Wednesday, December 21, 2011

Christmas cactus, rescued and rescued again

 - Someone brought a baby Christmas cactus plant to the office.  My photo of it astounded me - I used the Macro setting with the flash and ended up with a black background instead of the rather drab office background.  Anyway - I think the plant is beautiful and perhaps someday it will end up looking like friend Susan's below.

And I thought you had to put it in a dark closet or basement during the summer to get it to bloom in time for the holidays, but a blogger, Mr. Brown Thumb, says otherwise.  His post about it cracked me up.  :)

- Rescue # 1 - Traffic in and around Atlanta is bad right now, due to the rush to get things done, I guess.  On a work errand yesterday, the overhead electronic traffic sign on I-85 north spoke of an accident six miles ahead and that all lanes were blocked.  It ended with, "DON'T STAY ON 85."  I loved this nurture from a sign and imagined the caring person who typed it in some DOT office.  And so I exited and made my way through the streets.

- Rescue # 2 - After my work day and moving on to volunteer work after, I finally made it home and at 9pm was in the midst of making cookies for today when I realized I had no brown sugar.  Sigh.  I was about to turn off the oven and go to the grocery store when I heard my neighbor overhead in her kitchen.  I called.  "By any chance...?"  She did, and it was in a special canister dedicated to just that.  I love organized people and am leaving cookies for her in a bag on her door this morning.

19 comments:

Leonora said...

Those are two BIG rescues. I hate to discover I'm out of an ingredient in the middle of a recipe. Out here in the country it brings the cooking to a dead-end.
Won't she be surprised when she finds cookies at her door!

Lynn said...

Leonora -

Rescue #1 made me think of the talking freeway billboard in the film "LA Story." :)

Rescue #2 was quite a relief. You are in the same boat as my sister in north Florida. She really has to lay in supplies, because there's no 24 hour grocery story 5 minutes away like I have. But I'm so happy I didn't have to cut off the oven and get dressed. I was already in comfy pajama pants and big tshirt.

Jannie Funster said...

I bet she enjoys those cookies as much as I enjoy looking at Susan's lovely Christmas cactus. I'd heard about shutting them up in a darkened room too. Glad to learn otherwise.

DON'T STAY on I-85 Simple and effective.

xoxo

TALON said...

The cactus shot is gorgeous, Lynn. And how sweet (no pun intended) that your neighbor had the missing ingredient.

Yes, surely there are real people behind those electronic flashing signs - personalizing the messages makes it much less stressful somehow, doesn't it?

sage said...

That's a beautiful cactus. THanks for these glimpses of grace.

Riot Kitty said...

What gorgeous plants! The "freeway" I take every day to work had an accident or stall every day for about 10 days this month...I wish they'd had a sign saying "get off of 26!"

happygirl said...

I ran out of brown sugar, too. I didn't go to the store. I quit baking. You photo is gorgeous. :)

Lynn said...

Jannie -

I thought I'd never see the day when I'd say I'm tired of cookies, but I'm tired of cookies! A little too much good stuff around the last few days. :) But my cookies were a hit here at work!

xo

Talon -

I was beginning to wonder if that was message displayed only to me - no one got off at that exit but me!

Sage -

You're welcome, my friend. And interesting that you used that phrase - my friend Whitney has a blog called Glimpses of Grace.

Riot Kitty -

I know - I wish they did more of that.

Lynn said...

happygirl -

Thank you - I was pleased with how it turned out.

Fireblossom said...

I love brown sugar, and anything made with it.

Cloudia said...

what a happy holiday post!


Aloha from Honolulu
Comfort Spiral

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LL Cool Joe said...

So you took the "borrowing a cup of sugar from your next door neighbour" literally then? How cool. And how nice of you to leave her some cookies!

Lynn said...

FB -

My cookies were at hit!

Cloudia -

Mahalo!

Joe -

Exactly. She is the best neighbor - she replaced the bulbs in my lit Christmas wreath that had burned out. I realized one day they were all burning again and asked her and she admitted she had done that. So nice.

G. B. Miller said...

When I read that litte tidbit about your neighbor, the very first thing that popped into my head was Dudley Do-Right saying "Here I come to save the day!"

Louvregirl said...

Ooooh. You are so lucky to have that beautiful white blooming cactus! I like your stories of being rescued, too.
lg
(hugs Miss Lynn!)

Granny Annie said...

Leave a friend's home recently I commented on the lovely vine covering her garden bed. She quickly tore off a piece and told me to put it in water when I got home and it would grow with no muss or fuss. It did not...then I moved it to put up my Christmas decorations and for some reason the relocation caused it to shoot out in a flash. It is growing very well now.

It is wonderful to get a traffic warning before you are already in the mess and can't turn back.

I have to know if you called your neighbor on the phone or if you simply called to her from your apartment and she could hear you? Not very good sound proofing if that was the case. Still glad you got your brown sugar to finish baking.

Lynn said...

G -

For some reason, I thought that was Mighty Mouse that sang that. Hmmm.

lg -

Hugs to you, too, lg! I hope you have a wonderful Christmas.

Granny Annie -

That's neat - I love plants that have a little history.

Traffic was crazy again today. And the sky has turned black here at 4:15pm - right at quittin' time. Sigh. Looks as if I'm headed into a thunderstorm.

I called Rhonda on the phone. I don't think we could converse through the ceiling, but she could probably hear me if I shouted. I can hear her sneeze also when she sings. :)

Snaggle Tooth said...

My Xmas Cacti are budding now- My Mom's secret is to water them weekly beginning in Sept. n they'll bloom. My large one died last year. but dropped babies into the Jade containers where they are thriving.
Nice not to get stuck n waste time to get holiday ready!
How cool your neighbor's timing helped n you helped her in return! True holiday spirit!

Lynn said...

Snaggle -

That's cool that you know that trick about the cacti. Happy New Year!