If I sit and think about it, our weekends are mostly fly by the seat of our pants kind of days. But if I give it a quick look over and thought, I would think they appear neatly planned out and packed full of things to do, places to go, people to see, and chores. So at the end of the day I guess our weekends are a good mix of planed and unplanned stuff.
On occasion, I wish there were more time to travel around my local community and see things that are right outside my back door. The reality is that we get involved with things around the house or with family events and those day trips go to the wayside. The overstressed Covid environment, that has become part of our lives, does not help situation, but we make the best of it. One of these days, it will be in the past and my wife and I are going to find the time to take those day trips and see the cool things that await us in the tri-state area.
For now though it is status quo, and we have an odd bunch of things planned for this weekend including some travel. Sooooo…
OK then, now that we have that all sorted out, I want to take you on a trip through our weekend… I guess you could say 'The Highlights Reel'
My weekend came early. I got home and cooked us a nice dinner on the grill. I was able to walk around the yard, and even though it was a little bit chilly out I managed to find things teaming with life. For example I caught our Saint Johns Wort plant blooming against the evening sunset. It made for a great photo and one in which a blog about yesterday.
It’s always calming to see the winter sunsets in all their color and glory. The winter sunsets in southern New Jersey are something that I always look forward to. The colors are crisper and more vibrant, and seem to dance off of the lakes surface. The white and black clouds speckle the sky as the sun descends to the horizon, heading towards the other side of the world.
It was going to be a day of travel, as we planned to head down to my parents for a few days and visit with them in southern Delaware. Before the trip there was lots to do. There was close to pack, puppy beds, toys, leashes and food to pull together, and plants to attend to.
After I gave the house plants a little something to drink, I turned my attention to the orchids. They were quietly resting upon the top of the wall between our living room and our kitchen. Like Molly I don’t think they are quite awake yet. It’s dark outside in the sun is sleeping as well.
One and only one of the orchids still has a couple of flowers. Two flowers to be exact, and those two flowers are on their way out as well. It wasn’t but a few days ago that I picked up a dozen flowers from the floor and discarded them in the waste basket.
I have a few spent flower stems to cut off, but was waiting until I found additional glass pots. I have had my eye out for clear glass pots that resemble the ones I just used to re-pot a handful of orchids. I still have four more to re-pot, but those flower stems will probably be cut off shortly after I am done writing this post.
Peppers white Sympathy Orchid is doing great. It is the only orchid that is preparing to bloom again. I think it may bloom just after Thanksgiving and last well into the winter months, when we will need some flowers to lay our eyes on and brighten up the joint. It is easy to keep an eye on because it is separated from the others and sits in the middle of our breakfast table.
As you can see in the photo below, the buds for the new flowers are beginning to form and the entire bloom stem is starting to turn towards the light. I moved the clip, that holds the stem to a stake, up as far as I could, and I cannot move it up any further than where it is. The stem will be well supported without a doubt.
It to has a dead bloom stem that just turned brown a few days ago. I need to clip this off but since I have so many things to do it will have to wait. I'll clip it upon my return.
This white Orchid has put out quite a few air roots that extend well beyond the pot and are now resting on the table itself. The Orchid will have to be taken out of this pot, cleaned up and placed back in the pot as soon as it’s done blooming. I don’t want to stress it out now and risk losing these blooms. The air roots will need to get back into the media in order to ensure it’s stress level stays low. I know, it’s sort of a double edged sword; repotting could be a stressor as well as all of these air roots looking for water. I think it will survive until after this blooming occurs. Don't worry, I’ll keep my eye on it!
And we will be leaving soon for our trip to Delaware. The air is cool and I thought we may have the first frost of the year this morning. It did not get cold enough for frost to form, but the dew was thick and cold as it dripped from the siding just out side the back door.
Time to get the car loaded up and get on the road.
We had a nice trip to Delaware and I don’t want to bore you with all the details. What that really means is that I was lazy, enjoyed my time, and did not take a lot of photos for the blog. I did take several shots of Molly though, and I know several of you want to see those.
Molly is getting older now, so trips like this even though they are relatively short in distance, take a lot out of the old lady. She spends most of the time resting her bones, in between eating and getting love from whoever she can. I have to say even though it’s sad to see her hearing and eyesight failing somewhat, it’s nice to be able to sleep through the night without her awakening too weird noises and headlights from passing cars.
On the rare occasion Molly does let me take a photograph of her without her moving her head. I was able to capture this one of her in one of her favorite beds. The bed travels with us and she waste no time and making herself comfortable in it. She’s just too cute.
After a few hours in the car we were happy to pull in the driveway safe and sound. We were home earlier than expected so we had most of day on Sunday to putter around and get a few things done. It was my intention to mow the lawn one final time, but I got involved in other little projects around the yard and in the garage.
I also got involved in slamming back a few of these seasonal Bonesaw Brews. This one is called Pum Queen. It is a pumpkin flavored cream ale with vanilla and spice. The ABV is only 4.7 so they go down pretty easily. I need to get out to the liquor store and pick some more of this up for myself and to bring along to my cousins house if we make it up again soon. He also enjoys trying the new seasonal beers. This one is a local beer, so he does not have availability where he lives. It will be a nice surprise for him. I’ll help him drink what he can’t finish… Ha ha ha.
What do you think of this design? A skeleton Pum Queen with dagger in hand and pumpkins surrounding her throne. I think it’s a rather cool design.
While I was poking around the garage looking for something I decided to clean up a few things and found this large Cape May diamond. I was looking for it a few months ago and could not remember where I put it. I found her! She was tossed in to a box with a bunch of other weird things.
We called them Cape May diamonds because we find these pieces of courts pebbles on the southern most beaches of Cape May near the point of New Jersey. Some people collect them and polish them, and even cut them into diamond like shapes. Most of the ones you find are about the size of a pea to roughly half the size of a golf ball. I got particularly lucky and found a large specimen.
You can see by the looks of it, that it has been tumbling around in the coarse sand of the beaches for quite some time. As the waves and Tide roll in and out the piece of quartz was being tumbled over and over again, smoothing all of its rough edges out. I ran it under water so you could get the full affect of what they look like when they are lying on the beach and glistening in the sun. I found this one on a long walk down Sunset Beach.
Something else I tried to make a decision on this weekend, was whether or not I wanted to part ways with my 1909 S Indian Head Penny. It will fetch a 'Pretty Penny' (haha pun intended) and the timing may be right. I have been mulling it around and found a local buyer willing to take a peak at it and possibly make an offer. Just another something odd I did during my weekend.
I’m going to wrap this post up with one last photo. Another photo of another beautiful sunset. We had a very productive and fun weekend doing a little bit of this and a little bit of that. We got some traveling in, drink some beer, laid down with Molly, enjoyed our orchids, and or Sunday. We took part in some things that were planned and some things that were not. Looking back on my weekend, and all the things that I enjoy doing, it reminded me of something …
“Sundays are like confetti floating in the air in slow motion, in the evening they reach the ground and you hope a bit of wind could blow on them so they could fly a bit longer.”
― Alain Bremond-Torrent, running is flying intermittently
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