I Actually Spent The Morning Out Of My Studio

  Will wonders never cease.

  Yep, I had the most enjoyably morning. Not that life in my studio is bad, I love it there but,  it's nice to have a change of scenery as well, do something different. It also help to get the creative juices flowing.

  Over the weekend, I bought some plants. I collect succulents. I have quite an extensive collection of them. I have several in my studio and even more outside on my front porch. They require so little in the way of care, just some light and all the used aquarium water I can give them. Yes, plants thrive when watered with aquarium water.

  So first thing this morning, I decided to have my coffee out on the front porch. It was overcast and cool. All the rains we have had, have turned everything so green and my Passion Vine is filled with blooms, the bees happily fliting from flower to flower.

This plant was nothing but a couple sticks when I first panted it three years ago. I purchased it from a woman here in town who had dug it up from her yard. I think I payed three bucks for it. Now, It is huge and offers privacy and shade for our porch. Plus, it is home every year for the Monarch butterflies who lay their eggs in the leaves.






When I finished my coffee, it was time to transplant
all the little pots of new succulents. As it happens, just at that time, we had a power failure. I had to grab a flashlight to search out all the empty pots I could find in a very dark garage. I managed and I also managed to make a huge mess on the porch.

  A helpful tip........place paper coffee filters in the bottom of the pots before adding soil. The filters prevent the dirt from running out the bottom but allow the extra water to escape so the roots don't drown.

  One of the benefits of succulents is they can be divided easily to create more plants. out of the four I bought, I was able to get eight plants! They also grow well from cuttings and from just sticking an individual leaf into a pot of dirt.

  I also bought a couple pots of Creeping Jenny to act as filler plants. Mixing different plants into the same pot adds lots of interest. This particular cultivar of Creeping Jenny is called "Goldilocks" and has bright, yellow/green leaves and it softly drapes over the edge of the pot. It makes for a beautiful contrast with the Aloe I planted in this pot.............

 A storm we had not to long ago, blew this hanging planter down, breaking the pots and killing the plants I had in it so I re-planted this as well and hung it up by a much stronger eye screw this time.....

  And finally, this plant. I have had this plant for a couple years now and it really needed transplanting into a larger pot. This one, I had to don gloves to transplant. It has a thick, sticky, white sap in the stems that is very caustic to skin and eyes. It is called a "Fire Stick". It's a beautiful plant and it is huge, and I had to muscle it out of it's old pot as it didn't want to let go. I have a small cutting of this succulent in my studio too................

I'm in my studio now and getting ready to attack the painting I am currently working on. It was a relaxing morning but now it's time to get serious and get to work. Y'all have a great day and change it up a bit, do something a little different from the normal day-to-day.