Tuesday 2 August 2011

New computer and a plant surprise

Wow, July went fast! Between not having my own computer, awesome house guests, camping trips, thesis and work I feel like I've barely had a chance to breath, let alone relax or blog.

But plants have kept growing, giving me some lovely surprises and only a few lithop and mesemb deaths (some my fault, some mysteries) and now I have a shiny new addition to blog about them on!


Not the fancy gaming desktop I had originally envisioned, but after a month and a half of procrastinating on building a beastly computer, I caved and went with a cheap-o $400 lappy - more than enough to finish my thesis on and satisfy my gaming urges until October when the desktop is happening - come hell or high water :)

What is that adorable little air plant (tillandsia)? on the keyboard you may ask. You've met him before, and since then he has mostly just hung out in his window, being a plant....then literally the day I left for 5 days in the wilderness it decided to flower. I frantically snapped a few pictures of the buds in between packing the food barrel and tracking down my hiking boots.



The above pic will probably be my desktop background soon :)

Returned from the trip last night, fully expecting the blooms to have come and gone. Instead I found this:


Glee! Joy! Happy Dance! This plant must like living with me if he is flowering. I think. And in the worst window in the house too (north-facing, basement window). Might try taking a paintbrush to the pollen and seeing if I can get it to pollinate itself. No clue if thats even possible with air plants, but nothing ventured, nothing gained....right?

3 comments:

  1. Those are very unusual flowers, but very beautiful! I love the colours and shape!

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  2. That’s really an adorable plant. ;P By the way, how long was it before you totally got yourself acquainted with your new laptop? I’m really a little conscious about that issue. The longest time for me to do everything and get familiar with its setup was a week. I usually use a migration software to assist me and to make sure I don’t overlook anything. How about you? ;) Lance Vartanian

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    Replies
    1. Hi Lance,

      Like you it usually doesn't take me more than a few days, a week tops, to get used to a new computer. I use Ninite (www.ninite.com) to get all of the programs I prefer installed in one go. Saves so much time when I do my annual computer reformat too.

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