Dragon's Orchid Garden

It took me a year.  This is a Christmas present for my dear stepson, David.  A 2009 Christmas present.  I got into so many projects that a few weren't finished in time last year.  My New Year's resolution on 1/1/2010 was to stop procrastinating and finish some projects.  I put that off until this year.  So, my New Year's resolution for 2011 is to stop procrastinating last year's non-procrastination resolution. I'm amazed and just a little envious of the number of knitting bloggers who seem to finish a new project every freaking day.  I'm lucky if I finish (anything other than a bookmark which takes 2 hours) in less than a month.  I guess it helps to not have a day job.  I work (and I LOVE my job, so don't get me wrong), and have my iTunes habit to support, so time for knitting is not in plentiful supply.  When I retire, I plan to do nothing but knit and blog and have wonderful yarns sent to me for free by people begging me to mention their product. This

If you missed it, or live in a cave and didn't know about the total lunar eclipse that happened ridiculously early on the morning of December 21st, 2010, I have pictures!  You won't get to see another one from North America until April 15, 2014. Before Wayne and I went to bed that night, we got out the big tripod and my tiny Panasonic Lumix and set them up.  I set the Lumix to it's 'night scenery' setting, because I can't  be bothered to figure out the optimum manual settings.  I also set out warm clothing to jump into when the alarm went off at 3:00AM.  Then we went to bed and I did my usual before sleep reading (I was reading a really good book... Super Sad True Love Story by Gary Shteyngart, which I hope is not a foretelling of the world of the next lunar eclipse in 2014).  The book was so good, that I didn't put the it down until something like 1:30AM.  Two minutes later, the alarm went off.  Wayne, jumped right out of bed and got dressed while prodd

I'm an atheist.  I have a Christmas tree and lights on my house, or at least I will once I finish decorating the tree and can convince my dearest husband that it's not too cold to go out and put up the lights.  It's Florida.  It's not that cold, honey.  You'd perish in New England.  I love Christmas (except for all the TV ads and a lot of the sappy music).  To those Christians who think their holiday has been hijacked, I say "pfffttt".  No one is stopping you from celebrating in your own way.  Try to be more tolerant of others.  'Tis the season. I celebrate this holiday because I love hearing from family and friends this time of year.  I love it because I love presents.  I love getting them and I love giving them.  I love getting paid time off from work.  I love to bake and the way zucchini bread makes the house smell wonderful.  Most of all, I love this song.

Wayne has a cigar while he and Caliope bask in the chilly sunshine by the pond after bundling all of the tropical plants in our yard. From Blogger Pictures The big orchid table is surrounded by blankets and sheets with a tarp on top.  A heat lamp and rope lights are inside to keep them from freezing.  Staghorn ferns look like big alien cocoons hanging from the oak tree. From Blogger Pictures The tomato plants have dozens of green tomatoes on them.  They are wrapped in sheets thrown over an old step ladder.  The gingers die back every year, so they aren't covered.  They sprout again in the spring. From Blogger Pictures I hope these moon flower buds will be okay.  Their vine wraps around one side of the pond pergola. From Blogger Pictures Orengi and Moby should be fine.  Koi are pretty cold hardy.  We just cut down on feeding them when it gets really cold. From Blogger Pictures The big white bird of paradise was a challenge to bundle, but the picnic table came in

I've been catching up on reading some of my favorite knitting blogs.  Anne Hanson's KnitSpot  post featured photographs taken from a moving vehicle while on a trip through New York.  I thought about my other favorite knitting blogs and realize that all of them feature photography, not just pictures of knitting, but really good photographs by people who also knit. Anne's post made me think about how I also carry my camera everywhere.  Shooting pictures from a moving vehicle is quite a bit easier with the automatic digital cameras available today.  I don't recommend taking pictures while behind the wheel, with the car in gear and traveling down the interstate at 75 mph, but I admit to doing it.  The following were taken while driving home from south Tampa to north Tampa on a stormy summer afternoon.  They were taken with a Panasonic Lumix DMC-TZ3. Click on any of the pictures to go to my Picasa web album and see them larger. From drive-by shooting From drive-by sh

My favorite part of Thanksgiving is the leftovers.  Specifically, turkey pot pie.  We just polished off the rest of the one I made Sunday and I forgot to take a picture of it for the blog.  Mostly because I didn't even think about blogging about that.  So, instead here's a picture of another pie I made.  Just imagine it with turkey and veggies inside, instead of what's really in it (apples). The only recipe I follow is for the pastry, and I use the one for a 2 crust 9" pie from my trusty Fannie Farmer Cookbook .  After making the dough, refrigerate it before rolling it out while you prepare the filling, as follows: 3 medium potatoes 1/2 onion 4 or 5 carrots a couple stalks of celery about a cup of broccoli (I hate peas) Chop those up into bite sized pieces and put them all into a steamer until al dente (just barely fork tender).  Make the sauce: 3 tablespoons of butter (not margarine!) 3 tablespoons of flour about a cup of chicken broth about a cup of heavy

I finally got down to typing up the chart I made for the new bookmark.  It has three lace flowers surrounded by eyelets around the edges.  The fun bead I picked for the tassel echoes the flower shape of the lace.  I found out that the Windows version of CET Knitting Symbols font works almost perfectly with Apple's Pages.  Almost.  I just could not get any of the alt-codes to work, so had to improvise a "t" for the more commonly used knitting symbol for a twisted stitch.  You can find the finished charted pattern here . I love the part where I get out the pencil and graph paper and draw the design. From knitting The finished bookmark looks great with this color-way of Mini Mochi yarn.  Blocking: From knitting Finished: From knitting Fueled by homemade turkey pot pie, I was able to get through the frustration of (still) learning Apple's Pages version of working with tables as opposed to Word.  The pot pie is to die for.  I'll share my recipe next blog.

It's perfect bike riding weather.  While I prefer two wheels without a motor, Wayne likes something with a bit more power that makes a lot of noise.  His motorcycle had been sitting in the garage gathering dust for years, when he recently decided to take it out, dust it off, rebuild it and start riding again.  Here's the old Harley-Davidson Shovelhead in all it's current glory.  I do like the sound of it running. From bikes Saturday morning, he took it out for a ride around the neighborhood.  He stopped to talk to some neighbors and while they were chatting, Wayne spotted a unique bicycle in their garage.  He came back to the house and traded the Harley for the Huffy beach cruiser and rode back to the neighbor's.  It turns out that the neighbor had bought a bicycle at a yard sale for $20 for his wife.  His wife didn't really like riding it, so Wayne offered to trade for the Huffy.  She loved the Huffy. Wayne found the Huffy sitting out in front of another nei

The pumpkin is carved. From halloween 2010 From halloween 2010 The graveyard is ready. From halloween 2010 The skulls await trick-or-treaters who dare to ring the doorbell. From halloween 2010 Those who are brave enough to darken our threshold will be rewarded with nerds, laffy taffy, and eyeballs.  BWWAAHAHA!

Jack-o-lantern to be.  Shall I carve the traditional scary face?  I'd like to do something fantastic, but my Dremel tool is broken.  I'll post a picture when I carve it.

Slightly cooler evenings have the autumn orchids blooming.  It's been incredibly dry, making it necessary to water.  The rain-barrel is nearly empty.  There are buds on several orchids that haven't bloomed in a couple of years, and even one on our brsdm. golden gamine 'white knight'.  Can't wait to see what that one looks like.  I should have pictures in a couple of weeks. Bulb. Doris Dukes is on her second set of blooms. From orchids lc. ( laeliocattleya ) mini purple maikal is very pretty right now.  That's the orchid pictured in my blog header. From orchids This yellow and magenta lc. is fragrant and stunning, but the tag faded, so I don't know what the name is!  I'll have to scout the rest of the tags and make new ones for the faded ones before I can't read them. From orchids Onc. Lambada 'Cutey' has small flowers that take FOREVER to open, but are well worth the wait.  From orchids Our double angel trumpet took a beating

The pattern in this knitted bookmark reminds me of pinwheels .  It is a little bit more challenging than the other bookmarks I've designed...but just a little.  If you'd like to knit one, the pattern is free.  You can also find this pattern and bazillions of others on Ravelry , the best freakin web site for knitters evah.  The yarn used is Mini Mochi, a mohair blend sock yarn that has beautiful long color changes.  I bought it at Fiber Art, Inc.  I used the new nickel plated dpns I got in a set from KnitPicks . From knitting I'm excited by a couple of books I just brought home from the library .   The Essential Stitch Collection by Lesley Stanfield & Melody Griffiths has easy to follow and well photographed patterns and charts for 300 different knit stitches.   Knitting Lace by Susanna E. Lewis is one I just might have to buy.  Our library didn't have a copy, so I received it through interlibrary loan from the Lee County Library System.  The book is based o