Plants, frogs, and books....oh my. I have no life.

For some reason I'm going plant crazy already! It's early in the winter and I already miss my garden. I keep buying more and more plants and really tending to the ones I have. It's like I'm impatiently tapping my feet waiting for them to go dry so I can water them. My husband actually had the nerve to suggest that I had too many plants and that maybe I should "get rid of a few". It must have been the look on my face because he quickly said "uh...never mind" and left LOL

I think I had a fungus/soil problem - probably from using too much fertilizer or maybe the wrong kind. I had this one bottle of Alaskan fertilizer that was causing strange "formations" to grow on top of the soil of some of my plants. Yes, I was following the directions! Some of my plants actually look great. So anyway, I removed the top layers of soil with all of the stalagmites and added in fresh soil. One large plant though, who has been looking really puny lately, had pretty solid soil. I don't remember what type of soil I put in there but it was hard to break up! I had to actually get a knife and chop at it. I was afraid to chop any roots but I never did find any in that stuff. No wonder the plant wasn't doing very well, all it's roots were in the top 3 inches of soil even though the planter is quite large. I completely romoved that plant and changed out the soil. I hope it does better now. I had a couple of smaller plants that died *sob* but I'll get more I'm sure. I think someone opened the kitchen window after the temperature dropped in the fall. The plants I lost were all there. I had a beautiful verigated ivy that had climbed up this little trellis and it turned brown and brittle!!!!!! I also lost an African violet that was there. I am not surprised no one will admit to being a plant killer! I think I might be a people killer if they did.

Anyway, I just bought a new ivy yesterday. It's a nice ivy even though it isn't verigated. I got it all potted and it looks great. I'll have to take a picture of it later. I got another neat plant sometime last week and I just love this one! I've never seen one like this before but I just loved it's unique red flower!

Drats! This thing wont let me post a picture! I'll put it up later.

Anyway, I also bought some new fishes yesterday. I bought 5 tiger barbs and they are so neat looking. They stay together in a tight little group and my little frogs don't know what to think of them. I've been watching the frogs sneaking around and checking them out and it's so funny. The tiger barbs look like a group of little soldiers darting around in their little group. They are primarily black and white striped with an orange fin. It makes them look uniformed compared to the other fish. The frogs are so big and clumsy compaired to the barbs. This one frog had climbed the cave dealy in there and was standing up precariously with one foot stretched out and supported by the top of cave. As he watched the strange group of barbs his foot slipped off and he went cartwheeling to the bottom of the tank........real.....s l o w. It reminded me of Jarjar binks following around a group of stormtroopers. I'll post some pictures when blogger decides to let me.

I finished reading the book "The sudden lady" and I am trying to decide what to read next. There are so many choices but I actually bought a NEW BOOK! I went to barnes and noble to renew my membership card and browsed the whole store while I was there sipping my starbucks. Nummy! I decided I want to learn how to speak Italian so I bought a book with a CD. I have wanted to learn Italian ever since I listened to the audiobook for The Last Promise by Richard Paul Evans. I just fell in love with the sound of it. God help me if some good looking young guy came along speaking to me in Italian. If he happend to have lots of money and clean house......... Oh come on! You know I wouldn't do something like that..... hmmmmmm *day dreaming*

Fairbanks, Alaska Forecast : Weather Underground

Fairbanks, Alaska Forecast : Weather Underground: "Tonight
Snow diminishing to flurries after midnight. Another one to two inches accumulation. Patchy fog. Lows 20 to 25. Light winds.

Sunday

Mostly cloudy. Patchy fog and flurries in the morning. Highs around 30. Light winds.

Sunday Night

Mostly cloudy. Lows around 20. Northeast winds 5 mph."

It's really nasty out. Driving today was awful. It's snowed pretty much all day except for when it rained. The roads were like skating rinks. I'm starting to catch a cold so I wasn't too excited about venturing out. We did have a nice time though and a great lunch at Boston's.

My husband bought a laptop and he's pretty thrilled with that. He has wanted one so badly. I'm so glad he finally got one he likes. My mission for the day was to find 2 large planters that I like for my large plants in the living room. It was difficult to find something I liked in the size I needed and then even harder to find two that matched. The two I found look like old urns in a nice neutral shade of fake stone. They cost me $70 for the two. Yikes! I ended up spending $80 counting the extra soil I needed. It's worth it though, the plants look great in them and really needed the room to expand.