  May 17, 1999 watergardens, atomic trains, and a modern-day pharaoh I'd found a place in the yellow pages which claimed to not only already have waterlilies in stock, but to have hundreds. It was about a half hour drive to Windy Oaks Aquatics, but it was well worth it. When we got there, we found this big, sprawling place in the country with scads of green houses and little ponds and tubs everywhere. It does retail and wholesale, so their stock was just huge.  Azolla, or fairy moss, and part of an upside-down lily pad in our pond. There were stock tanks of koi, many with deep blue markings, which I love. (We would have got some, but were concerned about how they'd do with such a long drive home.) There was greenhouse after greenhouse, each a long, covered pond full of waterlilies, lotus, water lettuce and water hyacinth, and other aquatics. Tubs and troughs and wading pools were crowded everywhere. There was a kiddie pool full of fairy moss (azolla) which the owner let us take a big bag of it from. And frogs! There were hundreds of frogs. I went into one greenhouse pond where the surface of the water was just carpeted with lily pads and tiny frogs skittered across them like raindrops when startled. The little frogs were maybe about an inch or so long, and when I squatted down to just look, I counted over twenty of them nearby before I gave up counting. I felt as if I'd walked into a fairytale. Next time we go there I'm bringing my camera.  Chromatella waterlily I had back in Indiana a few years ago. And we'll definitely be back. On this trip we got a Chromatella waterlily (free-blooming hardy yellow) and a Comanche waterlily (one of the changeables, going from orangy-yellow to orangy-red), and a free bag of fairy moss which we hope will get well-established and help give the water more surface covering. We also put a lotus on hold (Mrs. Perry Slocum, a gorgeous changeable which goes from yellow to pink, I think--I've seen pictures and adored it). We can go pick it up in a week or two after it's proved that it's doing ok--it's a tuber cut from an older "mother plant". The lady said most of the lotus she sells flower the first year even though one isn't supposed to expect it. I'd have liked an older plant, but she doesn't sell them, and the price was very good for these younger ones.
She also says that she'll have the tropicals I want--the water mosaic and water sensitive--in stock in two to three weeks, so we can buy some then. Hooray! I could get them mail-order, but it's easier and cheaper in the long run to buy them already potted up.  water sensitive plant I had back in Indiana a few years ago. And today I finally got around to ordering a Victoria waterlily. Those are the giant tropical waterlilies you see the old pictures of people standing on their lily pads. (They put boards under them.) They're not ready to ship out yet and are wait-listed to boot, but the woman I talked to seemed to think it wouldn't be too long of a delay and we'd have it in time to enjoy for most of the summer. I'm really excited about it.  Victoria waterlily image scanned years ago from a water garden catalog Anyway, when we got home from the nursery yesterday, we put the lilies and the azolla in the pond and moved the Helvola waterlily in its little tub from the basement back to the deck. We took the water clover from the basement and put it back in the pond (it looks terrible, but I think it'll perk up soon) and transferred the two surviving koi back to the pond. (We had a virus or water quality problems over the winter and lost four--it was heartbreaking. This winter we'll use two stock tanks so we can change the water more easily, because I really think it was bad water quality and all our fault. But not to dwell on it anymore, though--I cried so hard for those fish.)  Cleitus (That's fairy moss and food pellets floating on the water.) So right now the huge silver one, Cleitus, and the smaller orange one (who is actually a comet), Flash, are happily swimming around in their huge summer mansion of a pond. Cleitus is just humongous now--probably something like fifteen or sixteen inches long. He's such a good fish. He got under the orange butterfly koi when she was sick and swam her around trying to get oxygen into her gills when she stopped moving last winter. Unfortunately she still died. It broke my heart, especially watching as he tried to save her. When we were finished with our pond chores yesterday, we sat out on the deck awhile, just enjoying it and taking some pictures until it started to rain. There was a beautiful big thunderstorm with pounding rain and flickering lightning, making the evening delightfully cozy. We settled down, exhausted on the couch with a bunch of cookies, to spend the rest of the evening watching bad tv.  Mark asked if we should watch Atomic Train. I said that that would definitely qualify as truly atrocious tv, so Atomic Train it was. We have the art of watching bad tv down, keeping up a constant stream of sarcastic comments and complaints and extra dialog (a la MST-3000), and generally having a ball making fun of things. Atomic Train was perfect for this, so bad that they'd had to delay the movie a week or so (forget how long) while they attempted to fix their most glaring errors. I can't say that I think it probably made much difference, and I actually managed to fall asleep during it. I woke up, stretched, took off my glasses, got more comfortable, and closed my eyes again as they headed for some Bridge of Doom or other, and Mark protested, "No! Don't do it! I'll never get you awake again and into bed!" "Sure you will, just gonna rest a bit while it's still on...." Zonk. To make a long struggle with consciousness and a comfy couch short, I woke up there this morning while Mark got ready for work. He says the pathetic saga of the atomic train will continue tonight. If we're tired enough tonight, we might actually tune in again. I do like seeing things blow up.  Mark and I are so goofy. Yesterday we were talking about The Mummy and how it was a good thing death made the high priest mummy into such a creep, because otherwise we would have been rooting for him. Mark said it'd be cool to have a mummy be our World Pharaoh. "We need a good leader," he said. We started joking around about how he might deal with the modern world. How shocked he'd be when contractors claimed they could build him a pyramid in less than 150 years. "E-yep, just pour the sucker. Concrete. But what ya really want, now, I think, is to take advantage of these modern materials we got now. Glass and steel, make ya a real nice, shiny pyramid, lotsa light, really glitzy. Put all those old pharaohs to shame. But we can't kill all the workers when the project's done. Nope, can't do that. Unions, ya know? But don't worry, your secrets will be safe. Hell, we won't know what we're doing while we're doing it. Bureaucracy, ya know?" NASA would try to talk the pharaoh into building on the moon or Mars and funding the space program in the process. "Now that'll really rival what those other pharaohs did! Say, can you use that tornado thing of yours to help us terraform Mars, by any chance?"  Later we were joking around about Moose (our stuffed beanie moose who answers nearly everything with, "I just don't know, I just don't know!") and Mark says, "You know, that sounds like a fairytale... The Moose and the Pharaoh." We decided it had to be told in a Russian accent, and were off and running, making up silly story lines for The Moose and the Pharaoh, all told in a thick, Russian accent. We were giggling like little kids. Easily amused. (The pharaoh loved the moose, largely because Moose deferred to all the Pharaoh's opinions and wishes, always answering questions with "I just don't know, I just don't know." The pharaoh thought Moose very deferential and diplomatic.)  
 sometimes life tastes like a bottomless orange soda
 Another so-so shot of our fairy moss.  Mark's not a "thing" per se, but I adore him, so here's a few more goofy pictures.
"Dream as if you'll live forever. Live as if you'll die today." --James Dean
Spring warms the garden wall Plum buds smile like red lips, But the gate-willow has not yet Grown her eyebrows. --Otsu Renju
 |
© Jade Leaves Designs