Ugh

Shit. It's hot. Seattle is in the midst of a loooong heat wave. We don't usually get those, and I'm not usually pregnant, so it's a little extra sticky this year. We're supposed to get up to 101 today and cool off to 95 by Sunday.

I think the worst hit in our family is JoJo, though. Bijou, Michael, and I can all sweat, but Bun can't. Michael and I can slosh around in cool water, but Bun doesn't like that, although Michael does wet her head throughout the day. Bijou is smart enough to move to the lower part of the house where it's cool, or go sit in the shade, but Bun is not so clever. We pile ice packs around her, but she won't actually snuggle up to them. Poor Bun.

I'm not sure if it's the heat, but my Night Blooming Cereus has bloomed early this year. I got one bloom a couple of weeks ago, two more last week, and then another this week. I see another bud getting ready. I thought they were supposed to all bloom at once! Oh well, the heat is making everyone cranky.

Cereus Film

I finally put together a little film of my 2008 cereus blooming. I didn't make it as pretty as last year's. This year I experimented with taking long films of the blooming, now that I have my snazzy new still camera that will also do unlimited films. I then doubled their speed 6 times, so 2 to the 6 or 64 times. For the last night of blooming when I actually had a bloom facing the camera, I reverted to many stills. I think I actually prefer the progression of stills since the quality of the picture is better. All the flower shots are now up on my Flickr account, and here's the video.

Across the Universe

Last night I saw a movie I absolutely loved: Across the Universe. It's a rock opera of the 60s done completely with Beatles lyrics. That sounds only mildly interesting, but the movie is way more than that. It's awesome. The director's vision is incredible and the performances by the non-star actors is amazing. Cameos by Bono and Eddie Izzard are good, but only mildly so since the rest is so great! Watch for references to icons of the 60s like the cave-like bars the Beatles first played in, Janice Joplin, Jimi Hendrix, the Weathermen, Ken Kesey, Timothy Leary, Bread and Puppet Theater, and the Beatles singing on a rooftop in NYC. If you don't like the Beatles, don't let that put you off, as the songs are all reinterpreted by the stars and the situations they find themselves in. I hardly ever watch any of the DVD extras, but I watched them all for this movie since I didn't want it to end. Rent it!

I got some great frontal views of my last cereus flower to bloom, but I won't be able to work on that 'til next week, as I actually have to work through Sunday. Boo work!

Alien Pod Hatching

There has been some serious Cereus action in my house! I had always heard that all the blooms happened on the same night. This year is the first time I've had more than one bud, and they seem to be disobeying orders. One flower bloomed Monday night, but the others stayed shut. This was good because I had to work 'til 9pm Monday night and I didn't get home until after 9:30.

Tuesday night I still had four unopened buds, and once again I had to work until 9pm. Luckily, I wasn't scheduled to be on the desk for the last hour, so I was able to go home one hour early! Thanks, Alene! I set up a light before I went to work, and Michael had started the video on my camera at 7:00 when he left for Kung Fu. I got home at 8:30 just in time to change the battery on the camera and see most of the blooming. I took a bunch of stills and a couple hours of video. I hope to take the video and do some time lapse fiddling. I'll post that sometime this week.

One bud still hasn't opened, and I'm pretty sure it will bloom tonight. The plant is right next to a big window, and the blooms face the glass making them hard to film. The plant is too huge to turn around entirely. I'm going to try to twist the last one around to get some full-frontal-bloomity.

Meanwhile, I've uploaded my photos to a Flickr set.

Tonight's the Night!

Tonight's the night the cereus bloom! At least I'm pretty sure it will be tonight or tomorrow. Unfortunately, I work 'til 9pm tonight and tomorrow. Big wah. I set up the camera, and Michael will get some shots and footage. Last year it got to its most open at around 9:45, so I won't totally miss it, just all the opening action. I discovered another bud, too! I'll have 5 blooms!

This week has been quite hot, although today finally cooled off with some rain. Bijou has decided her new favorite place to cool off is in JoJo's carrot garden. Michael said it's because it's a "bed of carrots." The poor carrots are getting pretty squished, so I started pulling them for JoJo to eat. They're delicious!

Floral excitement!

Last year, my Night Blooming Cereus bloomed for the first time in 6 years. I got one flower last year, and one flower 6 years before. This year, I left the cactus in the nice sunny window it had enjoyed so much, and I fertilized it with specialized cactus fertilizer. It's paid off! I have FOUR alien-pod-like buds! I'm very excited. I have a better camera this year, so I'm hoping I have enough memory to shoot the whole blooming thing on film, rather than just paste together stills like I did last year.

Last year it bloomed on August 17th, and it will probably be at around the same time. Stay tuned!

Cereusly Excited!

I'm very excited! My Night-blooming Cereus bloomed!

I've had this plant for 10 years, and this is only the second time it has bloomed. The first time was six years ago, so it's been a long wait. Each time I only got one bloom. The plant itself is a rather squid-like cactus that is tethered to a curtain rod to keep its tentacles and suckers away from our TV. The flower is beautiful, though, and the scent was heavenly. Kind of like plumeria.

I've become a Cereus filmmaker, and I tacked together all of my photos to create a simulated time-lapse of the flower blooming, taken from several points of view.


I also grew this fantastic bunny carrot! Eyes added, nature did the rest. After I took the photo, Jo Jo ate the carrot. That was its destiny.