Claude in His New Home

Claude seems to be getting along quite nicely in his new location.  He still has a window we can open on nice days and we bought him a new Feit Grow Light.  This one has more settings.  We got it at Home Depot in the commercial lighting area.  They guy there didn't know they even had them over there.  He tried to get me to get grow fluorescent or screw in bulbs...

The light we got has different switches for different light on the strips. There's white, red, and violet. Violet seems to be for general growth where red is for flowering.  I probably want to use red soon to see if I can get Claude to make flowers.

We also got these nice brick feet for the pot instead of the trash can rollers.  They were much more expensive than regular bricks but the pot is heavy so I don't really mind.  The trash can base really couldn't take the weight of the pot and had started bowing in.  Not the best thing to use.  Looked on Amazon for something similar but they didn't have any basic ones.  I don't recommend plastic, cork, or rubber since these will deteriorate over time if  you don't move your pots.  I did find these feet though.  Amazon has them in different colors too but I'd suggest red.  It just feels more like the pots.

A Chocolate is Announced, Bean to Bar Mysteries No.7

Here's a glimpse into the next Bean to Bar Mystery, A Chocolate is Announced!

You can get your preorder on Amazon HERE.

It can be difficult to really get the sense of a thing sometimes when you can't see the whole picture.  This is merely a glimpse into the process of getting the cover art done for these books.  Everything you see in this image will not be the same on the final cover.  Text placement, art, and arrangement are all up in the air at this point.  This was a rough talking point sketch that gives some of the elements we're looking for, as well as the color scheme.

There have been two rounds since this and we're still hammering out what we want things to look like and where everything should go.  Can you tell what animal it is in the photo that Felicity is going to be interacting with in this book?  If you've read the other books in the Bean to Bar Mysteries series what other animal would you like to see her meet?

English Ivy

So many plants can be grown in an office. This English ivy is one such plant that can thrive in an office environment.  Of course they can also thrive on the side of a brick building so it really isn't surprising.

We have so many office plants where I work but unless you're looking for them you might not notice them.  This little guy showed up and had to be pointed out.  From the side it almost looks like he's growing through this wire sculpture it's sitting next to. which isn't the worst of ideas.

Then there is a money "tree".  I quote mark that because I don't think they're really trees.  At least I've never seen one being a tree or even a bush.  They have always been these spindly little things all wound up in a knot.  It sits near the break room but currently only has two leaves on it.  I hear it's being nursed back to health but I don't think it will make it.  Just my own observation with these things.  They aren't the best office plant.

I've mentioned many office plants before,  The ficus is a nice choice.  Although it looses leaves pretty regularly it can take a wide range of growing conditions.  If I had more space I'd probably get one.  Speaking of ficus trees though, that is also the group fig trees are in.  Maybe I can talk my wife into letting me have another fig tree.  It was the one tree that really seemed to do well and produce food.  Just have to keep the birds off of it and keep it trimmed well enough to keep a good lawn to boot.

Of course I couldn't forget to mention Claudette and her twin, the office cacao trees that are still growing in the same little pot.  One of these days I'll get around to splitting those two up.  The little one is hanging on but I know she'd do so much better alone in a pot.

Cat Grass

Grass seems to want to grow just about anywhere it can find that has even the slightest bit of dirt. Here we were in Galveston checking out Jean Lafitte's old castle grounds.  You can see the wall footing from part of the structure here with grass growing in and out of the footprint.  Even in the shadow, although patchy, it's taking root.

Since we got cats my wife has decided they need a bit of greenery in their lives.  So we ordered some seeds and got one of the pots that isn't currently growing anything and planted some cat grass.  That's fancy talk for wheat, oats, and barley. If I let it grow, we could even harvest grain from it but I don't think that's the idea here.  Cats are high end carnivores and don't take to salad eating much but a little green is apparently also good for their gut health.

I'm going to grow it outside for the most part and since our house faces West, the East side is in the back and gets some good morning sun on our patio.  I don't want it just out in the yard so the pot will sit there.  With proper watering and patience we should have some greenery for the cats in a couple weeks.  Again if I let it grow more we would have grain in a few months.  Might try that with a little of it just to see how it goes.  There's plenty of seed  in the bag.

Also probably going to see about getting better grass for the yard.  The stuff they have in there now is patchy and not very attractive.  It's sod though so maybe it will eventually grow in better.  At the previous house we had St. Augustine grass.  That's what I grew up having at my grandparents houses.  the both of them swore by it.  So, we'll see.