A Few Little Words: Random Pictures

So for the last two days I have gone around my house and yard taking random pictures of mainly plants but also my pet fish, Vino.

First up are my roses. I love my roses, the pinkish/red one was originally planted at my old house, but when I bought my new house I pulled it up and brought it with me. It is thriving and has tons of flowers on it now.

Last spring to celebrate living one year in my new house I planted two Christmas Crepe Myrtles, two Privet Drive Shrubs (in honor of Harry Potter) and two more roses. They were suppose to be a yellow rose and red rose, however the red is actually pink. The yellow rose almost died last summer and I was very close to just pulling it up. This spring the plant looks great and will soon be covered in yellow roses. Now it is the "red" one that is sick.

I love my roses!!!!

This is one of the tall shrubs in my front yard, it is really more of a tree. It is covered in white flowers and these tiny bee-like insects are taking care of pollination this year.

The oak tree in my backyard was there when I moved in, but last year it got sick during the drought. The sickness I think it may have is fatal to trees but I am hoping that I was wrong and whatever it has is something it can survive. So far so good, it is covered in beautiful green leaves.

Now on to the inside plants. This is my money tree, that I have had for the last two years. I bought it right after moving into my home. I have had two previous money trees but had zero luck in keeping them alive. I thought this one was not doing great but after transplanting it to a bigger pot, it has been thriving. The key for me has been using a few ice cubes to water each week, it keeps me from over watering it.

This is a tiny plant my mom got me for Valentine's Day. It is one of those self-watering plants, which I love because I can usually keep those alive.

My prize plant is the Basil in my kitchen window. I adore Basil and use it in as many dishes as I can. I have tried growing Basil from a potted plant but it always dies within days. This plant I started from a seed and it grows like crazy.

The plant I have incredible luck growing is aloe vera. It is probably genetic, because my grandmother had several aloe veras too. I had one for several years in college but one of the foster kittens knocked it over and I did not replace it for a long time. My mom started this one for me, so that I could have it at school. I never managed to get it to the school and kept it with me instead. It is now five aloe veras and there are always babies popping up. I will probably be dividing it again after Easter.

This is not a live plant but one of those decorative balls that are used to fill a bowl or vase. I just thought it looked cool.

Meet Vino the Betta fish. I got him the same week I moved into my house, so this May he will be 2 years old. He is starting to show his age and has become a bit senile (he has trouble finding his food). I keep him in my wine themed kitchen, which explains his name. He use to have several "pets" of his own in the form of snails names: Chardonnay, Merlot, Cabernet, and Pinot. I had read that bettas could live with snails. The first one died within a couple of days, so I got three the second time thinking that it would be a better match against my very aggressive Vino. After a couple months though they started to die from their attraction to the heater, in the end Merlot was the lone survivor but last Spring he also died. So I decided Vino was better off a solo fish. Bettas are very smart and they can recognize their owners, so I make sure to interact with him daily.