Plants, connections

The prayer plant you've seen growing from a little cutting is now growing out of recognition. After I removed a double handful of leaves today, it's like this

Since it's never stopped blooming, tiny flowers, I'm guessing it's happy. So I went online in search of pruning advice. 

And found every single source only talks about propagation. And considering the scrawny specimens they're showing as healthy and flourishing, I'd say no wonder they're not talking pruning. 

So I just guessed and did it. We'll see if I guessed right in a while.

And while I was at it, two views of a collection with a sad little history

This was originally a tiny little planted collection from the funeral of my neighbor's young son. It came to me because she couldn't bear to care for it. The irony of seeing it grow was too much for her, since her son died in his early 20s.

So I took it on and it's now huge. Every now and again she'd come over to visit it.

Yesterday I was over there and she asked after it, hadn't seen it in a while.

I wanted to send her these pictures, since the plant's in the upstairs group and stairs are hard for her right now. 

And my phone has quit receiving and sending texted pictures. Also I suddenly can't access my incoming voicemail. Or change my outgoing message to say so.

So here's the next part, and there is a connection here, really

Banana bread, first in ages, with walnuts and raisins. Because after going through all the suggested steps on the carrier site, and all the steps on their chatline, they ended up referring me to customer service. 

I then consulted any number of helpful techie people online. The menus I need, since it's an MMS problem, are not available on my phone. It's a carrier issue. Which I kinda guessed from the suddenness of the change from working to not.

 I can't consult carrier customer service, since I can't hear anything or follow what they're saying. Also they often suggest I use another phone to help in the fix. Which I don't have.

Soooooo, since I hope to see Handsome Son in the next few days, and have a nothing to give him to eat, while planning to ask him to make the call and help either fix it or decide on a new phone..least I can do is sustain him with a slice or three of banana bread 

Always something. I'm hoping not a new phone this soon..

Forthcoming attractions

This is a library borrow.  It's one of those cookbooks which look so beautiful it would be a shame to expose it to the thrills and spills of a kitchen.  But we'll see what's good in here.  I notice that right away she's using food processors and things I don't have. But my heart will go on.

 This is what I mean by posh.  A ribbon bookmark!  My cookbook book club chose this as last month's selection, and I'll see what I might be up for if ever I want baked goods again after the surfeit of the holidays.

Meanwhile, on an earthier plane, it's shredded red cabbage, steamed with chicken broth and berbere, buttered and maybe a bit of cheese grated over, for lunch, with slices of ham.  A lot of people on hearing cabbage say, ah, coleslaw.  I didn't grow up with it, and I am totally not a fan.

I think it's one of those things, like chatting on the phone and making meatloaf that if you didn't grow up in that culture you never really get it.  I know people who are devoted to both, but I've tried it, and oh well, not my speed.

I ordered a phone.  Here in two days, when the fun of transferring the number and the minutes begins.  But this is easier when the last phone is still working, which was not the case last time around.  They kept on asking me to call from the old phone to the new to establish something or other, and that was impossible.  Handsome Son came over and explained why he was calling from an unknown to them number, and we did eventually get it sorted.  But I'm hoping, famous last words, for an easier passage this time.

Anyway, it will be good to have a phone with all its buttons intact.  The rocker switch vanished at some point on my old one, probably through being dropped, and you can't operate the function, volume, by inserting even the cleverest ideas for tools into it.  Also the storage is small, and I kept bumping up against loud alerts telling me to remove stuff, quick. Including my virus protection.

Last time I did this, I had a funeral for the old phone. Not inclined to do that this year, since it's not actually dead, seems a bit heartless.