9 December 2024
My calendar is undergoing a crisis. First, I had the wrong date for the Christmas tree installation and now my dental appointment has changed from today to tomorrow at 9:30. I also have my last iron infusion at 2 pm. It’ll be a busy day for me tomorrow. I really hate having two events in one day – this was even before chemotherapy. When I was working, I could handle numerous different events during the day but for some reason when I retired, I found I didn’t like doing that anymore. I do like my afternoon naps!
On my walk this morning (1.5 miles) I found a new plant in a neighbor’s yard that is known for unusual plants. It’s Clerodendrum trichotomum or Harlequin Glorybower. It’s a member of the mint family (Lamiaceae) and is native to Asia.
When I first moved in to my house in 1995, a neighbor gave me a cutting of a Clerodendrum, in this case, C. quadriloclare or Bronze-leafed Clerodendrum or Shooting Star.
You have to be careful with this one because it spreads via underground shoots and can take over a yard. It produces red berries. It’s native to New Guinea and the Philippines.
Just next door to the C. trichotomum was a yard they had planted a white poinsettia.
They adapt well to the South Florida environment and as you can see, photoperiodism is not a problem here. There are also some red poinsettias to the right. I’ve seen some poinsettias large enough that they form a hedge.
Now that I don’t have a dental appointment, I need to bring down the tree decorations from the overhead so I don’t have to get up early Wednesday to do that. All day yesterday I thought it Monday and it seems today I think it’s Wednesday. I’m getting too old to get up on a ladder so I need to find a better storage place than the overhead in the utility room.
My cousin Jimmie gave me the sad news that Susan Waldrop Riley passed away. I knew Susan when she was at Morton High School and she married Tommy Puckett (somewhat of a scandal). Tommy was known as a player but he fell head over heels in love with Susan. Tommy and Susan both went to Ole Miss, Tommy for Pharmacy and Susan for Nursing. I was on a strict budget (soup and crackers was the main meal of the day) and when Tommy and Susan found out, they always offered me rides back to Morton and never asked me for gas money. Not only that but we would stop in on the Natchez Trace for gas and snacks and Tommy always bought them for me. Both were very kind. Later Tommy was died in a car wreck and Susan eventually remarried. As we get older, we’ll see more and more of our friends pass away.
Stay tuned!