Crown

The Thanksgiving cacti are still blooming up a storm. The salmon one has opened (above)...

...as have the white/pink ones. And as you can see, the dark pink plants are blooming profusely. So I'm happy to get flowers out of all four of my cacti this year.

Some of you may wonder why I'm not calling them Christmas cacti, which is probably the name we all learned when we were younger. Apparently true Christmas cacti have a slightly different leaf shape and bloom later. Here's a short video about how to tell them apart. Most "Christmas" cacti sold in stores are actually Thanksgiving cacti, according to the experts.

Mine seem to bloom even earlier than is typical. As someone pointed out last year, they're more like Halloween cacti. Maybe that's because I live so far north, with rapidly decreasing sunlight in the autumn. Just a guess.

Not much happened around here yesterday. I took Bailey out for a walk in the afternoon, to the cemetery. Let me just say, I am thrilled that her dog walker is starting again today. She is wearing me out, she's such a wild thing! She slipped her harness at one point, lunging after a squirrel, so I am assessing new harnesses on Amazon. Hers came from the shelter and it has a tendency to loosen, so I need one that's more secure.

After I refitted her harness and tightened it up, we walked back along Mill Lane. Bailey stopped at the door to the vet's office, as if she wanted to visit again. You'd think she'd be terrified of the vet at this point, but no! An older man walking past me said, "That's a smart dog!"

Then he said, "Hey -- how many rings does a marriage have?"

Oh, great, I thought. Dad jokes.

"I don't know," I said.

"Three," he responded. "The engagement ring, the wedding ring, and the suffering!"

When I told Dave this story later, he said, "That guy has been waiting days to be able to spring that joke on someone."

Once again, I came across a box of stuff set out for the taking on someone's garden wall. I took these two little dishes, featuring a dragon and a crown.

As you can see from the back, they're Limoges porcelain -- specifically a pattern designed by Régis Dho for Philippe Deshoulieres. I think Chambord is the pattern name, but I'm not sure. They look to me like something swiped from a hotel or restaurant in France or Monaco. There's a listing for some identical dishes on Etsy -- she wants £60 for them, but I've seen similar ones listed for less elsewhere. I just thought they were kind of cool.

Today is my birthday. I am the big six-zero today. I can't believe I'm 60 years old, but you know, in a way it's such a relief. I've written before, and fairly recently, about the AIDS anxiety I felt as a young gay man -- I was always afraid I might not make it to 40, much less 60. So I'm pretty happy to be here, wrinkles, age spots and all!