First, What's Not New ..
Well for starters this Full Moon .. Quite the contrary to a new moon. Friday night was the full moon and we had our neighbors over for drinks and to sit around our outdoor fireplace and catch up. I broke out our old telescope and grab the shot with my iPhone through the lens. Then come out too bad! Full moon definitely brightens up the environment. Also it was a perfect evening weather wise with a light breeze and bearable temperatures.
Now that what's not new is out-of-the-way we can jump into a few new things going on.
New Silver
I and revisiting an old collection .. I Broke out my old silver quarter collection and decided it's time to fill in the gaps. I've been working on this collection since I was very young. Obviously I haven't been working on it consistently. I think I took about 35 years off there for a while. Hahahaha. Honestly I was getting tired of looking at a half put together collection that was only a few quarter shy of being done. It's not like me to start something and not finish it, but for some reason that's what happened here.
Sooooo... I bought a new silver quarter. I wonder if you can guess which one it is by Looking at the picture above?? Yep you guessed it…
1954 S Silver Quarter. 11.8 million of those suckers made! Wasn't hard to track one down I'll tell you that.
I'm not looking for the best quality coins To fill in these gaps, as you can see, and the rest of the quarters in the collection are not in the best of shape anyway. Most of them I had gathered up from loose pocket change as a kid. If you take a look at a tape on the side of the collection my name is still barely visible in pencil written there.
New Phalaenopsis Kiki ..
It's watering day for All orchids .. I have all of the Phalaenopsis orchids crammed into the kitchen sink getting their biweekly soaking. I thought it was a good time to take a shot of the growing Kiki on one of those orchids. I found it growing there about two months ago and wrote about it here on hive last month. In about 30 days time it grew twice its size! maybe more. This new little girl is quite happy. I guess mama is taking good care of her until she's ready to be cut off. That won't be for quite a while.
New Location
I finally decided to move my Vanda orchids outdoors .. I Picked a spot inside our Scarlet Rosemallow plant. This plant grows tall and creates a filtered light situation that is almost perfect for these Vanda orchids. Or at least I hope so. I grabbed one of our birdhouse hangers, jammed it into the ground, and hooked on the two orchids. So far it looks like the amount of sunlight is perfect. I'm hoping this warmth and humidity gives them the boost they need in order to vigorously grow that root system. The better the root system the better the flowering. Also the more abundant root system the more times the plants are capable of flowering.
I'm giving them a good soaking every day in order to meet their watering requirements. I tried to take a photograph of the orchid within those leaves absorbing that filtered sunlight. It's hard to capture it being that it's kind of hard to see the orchids in there to begin with. They kind of blend right in. I guess I don't have to worry about anybody walking off with them. Not that I think anyone would do that, But you never know these days.
New Flowers On The Way
So that Texas Star Hibiscus or Scarlet Rosemallow has new flower buds forming.. Maybe in another week or two we will have our first bright red hibiscus flowers on these plants. That will also add to the amount of filtered light/shade falling upon our two Vanda orchids. Also maybe the orchids will get jealous of those flowers and produce their own?? Anyone can hope, can't he?
And they are loaded with flower buds! I can't wait to see them because they're so bright red and so pretty. They sway in the breeze and attract hummingbirds from time to time. I transplanted these plants from the other side of the house when we put the patio in a couple of years ago. There are three plants total and they seem to like it here so far. They should eventually tower above our furniture, Growing to about 6 to 7 feet tall. We should get a good view of those bright red flowers when they do decide to open.
New Veggies
I picked our first sweet pepper of the season!.. and it's a dandy. Looks like there's a bunch more coming so I will be collecting these, cutting them in half, filling them with cheese bacon and whatever else floats our boat. Then it's off to the grill to melt that cheese and lightly brown and cook those sweet peppers. Looking forward to it. I kind of need more than one I think. Lol
I was hesitant to include this next photo, because I promised someone here that I would pay attention to my zucchini plants and not let the zucchinis get as big as my arm. Well, I didn't go out into the garden for one day and this is what I got ...
One stinkin day!!! .. Two oversized veggies! Not the kind of 'NEW' I was looking for. I can't believe in 24 hours they grew that fast. Crazy! Well off to the compost pile they go. I don't like when they get that big. They taste sort of woody and the seeds get really chewy. I don't mind throwing them out I can only eat so many and there's more coming on so it won't be long till we have another ready to pick. I will try checking every day from now on, I promise. Lol.
A New Accessory
I've been contemplating buying new stones for our gas fireplace. ever since we purchased this outdoor propane fire pit/table a couple of years ago, I knew I would need additional glass beads or stones. It only came with a handful and it was really quite pitiful the amount they gave you. This year I went and purchased some aquamarine colored glass with a mirrored reflective back. They are awesome!
I love them and I'm so glad I made that purchase. I bought a rather large bag of the product that could fill the deep well of the pit. It covers the lighting element quite nicely and so far they held up great to the heat. They make a nice little sparkle as the flame flickers. I'm happy with the purchase.
No More New
I am stopping here with the new.. I think I've rambled on long enough and I need to get my butt over to the sink and get those orchids out from soaking. They like a good thorough soaking but they don't like to be suffocated in the wet stuff. He he he. I added some fertilizer to the water today so it's not a bad thing that they sit a little longer than normal. but I do have to get going. Lots of nothing to do today. I wish! Today I think we are going to be doing a little indoor cleaning that has been put off for a while. We've been rather busy so it's time we clean things up a little bit. Shouldn't take too long. It's gonna be 100°F (or 38°C) plus out today. Hot hot hot hot hot. So it goes without saying we are going to limit our activity outdoors. We may take some time to plunge in the pool but other than that indoors, air conditioning, and taking it easy is on the docket.
Take Care everyone and enjoy your Sunday!