Hugo's novel

Hugo recently finished writing a novel. 50,000+ words, I understand.

Yesterday I received some mail. It contained Hugo's first draft of the novel, in miniature form. The container is 1.5"x 1.5". The words are completely illegible! But it's here, all of it. Unbelievable.

Congratulations, Hugo.

lady slipper photo 1

I'm an orchid lover.
This is an orchid I rescued in 2004 from someone who'd received it as a gift and had nearly killed it from neglect.
It's a lady slipper. It's a very slow grower and only blooms one purple brown slipper about every two years.
You can imagine my delight a week ago when I noticed a bud emerging out of the center.
I'll chronicle its brief life here. This is what it looks like today.

bonsai

I got a ficus bonsai for my 30th. It's 21 years old. I dote over it (no surprise) nearly daily. It's definitely a family member. We've got two adults, a betta fish named Michael Phelps, an army of orchids, and now bonsai. My family is almost complete.

Just look at that root system!