Tuesday, May 13, 2008

Black Thumb.

Tucson taught me many things. I do not adapt well to hostile environments. Heat makes me sweaty which makes me cranky which makes me hide out in my little apartment with the shades drawn--for six months at a time.Desert hippies are scary. One city cannot have too many head shops. Beetles come with antlers that rival any deer. And I cannot be trusted with plants.

In the course of doing time there, I managed to kill every cactus I bought. Cactus that were native to Tucson. Dead. And it didn't take me long. I took this to mean that I should in no way take responsibility for living plants. But now I think I something may have changed. While most of the yard is in dire need of TLC (which I'm slowly but surely attending to), we've had random tulips and lilac and even a baby aspen popping up--in close proximity to me.


At first I steadfastly ignored these obvious signs of life. Then, however, I came home with a mint plant (I blame spring fever) fully intending to kill it for basil mint pesto and it refused to die. In fact, I had to put it in a bigger pot and even gave a cutting its own little pot. Then, I bought a pothos which my mom immediately labeled a loser plant--as in even a loser can't kill it. For a while though, it seemed like my green streak was over. It wasn't looking good despite my care. Noticing that it was an awfully big plant for such a small pot, I transplanted it and it's now looking happy again. It's like I learned to speak plant or something.
Now, in usual dalyn fashion, I'm feeling cocky. My little plant collection has grown to include a table full of (hopefully) sprouting basil (I even bought some crazy rock shit to put in the bottom of the soil to help with drainage which I managed to spill all over the garage, but I think some got in where it was supposed to go), a lemon thyme plant, and two different pepper plants. The real challenge, though, is going to be the fuchsia I just bought to hang in the dining room. I hear they can be temperamental. More so than cactus apparently. Move over Martha...

Spring. I Think.

While I do love spring, I do not love a tease. We barbecued over the weekend and enjoyed 70 degree weather, but today I huddled indoors doing work since it was 37 degrees and rainy. It'd be nice if it'd make up its mind (though I'm sure many people have said the same of me). I did manage, however, to get some pictures of Pearl Street on my way to a meeting last week.
And, no matter how much I try, I can't help but be impressed by tulips. And daffodils. And seemingly dead stuff springing back to life.