Monday, October 01, 2007

October Surprises -- Toad Lilies!

Here's Fernymoss' greeting to the great month of October, a lovely afternoon capture of one of our Toad Lilies (Tricyrtis hirta 'Amethystina') currently blooming away out in the Woodland Garden amongst the ferns. I'll have more to say this week about these unassuming beauties, but for now, feast your eyes and senses on this one, 'Amethystina' is a specimen we put in about three years ago, and is just now hitting its stride. Fernymoss was out today clearing out the weeds and making space for two more new additions we hadn't gotten in the ground yet, and since fall definitely has the wind at its back, it was high time to get them 'grounded' so to speak. We just have a few more neglected perennials (well in the sense they're not in the ground yet!) to get planted, and then we can concentrate on getting things cleared out for fall and winter, then seeding down the plants we want to see next spring. We've also been talking about planting a few more Dragon Arums, but just need to order them and get them in the ground before a hard freeze ... we'll see if that happens!

Anyway, yes, it's been a long while again since I've posted .... things have been pretty busy of late, and just last night we finally tackled the great living room re-arrangement with the transfer of the media equipment into the Entertainment Armoire (I guess that's what you'd call it!). Transitional habitat change might be a better description, but in any case, when the work is done, our downstairs will be looking a lot classier, just in time for our favourite holiday Halloween! I'm sure the dogs will be somewhat disappointed that two chairs are going to the curb soon, thus opening up a lot more space in the room. I think they'll find a way to survive! We look at it more as uncluttered, more spacious digs, finally, LOL. Lots of fall change going on around here, and I think it's for the better ... and we can't wait to get the spookiness going soon ....

One other note: I just got a new computer system up and going this week. So here goes my venture into the world of MS Vista, and my first impressions are generally positive, despite my misgivings about putting XP into the past. Though the configuration I've linked to is only the bare bones CPU, the one I got also came with a 19" LCD widescreen monitor, and I souped it up slightly with a faster processor and some other goodies. So ... just getting transitioned from the 'old' system (a mere fast Pentium 4) and thinking about how we next get high speed access and a small home network going eventually! Thus far, I'm loving the new set up (especially the extra monitor real estate!) and have only experienced a few hiccups relative to software compatibility. Time will tell ... but honestly, if I'd had the option to go for XP again, I'd have taken it. But Vista does seem to be a prettier, cleaner looking version so far, so we'll see if my great trepidation was worth it after all. For the time being, let's just say that I'm having a lot of fun getting it adjusted to my liking!

Photo courtesy of Fernymoss, taken 30 September, 2007. Flash enabled on this one, thus the detail and colour ....

6 comments:

Family Man said...

Morning IVG.

Another nice picture Fernymoss. That picture reminds me of some type of confection with sugar sprinkled on top. Really nice and now I'm hungry.

Glad you got everything moved around. I used to have to get things moved around at least every couple of months, but that doesn't fit the slackerly lifestyle now. The closest I come to it now is just thinking it might look better, but nah. :)

Congrats on the new system. It sounds very good. I would definitely say get high speed access. It opens up so much more on the Internet for you.

Hope you have an easy, not hectic week.

Larry Kollar said...

Yeah, I thought of sugar sprinkles too. Love the pic.

I'm with FM on moving furniture: too much effort for not enough benefit. It's a pretty sure sign that the seasons are changing when Mrs. Fetched wants to move stuff around. But with her shoulder racked up (torn rotator cuff), I might get a pass this year. Frankly, I'd rather have her healthy and content with stuff where it is. :-)

Instead of one or two huge things, I have gobs of little things to do at work this week. Maybe I should go knock off a couple of them.

Iowa Victory Gardener said...

Hey there FM! Glad to see you back again, but I know how it goes ... some days the motivation just isn't there! Our furniture moving wasn't just esthetic, it was absolutely necessary ... see, I bought this huge, beautiful armoire at World Market back in January, and it has been just sitting there taking up space until we got the electronics moved and hooked up again just right. As much of a hassle that the home theatre system was to get up and running (with DVR and VCR and DVD), I was afraid I'd screw it up. Anyway it all turned out fine, I tested before we put it in its final position and it works great! Now it's just a matter of completely rearranging the room so we're all at the right angle for viewing ... and getting rid of a bunch of other stuff. (Anyone interested in a 500+ VHS collection? Hehe)

Aren't toad lilies amazing? Those flowers are barely an inch when open, so getting good shots of IBs is hard to do. I think Fernymoss really got good ones ... you'll see more this week. And yeah, we thought it looked sugary too (it's the nectar) and the colours just made it say Xmas too ....

Iowa Victory Gardener said...

Howdy FAR ... I agree about the moving stuff around too, and am glad to hear you're off the hook this year. Bad news for Mrs. Fetched though, sorry to hear that. I have a colleague who has been fighting the same injury for years now and after 2 surgeries and I don't know how many cortisone shots, he still has tons of pain and problems with it. Give Mrs. Fetched my regards on that point.

You too could grow these lovelies down your way if you have a nice patch of shade where it stays moist most of the time. I'll have more growing notes in a future post. So maybe add them to your list, hehe.

Larry Kollar said...

Shade, yes. Moist? Not so much. I could plant them under the outdoor spigot, maybe? :-)

olivia said...

Beautiful toad lilies IVG ... The large view is fantastic! They're positively oozing PP! ;-)