I am the Audience

Pondering

February 12, 2025

a day in this life, books

I was listening to Ben Aaronovitch’s The October Man, yesterday, and had a puzzlement. (It’s #6.2 in his Peter Grant/Rivers of London contemporary fantasy series.) The book is set in Germany. The main character goes into a kitchen, noting that “the washing up was done.”

So… Is that phrase because the author is English? Or would a German have said it the same way? An American would have said “the dishes were washed.”

And that led me to wondering how people from other places would have described that common situation. And from there I went down the rabbit hole (which my brain is full of) considering how we talk about ordinary things differently.

I was at work in SC, 35 years ago, and a coworker said something about doing a thing “of a morning.” I asked her what part of East Tennessee her family was from. She was startled and told me (the northern part) and asked me how I knew that. I said my grandmother used that phrase and she had lived in the southern part all her life.

I have since learned that it is more Appalachian in general than just East Tennessee.

I know that people around Pittsburg say “yinz” instead of “y’all.” And I can think of all sorts of ways the British English varies from American English. (What exactly a jumper is, for example.)

I’m just generally intrigued by how we idiom differently.
Plant a Day, Day 11 (amaryllis again)

February 12, 2025

plants

This holiday season, I got 3 amaryllis bulbs. I ordered a ‘Zombie’ and a ‘Picotee’. Picotee is the one I started this project with, white with a thin red stripe around the edges of the petals. Zombie is a kind of pink pinstripe.

I still wanted a red one for a trio and the only thing they had at Lowe’s when the other 2 arrived were the kind that have been dipped in wax for people who really don’t want to have soil in their house. I have always been leery of those. They are obviously meant to be thrown away when they are spent.

But, they were available and reasonably priced. So, I got one. I have been asked about them and I figured it was a learning opportunity.

This one even had glitter to make it extra festive.

I was not particularly surprised that it was the last to bloom. In addition to having to eat itself for food and water, it had a wire base shoved into its bottom.

It did bloom, though. Short-stemmed, showy flowers that were a bright spot in our living room for a while after the other 2 had come and gone. The leaves you see are the last of Picotee behind it. It used all its energy making blossoms. Not leaves.

When it finally finished, I peeled off the wax and stuck it in a pot where I’m overwintering some caladiums. (That’s another experiment I’ll tell you about tomorrow.) It barely had any roots. (Duh.) But, there were some little nublets trying to push out. And it likes it there. The little bits of leaves are starting to push up into healthy foliage and the bulb is feeling more firm and filled out.

I intend to put it outside with the rest of them when our temperatures will stay above 45º. I want to give it time to recover from its starvation, first. It won’t bloom again this year. But, I’m expecting to see it in 2025.
Light entertainment

February 11, 2025

a day in this life

I am not very interested in video games. I loved Myst and Riven when they came out. But, when the original coders sold the company and the new people didn’t write the same way, it wasn’t as much fun. I do have a couple of games on Steam that I mess with every once in awhile, Not consistently and I’m not making any particular progress.

I do like puzzles though. I play several NYT games most days. (I no longer subscribe. I play the free versions.) I do Wordle, Connections, Strands and the Mini Crossword. And I do Sudoku. I don’t care to think hard enough to do a level harder than Easy.

I play Duotrigordle. It’s a 32-at-the-time variant on Wordle and it’s teaching me patience. When I try to push for one block, I use up too many of my letters and I can’t finish it. If I just skip to the next ones and patiently cycle through, I usually do. The more letter guesses I have left over at the end, the more I feel I have “won.” Today was a -1 day.

Years ago, (20 maybe?) I tried out Pretty Good Solitaire and, after a bit, decided I was enjoying it and should pay the developers. I have put it on every computer and tablet I’ve had since then. When I bought it, it was a collection of 500 solitaire games. Now, it’s up to 800 and I play one. Well. I’ve narrowed it down to one. I did try a bunch before picking a favorite. It’s Free Fan if you decide to take a peek.

I play Dragon Legends Mania on my iPad and phone. It’s a kind of Pokemon variation. You breed, feed, fight and collect cartoon dragons and play little minigames in the larger game. They have little attempts at stories that I ignore. It’s very lightweight and requires absolutely no thought. It is ad heavy and there doesn’t seem to be a way to pay your way out of that. But, I am very good at ignoring ads and figure they are the price of admission.
Plant a Day, Day 10 (waterlily)

February 11, 2025

plants

Two years ago, I decided to create a water garden in a 100 gallon water trough. I put a little solar powered fountain in it to keep the water moving and inhibit mosquitos. Toward the end of that summer, when the 3 waterlilies I had put in had never bloomed, I read that they don’t bloom if water falls on them. So, they don’t bloom under waterfalls or during a rainy season. Or when there’s a fountain floating around in their space.

Last year, I was assured that the mosquito rings that you can use for water features does not poison livestock or wildlife. (That was a major concern and why I had gotten the fountain.) I took the fountain out and started dropping a chunk of mosquito killer in the trough and voila! I got a flower.

It opened during the day and closed in the evening. After about a week, it turned its head down, dropping its enclosed petals to the bottom. I assume that’s how they deliver seeds to a healthy spot when they’re happy.

I have 2 other colors in there. I hope I’ll see them this year.
Plant a Day, Day 9 (pitcher plants)

February 10, 2025

carnivores, plants

These are the flowers of pitcher plants.

I was so proud my plants were healthy enough to bloom.