Brighten Up The Day/Evening with Plants & Fun Stuff

[Papageno]

The African Violet is blooming again.

[Papageno]

My favorite sansevierias. The Starfish offshoot is really growing well.

[Papageno]

This guy is a very knowledgeable plant influencer/enabler

Yes, he enables but he knows his stuff.......and he has over 400 houseplants and works........at a plant store.
He's well worth watching, his channel is very entertaining and informative......well most of them.

Many of his videos are like those Tarot "unboxing" videos and his house/apartment tours are fun to watch.
As I said, he knows his stuff, he can rattle off both the popular and scientific names for all his plants.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0DgHW1PdTcs

There are crazed collectors in every field you can think of, plant people are no different.

(and my Sansevieria "starfish" is doing better than his )

[Joan Marie]

There are crazed collectors in every field you can think of, plant people are no different.

Was totally unaware there was such a thing as a "Plant Influencer".

Yes it is amazing how many communities there are built around every conceivable and inconceivable interest.

And SO MANY of them have an online forum.

[Papageno]

There are crazed collectors in every field you can think of, plant people are no different.

Was totally unaware there was such a thing as a "Plant Influencer".

Yes it is amazing how many communities there are built around every conceivable and inconceivable interest.

And SO MANY of them have an online forum.

If you watch Nick's videos, you'll notice that even the microwave oven has been buried underneath plants.

Joan Marie, watch this video and look at the gorgeous String of Hearts plant behind "Crazy Plant Guy"
He's fun to watch also:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nfl77l77a58

There's a woman named " Summer Rayne Oakes" who has over 700 plants in her Brooklyn, NY apartment.
She also has a very active youtube channel.
If you Google her, you'll see that she's like the reigning Queen of the Houseplants Kingdom, and has been on celeb talk shows and featured in trendy home decor magazines and such.

400 - 700 plants, just think of the work......you really can't imagine unless you're truly dedicated, don't even go there.

The only work Tarot people have to do is keep their decks clean and dusted, reasonably well ordered, clutter-free and safe.

[Papageno]

Wonderfully imaginative virtual tour of the NYBG Orchid Show that features a variety of species in addition to Orchids.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cCXkVDt7m1I

[Papageno]

Holiday Train Show at the New York Botanical Garden, lovely escapism:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h7kGEGwaoHo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ybq2WKinfWE

[Papageno]

Houseplant 101: What Plant is Right for My Space?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bZvL1wM0wSc


This one is hysterical:

Growing A Jungle In My New York Apartment

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0NwD7VjxZ_A

she calls this a "borderline obsession" ......but there's more, no spoilers here (it's about her name)

[Joan Marie]

Joan Marie, watch this video and look at the gorgeous String of Hearts plant behind "Crazy Plant Guy"

It's gorgeous. I have total String of Hearts envy now.

That vid was about propagating plants and it reminded me of a woman I used to know who would go into places where they sold plants and she'd sneakily pinch off little pieces of plants, pocket them and take them home and root them.

I'm not suggesting anyone do that. It's stealing, (sort of) but she really grew a lot of plants that way.

I think most people wouldn't mind giving someone a small cutting from a plant if you asked nicely though. Not in a plant store, but like a friend or something.

[Papageno]

It's gorgeous. I have total String of Hearts envy now.

That vid was about propagating plants and it reminded me of a woman I used to know who would go into places where they sold plants and she'd sneakily pinch off little pieces of plants, pocket them and take them home and root them.

I'm not suggesting anyone do that. It's stealing, (sort of) but she really grew a lot of plants that way.

yeah, I suspect a lot of people do that at Lowes, Home Depot and places like that

Aside from the fact that it's unethical to "pinch the plants", you actually get your return on investment by simply purchasing a healthy plant and nurturing it. Learn to propagate and you can have as many "clones" as you want.

Actually, I think you can propagate your String of Hearts plant fairly easily, just like my String of Beads.

[Papageno]

A series of 3 really well-produced ghost stories:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07XY ... 0b5d2c7966

[Joan Marie]

Took a little walk around the neighborhood today.

First thing I saw outside my front door was this beautifully healthy dandelion plant.
Who says these are "weeds?" They were as bright and yellow as suns.

Then I noticed a lot of people are spring cleaning and putting unwanted items out on the sidewalk for people to take and I scored these sweet little candle-sticks:

They are so cute. They are just a little too big to hold birthday candles, I think I can find something for them. They measure about 6cm tall. On the bottom are 2 stars and some kind of symbol stamped in and the word DENMARK. They are very heavy for being so little. Maybe brass?

I think it's an Alter Starter Kit.
I must have needed one.

[Papageno]

Took a little walk around the neighborhood today.

First thing I saw outside my front door was this beautifully healthy dandelion plant.
Who says these are "weeds?" They were as bright and yellow as suns.

epicurious recipe:
https://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food ... ens-242014

Then I noticed a lot of people are spring cleaning and putting unwanted items out on the sidewalk for people to take and I scored these sweet little candle-sticks:

They are so cute. They are just a little too big to hold birthday candles, I think I can find something for them. They measure about 6cm tall. On the bottom are 2 stars and some kind of symbol stamped in and the word DENMARK. They are very heavy for being so little. Maybe brass?

I think it's an Alter Starter Kit.
I must have needed one.

nice score on the candlestick holders.
I was looking up Danish Hallmarks and also typed in candlesticks in Google and discovered an exact pair like yours recently sold on eBay.
.......yours were free , that's always better.

[stronglove]

went cycling early in the morning

river behind my house 7:35 am

view from the other bank, 8:12 am

[Papageno]

I love this depiction of Nina Simone:

https://www.youtube.com/post/UgwMoDtfEBfPnPK5rt14AaABCQ

although I don't see this an Empress card, I see High Priestess.

[stronglove]

beautiful things growing on willow trees part 1

[Papageno]

“Pro video game streamers are used to spending their days in isolation. And a huge new audience is at home to watch them play.”

https://www.nytimes.com/article/coronav ... e=Homepage

I don’t do interactive online video games that require state-of-the-art gaming computers with a zillion gigabytes of RAM and fluid-cooled heat sinks.

For those of you…..for those of us who still want to enjoy imaginative video games with beautiful graphics without the cost and hassle of hi-tech:

https://www.bigfishgames.com/us/en.html

My personal arcade favorites are:

Star Defender III
Star Defender IV
Alien Stars
Ricochet Lost Worlds

These won’t run properly on a Mac, these legacy games were never ported correctly for the Mac OS.

I run these on a refurbished Dell-Latitude/Windows XP SP-2 with a trackball mouse.
Perfect.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5s62rfudBGo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T1pBa5WYpW8

[Diana]

Only a great poet could describe what I feel when I see Sergei Polunin dancing. So I won't even try. Polunin is a Ukrainian ballet dancer. But he's kind of autodestructed his career. He's quite a character. Even more than Rudolf Nureyev who was quite a handful.

This article explains his autodestruction. But please watch the video first before reading it. https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2019/ ... -interview





I can watch this short extract on a loop. Until my heart feels like it's bursting so I have to stop because that would make a bit of a mess for my husband to clean up.

[Papageno]

Locked down and shut-in and bored?

Here's a fun movie recommendation:

"The Order"

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0304711/

https://www.amazon.com/Order-Heath-Ledg ... 255&sr=8-1

[Joan Marie]

If you are fan of Film Noir, go to youtube and do a search for "film noir" and there are TONS of full length movies available there. It's really kind of amazing. From really famous ones to very obscure ones.

More femme fatales and expressionistic lighting effects than you can shake a gun barrel at. Not to mention all those great 40's clothes.

It's a rabbit hole of great films, (some are wonderfully kitschy) and famous actors that you can get lost in for days.

here's a good starter: Borderline, 1950 starring Fred McMurry

[Papageno]

during this period of sheltering-in.

I wonder how many of these people realize how much work is involved in either case and then there's the proverbial learning curve.

just some idle musings.

(Papegeno, I moved this post here to this thread. Trying to keep all the sheltering-in musings in one place. Thank you! -Joan Marie)

[Papageno]

Met Opera At-Home Gala Live:

https://www.metopera.org/

This is amazing!

This is a LIVE telecast. Musicians and singers and the Met Opera Chorus broadcasting GLOBALLY!.........from their homes around the world.

[Joan Marie]

i stumbled onto a nice blog this morning and saw this post:

http://www.lunalunamagazine.com/blog/pl ... nt-rituals

It's about connecting to your houseplants using some interesting little exercises. I could also see these as being "writer's block" exercises too. here is the intro paragraph:

You and your houseplants have an intimate relationship. When you care for them, they give you fresh air in return. They’re dependent on you, and this connection creates a deep bond. Because plants are protective, they can be seen as green allies that stand in our windows, guarding against illness and providing us with inspiration. Every plant, even your houseplants, have a personality and secret language that we can learn from if we commit to listening to them.

She then lists and explains 6 different things you can try. Number 4 looks interesting to me:

Secret Life: Write about a secret that this plant may have, from the plant’s perspective. Then, write a few lines about the secret, as told by the plant container’s perspective.

If these plants could talk!!

[Joan Marie]

“Flowerpot with Chives” by Vincent van Gogh, 1887.

Love this. I don't think I have ever seen it before.
I have a lot of old terra-cotta flower pots with all sorts of moss and calcium deposits growing on them and the older they get the more beautiful I think they are. They develop a character of their own, like a plant itself. I will take some photos later and show you.

[Joan Marie]

A few pots from my garden showing the character of age.
I really see them develop a personality.