Call me city-folk

So, I guess you could say that I'm a city girl. I've never lived in any place rural in my life. It's been either suburbs or cities.

Imagine my delight when we saw this guy/gal in our yard!

He/she has been wandering in and out for over a week now. Our neighbors spotted it first, about 2 weeks ago.

Mostly, he/she eats the leaves off of the lower branches of the cherry and plum tree, but it leaves the fruit untouched. Go figure.

I hope it can find its way back home, as I'm sure it misses its companions.

In the meantime, so long as he/she stays out of the veggie garden, he's welcome to a few leaves here.

On a humorous frugal note, my first thought when I saw the deer, "oh meat!" And then the next day, my son asked, "can you milk a deer?" I googled "milking wild deer", and apparently other people have wondered the very same thing. No, I don't think we'll use this deer for anything other than visual enjoyment.

Remember that leaf-cutting I took from my African violet plant?

Well, here's one of them!

Fall of 2013, I took 4 leaves, plunged them into soil, and kept watered. 2 leaves developed into full-blown plants. And one is in bloom right now! Both of my new plants are ready to give as gifts, at the next opportunity.

Exciting, right?

Well, the excitement continues (I lead a remarkably exciting life, don't you think?).

Late winter of this year, I decided I was going to try my hand at propagating Christmas Cactus, to give as a hostess gift for a dinner or party come November or December of 2016. (I plan ahead, way ahead.)

I plucked a cluster of Christmas Cactus leaves off of my one plant, and plunged it into soil, keeping it watered for the last few months.

Do you know how to tell if your Christmas Cactus leaf cutting has developed roots? When you see some reddish or pinkish new growth at the tip of one of the leaves, that's a sign the roots have begun.

I'll be babying this little plant for the next year and a half, and by the holidays of 2016, I should have a full-fledged, and in flower plant to give as a hostess gift.

These sell for $10-15 per plant in grocery stores during the holidays. I think I'll take another 2 or 3 cuttings this week, and get more plants on their way, for holiday gifting.