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 t...

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 ...

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 bu...

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 ...