Spring!

My mom gave me a hyacinth growing kit for Christmas, and I followed the directions exactly. I put the bulb in the special glass container, just above (but not touching) the water line, and kept it in a dark room away from any natural light. Initially, a few rudimentary roots grew - maybe 2 or 3 mm. I checked on it from time to time, but the water level didn't really change, and it didn't sprout up as it was supposed to. Eventually I decided to try changing the water to see if that helped - and realized, with a sick feeling of disappointment, that the bulb was not growing. In fact, it was now covered with mold. I almost threw it away. After all, when a plant is dead, it's dead. Right?

BUT... I decided to plant it in soil anyway. And I pig-headedly continued to water it. Every time I watered the barren pot with the moldy bulb buried in dirt, I felt really stupid.

Until, suddenly, a succulent green double shoot appeared. In the empty-looking pot in the back right, next to the little clay pot, if you look very closely, you may see a little splotch of green. I am so ridiculously proud of this:


Staying with the same picture (above), the plant on the left is a bonsai tree, a Christmas gift from my cousin in Texas, which is supposed to be outside (not gonna happen in NYC) but nonetheless seems to be doing OK. The plant on the front right is the lone survivor of the move from Brooklyn to Manhattan, and I'm happy about its progress too since I repotted it from plastic into a clay pot.

In the picture below, the rhododendron on the left is one I liberated from an office after someone retired. On the right is some parsley I grew from seeds - a birthday gift from my mom back in October. Also very pleased with that!

(And the planter is repurposed - it originally contained a Christmas gift of luxury toiletries from my uncle and aunt.)

I recently went for a drink and light supper with a friend at the Union Square Coffee Shop. Afterward, we walked down to Houston Street. I liked this mural (person in a boat in a framed "painting"):

Today was in the low 70's, and sunny at lunch when I went out for the reading program. Delightful! My reading partner looks less and less engaged in the books every week though. What a pity. She's even tired of the Goosebumps series. This, too, alas, is a sign of spring.