davidd's A DOLL A DAY 2023

[davidd]

Hmmm... Sargassum!

[Alliecat]

Interesting to see different looking seaweed than what is found on our beaches.
I wonder what sort of different and bizarre twist you could put on the infinite regression series? Like there’s somebody else — or a creature — in the background picture or something.

[davidd]

Interesting to see different looking seaweed than what is found on our beaches.

It is sargassum weed, as is found in the Sargasso Sea.

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1 December - A Doll A Day 2023

First of December! We're in the home stretch!

Taking a Tern on the Beach: Literally! Sandwich Terns and Royal Terns!

[Alliecat]

Ugh, December. Where did that year go?    At least it doesn’t look very Decembery where are you are.

[davidd]

At least it doesn’t look very Decembery where are you are.

Kinda grey, but otherwise okay.

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2 December - A Doll A Day 2023:

It's beginning to look a lot like...

...  that time of year when people get hurt making ill-advised choices while hanging up festive holiday decorations.

[Alliecat]

Cute setup, and a great realistic pose.

[davidd]

3 December - A Doll A Day 2023:

Yasmin checks on her mangrove seedlings

[Alliecat]

Yay, it's growing!

[davidd]

Yay, it's growing!

The mangrove pods can be slow to get started. The one that is growing I actually picked up on the beach a year ago! I stuck it in a jar of water, hauled it back to Utah, and just before leaving Utah a few weeks ago it was beginning to put out a small shoot. They put out roots first. I'll try to get  pictures of the roots if any of the new ones begin to root.

You can find these for sale on eBay, but I imagine shipping them internationally would be problematic.

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4 December - A Doll A Day 2023:

Doll Boots

I paid actual money (twelve bucks!)  to replace one set of plastic doll boots with another set of plastic doll boots. I'm feeling pretty stupid for having done so. I mean, what difference does it make?

The shiny ones were too tight to fit on the figure's feet, and too flimsy to support the figure when it was standing. The less shiny pair have slightly stiffer soles, although they're still not really adequate to provide good balance.

I gotta stop flushing money down the... drain... for stuff like this. I mean... I'm not really enjoying it anymore, I guess.

[Alliecat]

Wow.  That is slow.
I bought a hoya cutting on eBay, but it didn't have enough roots to be uprooted & sold, and a year later, it's still sitting in a little jar with nothing at all happening 
You can't buy plants from outside Canada -- too much customs frigmarole.  I inquired about bringing orchids home from Hawai'i cos they were so cheap, but the cost of the phytosanitary certificate would've been more than just buying something from somewhere in Canada. 

I paid actual money (twelve bucks!)  to replace one set of plastic doll boots with another set of plastic doll boots. ...
I gotta stop flushing money down the... drain... for stuff like this. I mean... I'm not really enjoying it anymore, I guess.

What, the whole doll thing?  Or just the spending?
My philosophy is "smoke em while ya got em"... if you can afford to indulge a bit and have some fun, then ya gotta do it.  I appear to be flushing money down the drain this year, with a significant uptick as of November's ex$penses just done... but a lot of that was reno, so it's more of an investment.  I don't regret taking off on trips.  If I EVER find a quiet peaceful place to live and need a mortgage, maybe I'll have to rein that in for a while.  But not at the moment.
I just found out some friends who always gave the impression of "business is terrible barely getting by" bought a house that is more house than my stretched budget would get, and in the woods on 2 acres adjoining conservation land with no neighbours.   
My turn will come...... .....

Anywho, the new boots do look nicer.  Try to enjoy!

[davidd]

I bought a hoya cutting on eBay.... 



What, the whole doll thing?  Or just the spending?

During my mom's last illness, my brother and his wife were supposedly checking things at her house while she was in the hospital, but they neglected to water the hoya plant that was older than I am, and that came from a cutting from a hoya plant my grandmother had.

When I got back there to work on the estate, the hoya plant was totally gone. I took a few cuttings of the least completely dried out stems and kept them in a glass of water for over a year, hoping that something would recover, but no luck.

I used to pick up mangrove seedlings on the beach in Hawaii. I would drop them in a pail of water outside the back steps of the house, and green shoots emerged fairly quickly. The weather was warmer in Hawaii. I've read that mangroves do not tolerate temps below 60˚F / 15˚F very well. The temperature in this part of Florida in the winter often drops below that.

The spending, mostly; although my overall enthusiasm for dolls and action figures is definitely heading in to an ebb cycle.

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5 December - A Doll A Day 2023:

Emerging Roots on a Red Mangrove Propagule (seed pod)

[Alliecat]

Aww, how sad about the hoya    I have a Christmas cactus that was my parents', and has come through various iterations and cuttings.
I had to go zoom in on Flickr cos this was too small and I couldn't tell what I was looking at.  The roots are on the top of the brown thing?
I also had to look up "propagule".  Although the meaning is easily guessed, I don't know that I've ever heard cuttings, corms, bulbs etc. called that.
And, another SMH moment at our digital-dumb increasingly-disconnected-from-nature society, that when I looked up "mangrove propagule", 10 of the first dozen results were for Minecraft.  WTF, kids aren't learning about planting seeds and growing actual plants; they're manipulating little bits of data on a screen.  Ugh.  Humans are doomed. 

...This time of year, at least in the gloomy Great White North, a lot of things feel like they're in an ebb cycle

[davidd]

The roots are on the top of the brown thing?

Yeah, she's holding it upside down to show the roots. The roots don't grow at the top. 

Actually, I read something interesting. These pods drop in to the water and initially they float horizontally, like boats. Over time, after they have had time to drift, the root end absorbs water and becomes heavier and sinks, so they end up floating vertically. When the bottom end touches sediment, they take root. Some sources say that, if a vertically floating pod does not touch ground for an extended period, it will shift back to vertical to extend its range.

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6 December - A Doll A Day 2023:

[davidd]

7 December - A Doll A Day 2023

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Lighting Things Up for the Holiday Pub Crawl

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Toni and Ari put the Finishing Touches on the Seasonal Decor

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"No peeking, now!"

"Peek? I can't even SEE at this point... and it's not even five o'clock yet!"

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"Are we ready? Are we set? Let's OPEN the DOORS and GET THIS PARTY STARTED!"

[Alliecat]

Hahaha, I just love the ex-pression in the last pic!

Yeah, she's holding it upside down to show the roots. The roots don't grow at the top. 

I guessed that part!!