It was a Good Friday

Every morning I wake up and fix the cats their breakfast, put all my things together for work, and then spend a few minutes taking care of some random little green things that happen to be sucking up the sunlight in a daily mission to grow larger and larger until they take over the planet.

Last year, there was a tomato, a survivor of two seasons, but it didn't survive this past winter.  At least, I don't think it did.  It's sitting in the garage, all wilted and dry.  Lifeless.  Or maybe just Zombified.  Hard to tell with plans. I may try to revive it once things warm up a bit more. Don't tomatoes need warm weather?

There's the broccoli plant, a survivor of two winters.  It is going gang-busters.  And I spoil it rotten, giving it the corner spot with two - count 'em, two! - windows. And sunlight blasts through those windows all day long, energizing it like a battery.  The plant has grown tall and strong.  The leaves are big and broad.  The only danger it faces is the nearness of the cat tree.

You know how cats love plants.

Then there is the amaryllis. This bizarre plant has existed for the last year with only two very long leaves sticking out of a very small pot.  The leaves extend out nearly three feet. The plant takes very little water; indeed, it seems to pull the water right out of the air.  I'm afraid of giving it too much; I read somewhere that too much water will effectively drown them.  So only a little each morning.  Just enough to wake it up.

I put the amaryllis near the sliding glass door in the kitchen where it gets blasted by sunlight most days.  For the last year, it hasn't done much of anything.  Then, suddenly, one day - boom!  This huge stem comes out of nowhere, and a week later, there's this almost-flower thing sticking out the top. Kinda reminds me of Audrey from Little Shop of Horrors.  I wonder if it eats cats?

There's a strawberry plant, but it's boring.  No strawberries yet.  And very, very thirsty all the time. I don't expect it to do anything until (again) the warm weather is here to stay; and then it'll be hung out on the back deck where it will happily start producing little strawberries for Cheryl's salads.  I hope.

Then there's the Mutt plant. I don't recall what is in that pot.  It used to be a single type of plant, but other plants have crawled in there and joined the neighborhood, so now it's kind of like a multi-cultural non-melting pot (it would be a tragedy if the pot actually melted!) full of weird but cute little plants that seem to be just doing their thing, growing leaves and stems, and putting out no aroma whatsoever.

I guess they're not herbs.

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Deb

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Deb likes to vacuum.  She told me so.  I got a picture of her here cleaning up the family room, vacuuming, dusting, whatever.  Kind of took me by surprise because she doesn't get that industrious about housecleaning during the normal school year.  But Spring Break is an exception.  Either she was bored, or she suddenly took notice of the fact that the room needed some serious cleaning.  That's what happens when one spends the majority of ones time in ones own house, I suppose.

I don't mind.  It's nice to get the cat fur cleaned up occasionally.

When she's not vacuuming, babysitting, cooking, or reading, she's writing.  She's completed the second or third draft of her first novel and is currently working on the sequel.  (That means that her first novel is in review and editing by whichever crazy volunteers she can find to take on the job.)  Looks like the laptop was a good investment!  She barely lets go of it.  And stays up til all hours of the night, writing her stories and laughing at her own dialog.

Sometimes the cats help, surrounding her while she writes so that she doesn't get distracted by other things.  Or maybe they just like all the warm air that comes out of the laptop.  Kind of hard to tell.  They don't say much.  Just sit there, sleeping, snoring, purring, or just watching the world go by.

Sometimes Cheryl convinces her to put the laptop down for a while and do something different, like sewing or cooking or playing games.  Or putting puzzles together.  We have a lot of puzzles.  And we like to sit around working on puzzles and watching our favorite shows on Netflix.