Social Media Frenzy

Perhaps I don't do it enough, but the sheer number of social media filters out there are downright overwhelming. For example, I can set up Ping.fm to be my one-stop shop for updating multiple sources at once with status updates: Twitter, Facebook, this blog, Tumblr, and nine million other socmed services.
I can do essentially the same thing with FriendFeed, except I can also set up FriendFeed to update FB here with updates from all my other freaking services! Not to mention, I can set up good ol' FB here to receive new posts from my blog and couple other services! Ack!

So what's the best, most efficient way to utilize all these services the best way possible? I'm afraid I've strayed from the loop a bit and I don't read the helpful articles the way I used to. I'm not saying I'm going to start researching them, but thought I'd post this here to see what becomes of it.

On so many levels.

The Amaryllis Project: End of Week Two

As you can see the plant is growing quite nicely! Still no bloom yet, and that may be over a month away. But this is what the plant looked like this morning. You can see a third leaf showing in-between the two big leaves. It's only had one feeding two weeks ago. I fed it again when I took these pictures. (Click on the picture below to be taken to more pictures of the plant.)


Yes, I can see the plant is tilting sideways and I need to re-pot it. Not to mention if I don't add some more soil the roots are likely going to choke the plant to death and ruin my work thus far. I'm hoping I'll be able to re-pot it this weekend.

Otherwise, I am so pleased with the progress!

Plant journal: Reviving a neglected amaryllis

So. I have this amaryllis plant. It was given to me as a Christmas present two Christmases ago from my hubby. It came with a live bulb, a gorgeous red ceramic pot, and a disc of compressed soil called a "coco disc". The instructions said to put the disc in a large bowl, add water, fluff it with a fork, wait a few minutes, and then plant the bulb in the soil. So I did. And I waited with great skepticism as I tend to kill plants more than I grow them.

To my utter surprise it not only bloomed ... it was absolutely the most gorgeous thing I ever saw, and seeing it every day made me happy. I proudly displayed it in a central, well-lit location.

And then we moved, and it moved with us. I set it outside on the balcony and forgot about it. For over a year.

Well, the other day I had a stroke of ambition and pulled the bulb out to inspect it. I had to pull a few withered leaves off of it, but other than that the bulb felt heavy and firm, and the roots looked reasonably healthy - more than I could have asked for. So I thought, why not? I went to the store with the intention of buying some new soil, but I just wound up buying some plant food (and cheap gloves and a cheap watering can). I simply repotted the bulb in the same soil it had been sitting in, the original coco disc soil. Mind you, all I planted was a bare bulb. Thursday, March 25 I gave it some plant food.

The following Sunday, March 28, I had this:



It's now one week later.

One week after re-potting the old bulb, which I was pretty sure had died from my neglect, I have this:


Oh yeah, I should mention, this bulb sat outside on our balcony for the past 13 months - including the extended deep freeze we experienced this past January that devastated Florida citrus farmers, among others. Followed by an equally freezing February and not the warmest March on record either. I know some flowering bulbs like cold weather, but I really didn't think they liked it THAT cold!

Stay tuned, to see if this plant produces a bloom!