I'm not talking politics, I'm not talking vaccines that have to be stored at -80ºC, I'm talking plants!
Last lockdown, I spent a lot of time tracking and worrying over my 2 small orchids that live in the bathroom. As we got more and more freedom, they stopped producing new flowers and when we got temperatures at up to 40ºC outside and nearly 30ºC indoors, first the flowers dried and fell and then the flower stalks shrivelled too. Mind you the flowers did each last over two months, so one can't complain.
Anyway, as the new lockdown kicked in, and I was sitting on the loo, I looked at the orchids again and one of them seemed to be getting back into action. At first I wasn't too sure, but you can see from this photo today that a new flower stalk is pushing away and that there are a number of branches that may either be branches or will develop into flower buds. Bad luck people, you are back to orchid watch!
And it's not only orchids. Friends fled rural France the day before lockdown kicked in, but during the two weeks before that, they had spent hours spreading 3 tonnes of top soil, raking it, rolling it, planting bulbs in it and finally spreading loads of grass seed. Bizarrely for November, we actually have ideal grass growing weather, moist, warm and not too sunny, and the grass seed is pulling away. Even better, it only looks like there has been one attempt at digging up a flower bulb and it wasn't successful. Spring should be dramatically floral in this garden next year!
From the number of hits yesterday, I think people liked Audrey the Racoon. Perhaps Sundays need to be Racoon Days?
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