Craigslist Love, And When Ferns Invade!

It has gotten ugly cold around here.
Last night, past freezing.  Well past freezing.
So I (if by "I" we mean "Howard") brought
in the porch ferns and baskets, to shelter in our hall.

Our front hall looks like a set for Little Shop of Horrors.

On flattened garbage bags, we have three e-nor-mous Boston ferns,

and one rather deflated hanging geranium.  She's getting a haircut, and a warm cozy spot to recover.

I'm going to try and hang these ferns.  Somewhere.

I need hanging pots for them, without drainage holes!

I'll sit their "hole-y" pots inside the solid ones.

 The big asparagus ferns, which started the summer

as little asparagus ferns, will stay on their pedestals,

probably in the dining room.

Oy.  That's a lot of ferns.

Wish me luck. 

**********************************

Meanwhile,

Craigslist has come up trumps for me again.  :-)

Last year, I bought 8 dinner plates at the Christmas Tree Shops.

Pfaltzgraff.   White basketweave pattern.  Love 'em.

Read about my love for all basketweave china, here.

But 8 dinner plates isn't enough.  I needed new everyday white dishes.

Really.  I did.  Just ask my husband.  

Or maybe don't ask him, come to think of it.

Craigslist to the rescue.

Complete service for 14, in Oneida's Basketweave pattern.

Score. 

Tomorrow I brave the jungles of Bergen County to meet a lovely woman

who is the current custodian of my basketweave china,

and hopefully will haul it all home in the trusty minivan.

Stay warm, my friends!  -- Cass

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Hangin' 'Em High

Week before last, in this post, I wrote about the
ferns we hang each summer on our front porch.
Sometimes asparagus ferns.  Sometimes Boston.  

Most of you liked the Boston's leafy, beefy good looks,
but also understood the lure of the asparagus' airy, easygoing ways.

Visits to my usual garden center haunts yielded no Boston ferns at all,

and my no-fail source for big healthy asparagus-es yielded only dinky little ones.  

But from that grower, I got her last Balcony Geranium.  

She doesn't look like much, yet.  Come back in July!

Have you ever marveled at the enormous cascading geraniums

you see in Germany and Switzerland?  

Picture from The Christian Science Monitor

This is one of those.  I've never grown one,

so I've hung her up with the Boston boys, and will hope for the best.

Please ignore the raggedy old wreath, and Howard's collection of coiled-up extension cords.
Yes, we live like hillbillies.

So where did I get those Boston ferns,

if they were not at the garden centers?

Same place we buy our hummus and our haloumi.

Trader Joe's!

Three gorgeous big bad Boston boys,

waiting right inside the door of our local Trader Joe's.

Come to mama!

And they did.  Anne took an extra shopping cart, and we piled

3 big hanging ferns and our groceries all in together.  Serendipity!

The town we used to live in has a few wholesale growers who sell to the public. 

My favorite grower had the Balcony Geranium, and she also had absolutely gorgeous

Fuchsia plants, those wacky, over-the-top wonders of nature.

Yes, fuchsia are finicky but Anne fell in love with them, and she's promised

to either keep up with the care herself, or nag me till I do it.

Madame Fuchsia is on the front porch, on a suitably shabby pedestal

that I got at our church's yard sale eons ago.

Anne took a batch of fuchsia pictures this afternoon.

 I mean, really . . . how amazing are these flowers?

Ain't they purty?

I'm not sure how long they'll last, but my grower friend only charged me

$7 for the basket, so if Madame Fuchsia kicks the bucket after a few weeks,

I'll think of her as cut flowers - beautiful while she lasted.

Ooops.  At the top of the steps, we parked an empty iced tea jug that we use as a watering can.
See?  Hillbillies.  I told you.

Almost in bloom: the irises behind the house.  Finally!

And so many plants being tucked into the dirt here at

That Old House.

Stop by next Wednesday for some garden and patio pictures. -- Cass

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