The Coffee House

[cgw]

Damn cold day ahead. Just hanging out, music, cooking. Dan-dan noodles planned, the usual two mandatory versions: mild & civilized and my way, derisively called "Chernobyl," "Afterburner," or "Shot Baker," from the old bomb test:

shot baker - Google Search

 

[KJ_North]

Picking up the little guy i am mentoring today and off to see the movie "Dogman" , i'm sure he will have fun as he wants to see it.

 

[jeffashman]

Rained all day yesterday then turned to a light snow overnight. Now we have a thin layer of snow hiding the black ice beneath. Dangerous conditions this morning. Harlie and I are going to paint and do laundry and stay warm. Supposed to be headed to coastal NH for dinner tonight but going to check the weather before I confirm as our destination is a bit of a windy drive once you leave the highway.

On a different note, I snagged this monstera thai constellation yesterday at the grocery store! These used to be very rare and expensive (several hundred dollars for a small cutting!) and now they are under $20 at the grocers! The prices on houseplants have really become very affordable the past few years. Any other houseplant enthusiasts here on TPF? I have accumulated a small jungle of plants over the past 5 years or so.

View attachment 283160

Yep! Love house plants and I've surrounded my work area with them. The easiest to care for, I've found, are Pothos. I like Peace Plants, but have a challenge keeping the tips from yellowing, not sure if it's too much or too little water, or if the soil needs refreshing. I'd post some pics, but my desk is rather disorganized at the moment...

 

[terri]

Rained all day yesterday then turned to a light snow overnight. Now we have a thin layer of snow hiding the black ice beneath. Dangerous conditions this morning. Harlie and I are going to paint and do laundry and stay warm. Supposed to be headed to coastal NH for dinner tonight but going to check the weather before I confirm as our destination is a bit of a windy drive once you leave the highway.

On a different note, I snagged this monstera thai constellation yesterday at the grocery store! These used to be very rare and expensive (several hundred dollars for a small cutting!) and now they are under $20 at the grocers! The prices on houseplants have really become very affordable the past few years. Any other houseplant enthusiasts here on TPF? I have accumulated a small jungle of plants over the past 5 years or so.

View attachment 283160

I love having a lot of houseplants around. If I had more square footage I could fill it with the towering fern types/small trees that I love, but it's not happening here. So I content myself with more manageable ones, love the trailers on shelves and things like that.

Never heard of your new addition - pretty variegated leaves!

 

[snowbear]

Rained all day yesterday then turned to a light snow overnight. Now we have a thin layer of snow hiding the black ice beneath. Dangerous conditions this morning. Harlie and I are going to paint and do laundry and stay warm. Supposed to be headed to coastal NH for dinner tonight but going to check the weather before I confirm as our destination is a bit of a windy drive once you leave the highway.

On a different note, I snagged this monstera thai constellation yesterday at the grocery store! These used to be very rare and expensive (several hundred dollars for a small cutting!) and now they are under $20 at the grocers! The prices on houseplants have really become very affordable the past few years. Any other houseplant enthusiasts here on TPF? I have accumulated a small jungle of plants over the past 5 years or so.

View attachment 283160

Yes and no. I like them but they are indifferent to me. Lazy Lobster is real good with plants and I can keep simple stuff growing.

 

[snowbear]

Back from taking MLSIL to doc. Staples removed but drain stayin for another 10 days. She needed prescri[t. filled so we went to grocery store (Giant for mid-Atlanteans, Stop & Shop for NY area) and did some grocery shopping as well. MLW is being released in a bit.

I'm making an orange pound cake (from a mix) this afternoon. Directions call for lemon juice in the glaze but I'll go with fresh squeezed orange juice and add zest to the cake mix.

 

[smoke665]

Glad for warmer weather, but it's forced me out to do spring pruning

 

[SquarePeg]

Yep! Love house plants and I've surrounded my work area with them. The easiest to care for, I've found, are Pothos. I like Peace Plants, but have a challenge keeping the tips from yellowing, not sure if it's too much or too little water, or if the soil needs refreshing. I'd post some pics, but my desk is rather disorganized at the moment...

Peace lillie’s are so dramatic, lol. Flopping and turning brown one minute and sprouting flowers the next. I read somewhere that the brown tips on leaves can be caused from chlorine and fluoride in the water. I’ve started using aquarium water drops to remove the chlorine from my water before I use it. Will let you know if that takes care of the brown tip issue.

I love having a lot of houseplants around. If I had more square footage I could fill it with the towering fern types/small trees that I love, but it's not happening here. So I content myself with more manageable ones, love the trailers on shelves and things like that.

Never heard of your new addition - pretty variegated leaves!

I love all my babies but the jade trees are my favorites. They’re still on the small side but growing fast.

This fiddle leaf is my biggest indoor plant. I plan on chopping her top off to generate some branching and turning her into more of a tree form.

Yes and no. I like them but they are indifferent to me. Lazy Lobster is real good with plants and I can keep simple stuff growing.

I’ve found that benign neglect works best in most cases.

 

[snowbear]

Peace lillie’s are so dramatic, lol. Flopping and turning brown one minute and sprouting flowers the next. I read somewhere that the brown tips on leaves can be caused from chlorine and fluoride in the water. I’ve started using aquarium water drops to remove the chlorine from my water before I use it. Will let you know if that takes care of the brown tip issue.


I love all my babies but the jade trees are my favorites. They’re still on the small side but growing fast.

View attachment 283167

This fiddle leaf is my biggest indoor plant. I plan on chopping her top off to generate some branching and turning her into more of a tree form.
View attachment 283173


I’ve found that benign neglect works best in most cases.

I kept the hybiscus tree inside last year. A weekly dose of water (about a pint) and it's still alive. I want to put the hardware store bucket it resides in into a wooden box (with casters) so we can just wheel it to the deck in late spring and wheel it back into the living room in the fall. I don't really care if it gets bigger so the bucket should be fine. Maybe swap out the dirt for something better.

MLW will kill it, given a chance. I just have to run down to the house once a week to water it (still camped at MLSIL's)

 

[jeffashman]

I’ve started using aquarium water drops to remove the chlorine from my water before I use it. Will let you know if that takes care of the brown tip issue.

What a fantastic idea! I have an aquarium, so plenty of water conditioner. Sometimes I'll take water from the aquarium for my plants.

I kept the hybiscus tree inside last year. A weekly dose of water (about a pint) and it's still alive. I want to put the hardware store bucket it resides in into a wooden box (with casters) so we can just wheel it to the deck in late spring and wheel it back into the living room in the fall. I don't really care if it gets bigger so the bucket should be fine. Maybe swap out the dirt for something better.

MLW will kill it, given a chance. I just have to run down to the house once a week to water it (still camped at MLSIL's)

Mine is still a manageable size, so I moved it outside a couple of days ago.

 

[SquarePeg]

I kept the hybiscus tree inside last year. A weekly dose of water (about a pint) and it's still alive. I want to put the hardware store bucket it resides in into a wooden box (with casters) so we can just wheel it to the deck in late spring and wheel it back into the living room in the fall. I don't really care if it gets bigger so the bucket should be fine. Maybe swap out the dirt for something better.

MLW will kill it, given a chance. I just have to run down to the house once a week to water it (still camped at MLSIL's)

What a fantastic idea! I have an aquarium, so plenty of water conditioner. Sometimes I'll take water from the aquarium for my plants.

Mine is still a manageable size, so I moved it outside a couple of days ago.

I need to buy a new hibiscus, unfortunately. Mine had an infestation of spider mites, and I had to toss it. I stupidly brought an outdoor plant into my house without quarantining it, and ended up with spider mites on a couple of plants and the hibiscus took the worst of it. I just couldn’t seem to get rid of them so I ended up putting it outside and it died of frostbite.

Love the trolley idea snowbear. We have steps going down to the deck so I need to keep anything that goes in/out to a manageable weight that I can lift and carry up 3-4 steps.

 

[nerwin]

Well I dropped the laptop off at FedEx today...hopefully I'll see it again.

I was going to plow the driveway today but it's 10f and I dont really want to be on the tractor in these temps plus Diesel fuel doesn't like cold temps, I don't have any anti gel and it's sold out everywhere!!

Another 4 inches tomorrow...maybe Monday morning I can plow. Possibly tomorrow afternoon but I'm not sure. I'll have to wait and see.

 

[snowbear]

You may be able to make (or have made) a small portable ramp to cover those steps. I'm guessing 18 to 24 inch rise. The MD house has one high step off front porch, where at the ME house the deck is straight out from the living room, and our bedroom. There are no steps from houe to front porch, either. There are three steps (18 inch rise) to the ground from front porch, but we will put in an accessibility ramp later. The deck is uncovered and gets morning sun, where porch is covered and gets evening sun.

 

[jeffashman]

Hiya Folks! Got back from my walk with Honey. It's wonderfully sunny day and 69F. Took the camera, but the only thing my mind found of interest was a little birds' nest. Everything is very brown right now, and the only water fowl were much too far away, but it made for a very nice walk.

 

[smoke665]

@nerwin I'm sure the truck stops around you are selling fuel with it already in it. At least they did when we were running trucks up north. still we bought a lot of Power Service to keep in the trucks. Diesel really gets funky at below 0.