Green Cymbidium Orchids

I've been working on some cymbidium orchids for awhile now--since March!--and I haven't been able to get them to look like what is in my mind's eye. I finally found the perfect color of a yellowish green bead and redid the petals over again. I made them slightly larger this time, so each bloom is ~ 70 mm (almost 3 in) across. I had 7 blooms I formed into a flower spike and decided I need a couple of more blooms so I've made 3 more. Here's the progress:



The 3 additional blossomsOn another note, I've FINALLY finished the summer quarter of sampling on the saltpannes for work!! It has been fairly miserable--super hot and humid. This morning it was 90 degrees F without humidity counted in at 9 am; I think I went through 4 Gatorade bottles/hr. Needless to say I've been fairly sweaty and gross for the past 2 weeks : ).

Fig preserves

Yesterday Paul, Paul's mom, and I made a HUGE batch of fig preserves. I think we had about 20 lbs of figs that Paul and I picked last year and froze--it was time to clean out the freezer to make room for other goodies. The basic recipe we used (passed along by a good southern belle and slightly modified) was: half the amount of sugar to amount of figs; add a couple of thin slices of lemon and cook slowly for 4 - 5 hrs over medium low heat. We ended up with 43 half pints and 12 quarter pints which gave us 24 1/2 pints (11.6 L) of fig preserves!

Fishing

I've been throw trap sampling for work this week and am totally exhausted. Yesterday we were sampling on Deer Island in 34° C (93° F) heat with about 95 % humidity--I didn't think we would make it!! Throw trap sampling is used to collect organisms (usually nekton) from a know volume of water, in this case on flooded salt pannes. Our throw trap is aaluminumum box 1 m square by 75 cm high. Basically, the entire process is a HUGE pain in the bum, but we end up with good data so I guess it's all worth it. At least that's what I tell myself so I can get through it!

Paul made it back safe and sound (only slightly sun burnt--yeah for sunscreen!) from his larval billfish collecting cruise/fishing adventure to the middle of the Gulf of Mexico. In the breaks between sampling he caught another marlin, slightly smaller this year, which was released, a wahoo, some amberjack, and other miscellaneous pelagics. I don't even think sleep was in his schedule--too much fishing to cram into any spare minute!!

Paul's White marlin (Tetrapturus albidus; less than 100 lbs.)

Paul and Wahoo (Acanthocybium solanderi)

Larval Marlin (~ 1 cm long)

Short bigeye (Pristigenys alta; ~ 10 in long)

Leaves

Leaves and greenery--every pretty flower arrangement needs lots of them! I've been experimenting with different leaf shapes and types and here are a few so far. We have compound to the left and below are toothed leaves close to the stem. I reversed the basic wire on the bottom so it wouldn't show on the back of the leaf.

I think the large drooping tropical leaves are my favorite. They add interest to the bouquet with leaf shading and shape. I have a bunch of fantasy flowers I still need to add leaves to and put on stems--I just can't figure out which ones to use! I've been sorting insect samples today at work, which is pretty brainless, so I've had lots of time to think about what I'd rather be doing-like finishing up some of my flowers. I'm also in the process of painting our guest bathroom and can't wait to be able to finish that this evening. I got a really neat shower curtain in the Brigitte pattern from Pottery Barn that I'm using as inspiration.