Nov. 2nd
These are a few of my favorite things
Gardening/Growing house plants
Skiing
Playing the sport of frisbee
Adult coloring books
Walks in the woods
Crocheting
Sewing
Escape rooms
Brown butter chocolate chip cookies
Baking of any kind
Folding laundry
Interior decorating
Indoor Gardening
There is something that I just love about tending to my houseplants that gives me satisfaction like no other. I currently own 57 individual house plants. These are species of plant that are traditionally found in tropical climates. These plants have been proven to thrive in containers in the homes of someone in any climate! I first got into the practice two years ago when at my job we were moving office spaces and all of the plants needed to go. I took 5 golden pothos and something began I watched them grow new leaves and would carefully water them once per week on Friday. It began slowly on my lunch break I would go to home depot and look at the selection and pick out a few that I found cute. Then my favorite youtuber posted a video of her plant tour and I was officially hooked.
The act of gardening is perpetual. I will repot plants from time to time, go buy new plants or pots or dirt. Gnats are a common pest that will burrow into the dirt and reproduce so there is always something to buy to keep the bugs at bay. Its funny that we bring nature inside and then fight the nature that comes in and we don’t want. When a plant is ready to be repotted you can tell if it’s growth slows down or the foliage seems to be too big for the container it’s in. Or it could be a miscellaneous reason like I don’t like the pot it’s in or I think it might grow better in a different pot or I am selling the plant but wish to keep the pot. If a plant needs to be repotted it will be taken to my planting station and all old dirt will be disposed. Then I place orchid bark on the bottoms of each pot for water drainage we don’t want extra water drowning our roots. Then we mix coconut husk(coir), Orchid bark, perlite and mosquito bits into a tray and spray the dirt with insecticide. Once the dirt mixture is prepared then I put a scoop on top of that first layer of orchid bark, then place the plant in place and proceed to fill in around the roots until about an inch from the top of the pot. If the plant is moisture loving like a fern then the top layer will be moss but if not it will be another layer of orchid bark. This is my current recipe but its changed over time at one point I was dehydrating used coffee grounds from our french press but it was time consuming. And thats all the time I have today to talk about planting.
Playing Frisbee
It’s been so long since I have played but its honestly one of my most favorite things in the whole world. I discovered it in college. I needed a sport that would keep me busy but not too much time. I found my best friends and a niche sport that is so fun. I will explain the game to the best of my ability. Traditionally it is explained as a mix of basketball and football.
The field is arranged in a rectangle typically the length of an american football field and half the width of a football field. At each end there is a designated end zone approx. 20 ft deep. Prior to the start of game play each team will send captains to represent in the toss. The home team will toss a frisbee in the air like a coin and the opposing team will call it either heads or tails. The head of the frisbee is the side with graphics and the curve is slanting down the sides, tail is the inverse underside with the sides curving up. If the opposing team is correct they will choose between picking a side to begin on or receiving the disc first. Most of the time receiving the disc first is the priority but if it is a particularly windy day that can easily determine the out come of the first point. At the start of each game, both teams send out 7 players to stand on the line at the base of each end zone. If lets say the home team is receiving then the away team will start with the disc at their baseline and the best thrower on the team will complete what is called a pull. A pull is when one team throws the disc as far as possible while staying in the boundaries. Once the disc is pulled then each team races to where it landed and sets up in their formation. There are a variety of formations that a team can play on both offense and defense but I wont be delving into strategy today.
The home team will pick up the disc and “work it down the field”. The home team will send players in an organized fashion to run and catch the disc as it is thrown by their teammate. Once a player catches the disc then they must stop running and throw to another teammate. A point is scored when one team throws the disc into the end zone and it is caught by a team member. If the disc is dropped or thrown out of bounds possession of the disc is given to the other team. The time based element to the game is that once a player catches the disc a member of the opposing team will begin to count to 10. Stall-1 stall-2 stall-3 stall-4 ….. (I do not know the orgin of stall but it is the used term). If the counter reached 10 then the possession is handed over to the other team.
It is understood at the beginning of game play to what score the game will be played to. The most frequent score I played to was 13 this means the game will play until one team reaches the score of 13. Half time is determined by score as well occurring in this scenario after the 7th point is scored. But ultimately there are time limits because sometimes teams are so well matched the score moves very little. “Soft cap” is the first time stopping mechanism. Soft cap means that the winning score will now be 2 points above the score of the winning team. Let’s say that a game is at 9-7 when soft cap is reached then the game winning score will be 11. Unless the game goes to “hard cap”. Hard cap is the absolute limit of how long a game can last. Once that horn is sounded then the next point wins the game.
This was so fun describing a long lost feeling of running all day in hopes of catching a disc in the end zone. There is just nothing like it :)