Royal

I also took a picture of the other gloxinias that are blooming on the balcony. These are a really nice deep purple with white edges and look all fuzzy like the red ones.

Keen

My first begonia bloomed today. It looks lovely and I hope there are many more to follow. Unfortunately I've been having a lot of trouble with stem rot due to the extremely high humidity here. It has cause the loss of at least two begonias unless they are able to send out a new shoot, which I'm totally doubtful of.

Butter

A few more plants on my balcony have bloomed a bit. There is a pale yellow calla with a tiny bit of pink/orange on the edges. Kind of reminds me of the Peace rose that my mom likes.




And some beautiful red gloxinia which I like because of the contrast between the red and the white and the fact that it looks so velvety and soft. I also planted some other gloxinias but one of them hasn't bloomed yet and the third doesn't seem to be doing very well at all.

Ahoy

I have my first bloom on the deck! It is from a calla lilly, but so far it isn't the color I thought it was going to be. We will have to see if it changes as it matures. It was supposed to be one of these, but it is currently a lot more purple with only a hint of very pale yellow (almost white) along the edges. It's still very pretty though!

Final Installment

Blyes likes the addition of furniture to our balcony. It allows him to have a comfy place to survey his kingdom.

Jet

Since he is currently totally freaking out, we are going straight into your Bleys fix for the day.





Why is he freaking out? They are powerwashing our entire building at the moment and it is quite loud from the inside. Especially when they go near the windows...in one of which his perch sits.

Chain

And now your daily Bleys on the porch fix! Today, two more pictures that make a person think we must totally abuse this poor dog. I mean, why else would he be so sad?

Grievous

Not much going on here. I've been doing a little (uninspired) work on the website, and some work on a presentation for the nature center. Although Katie did call me earlier to tell me about a show about dogs, training, etc. so that was super cool (and I'm totally watching it right now)! I don't have anything else so, it is time for more all Bleys, all the time.

Today's installment: Pitiful Puppy.

Undeniable

Welp, I just dropped Roland off at the airport. Boo hiss. He is heading out to Las Vegas to help with a gaming industry convention thing. The good thing? His trip is mostly free. The bad thing? I couldn't go with him. Well, I suppose that might be a good thing for him. He will be spending a lot of time sitting at a booth, but he's also got plans to see Blue Man Group I think. I hope he has a good time and buys me a present!

So the pup and I are on our own for a while. Before Roland left we were hanging out on the porch and we snapped some nice photos. There were quite a few nice ones so get ready for the Week of Bleys.






Holy crapulence that is one cute dog.

Playing

Yay, some of my plants came! So far the balcony still looks like pictures from my last post since what came where all bulbs. I planted some gloxinia in the long planters, and some neat looking begonias and a calla in some round containers. Hopefully coming soon are some caladium that I think are gorgeous, and some herb seeds that we are going to give a go. Again I don't think we get enough sun for them, but since they are seeds, if they don't work we are only out a few dollars. I'm also trying out another seed that looked cool, but again, I have no idea if it will thrive. We will just have to wait and see. I also ordered another begonia, but I don't think that will be shipping until the middle of April.

Duct

I've joined the dark side. I'm breaking the rules. Yesterday I went out and bought a charcoal grill for Roland. I've been thinking about it for a long time and finally did it. I think we are technically not supposed to have it on our balcony, but I kind of don't care. The grills they have down around the building are 1. just that down on the ground floor 2. the kind you find in a state park and 3. really disgusting. I don't think I would eat anything that had touched them. A lot of our neighbors have grills, smokers, and whatnot on their porches so at least we aren't alone in our evil-doing. I think brats are on the menu this evening so maybe Roland will fire it up and we can test it out! I also got a cover for it (I'm at least not going to flaunt it), a mat to put under it (the person before us installed astroturf so I don't want it to melt or something), and a chimney starter. I thought about buying some grilling tools, but I figured that Dave might want to pick those out himself.

In other news some of the plants I ordered for the balcony should be arriving today. I already have some rosemary out there but that's it. I'm don't think we get enough direct sun for the rosemary, but Roland convinced me to just give it a whirl anyway. It only cost $2.50 anyhow. The rest of the porch is empty pots at the moment. Hopefully soon it will be all colorful and more like home!





Now all I need are some deck chairs. Those foldy up ones aren't so comfortable for long term sittage. Unfortunately the only ones I can find are at least $200 for a set of two. The only ones cheaper than that only come as a set of four chairs and a table, and we certainly don't have room for all that. I just want two cushy deck chairs.