Plants, and Other Conscious Beings

This is a lovely Christmas arrangement that we were gifted with over the holiday season.  I should have taken a picture of it earlier, because it also had a little cedar tree in it.  This arrangement was our Christmas tree this year, and we appreciated it to no end.  It brought color into the house and a feeling of festive celebration into our lives.

Today I noticed the cedar tree was just beginning to turn brown on the ends and so I pulled it out and loosened it's trapped pruned roots, and popped it into the ground outdoors near the house, so as not shock it too terribly.  I will move it again in early Spring if it survives the freezing temperatures.  I have a friend who has a farm nearby and it may go out there.  I've sort of run out of space on my small patch of ground.

And this is the thing about these beautiful holiday arrangements.  Living things are living things.  I know that sounds redundant, but we as humans tend to care less for life forms that don't appear to interact with us.  And yet everything does.  Whether we're aware of it or not.  I could tell you stories...

But apart from the obvious things, house plants interact with us in the most intimate way.  We exchange air.  You can live without many things in life.  You can even last for a time without food and water.  But air is precious.  They make ours, and we make theirs.

So many people receive trees in planters, and almost no one knows that those "Christmas type" trees were never meant to be kept in a planter and they were never meant to be indoors.  It is slow torture to a tree that has the dna to become a giant, to be in a small pot --indoors-- through the winter.

I planted my little cedar friend next to the lavender in my flower bed.  It has access to rain, in case I forget to water it, and it is in a spot that will allow it to go into dormancy, but still be somewhat sheltered from severe weather, while it is trying to return to its natural rhythm.  For these next few nights, I will cover it with a box to protect it from frost, and give it plenty of water.  I wouldn't have to do this, but the tree is going from one extreme to another.  I want the new environment to be like a tonic rather than damaging to the small tree.

This action started me wondering about the other plants in the arrangement.  The only one I recognized was the poinsettia.  Thanks to google, I identified the other two plants and realized that I had three plants with different needs all planted within the same environment.  The Kalanchoe blossfeldiana is a succulent and the "Frosty Fern" is a moss.  They look incredible together, but they would not be able to survive together.

I will leave the moss in it's original pot, because there is no drainage in it, which suits the Frosty fern perfectly.  And I will transplant the other two as soon as possible.  For now, at least I know not to water the succulent area of the pot too often and to keep the moss very wet.

And here is another Christmas gift.  I received a mushroom kit from a friend.  So it's been a very "living" Christmas this year.  I started them as soon as I brought them home, because I wasn't sure how long they had been sitting in my friend's warm house.  This is one week's growth.  I've tried to grow mushrooms before, with less than spectacular results, but this kit from SnoValley Mushrooms, has been amazing to see.  Their instructions were completely different than the instructions from my last mushroom kit, which may be why I'm now having success.  Now that I know I can actually successfully grow mushrooms, I think I'll continue this practice.  The other kit I tried some years ago, became a horrible, moldy, smelly mess.  This kit is beautiful!  I will probably harvest them Thursday or Friday as per instructions, then follow the directions to see if I will get another harvest, or two, or even three!

Update on the Peepers!

Christmas day was a very traumatic day for the Peepers.  I was talking to my sister and her family on the phone, when I heard "HELP!" from Ruby, my hen.  I dropped the phone and burst outside.  I saw Ruby and chicks running for their little house.  I tried to count chicks, and noticed something sitting on the ground, that I couldn't identify.  Not that is, until it lifted off!  It was a hawk and it had one of my chicks!

I ran at it screaming in a voice I've heard my rooster use when he sees a predator.  In that timeless moment, where nothing is decided for certain, one way or another, I reached out with my whole heart and desired nothing else, but to have my chick back.  It was a powerful emotion, and it overrode every other feeling in my mind and body.  In a second it was over.  The hawk dropped the chick, and it fluttered safely to the ground and ran back up the little terraced path to me.  I picked it up and snuggled it, and cooed to it, and checked it over gently for wounds. Then I took it back to the flock and I saw that Ruby had blood on her comb.  Perhaps from trying to defend her offspring.  They spent the rest of the day huddled in their little house.

Since then, The hawk has made two more tries, but the yard they inhabit, is too over grown to really get at them easily.  Not enough room for a hawk's wingspan to pick them off from the air.  At the least sound of alarm, I'm outside.

I know, it's silly.  They're not even cute anymore.  They look like little fat vultures.  But I love them.  They make me smile.  And while I really had hoped they would all be hens, the little rooster, is fast becoming my friend.  He loves to be held, and he has beautiful green eyes.  I wasn't expecting that. 

Well, that had better be all for now.  I'm needing to get back to work.  It's a beautiful sunny day with clear skies, which means it will be cold cold cold tonight, but it's dry and a good day to bind books.

Happy New Year!