Kitty, kitty everywhere

I walked down to the shops at the other end of the out-of town shopping centre again, which seems to be a convenient way of getting a decent walk while doing something that needs to be done anyway.

Hello Kitty star drink. There were blue cans of Spongebob Squarepants bubbly drink too. Nice segregation, Aldi.

Kitty will keep you dry.

I first noticed "plant stem cells" in skincare over New Year when I was stuck at Gatwick waiting for a delayed flight and spent the time reading boxes in Boots. The first thing you learn in biology is that plant and animal cells are very different, so I'm somewhat baffled as to how plant stem cells are supposed to do anything at all to the skin on my face. (If you've read Ben Goldacre's excellent Bad Science, you'll know what I'm thinking.) But this may be taking things a step too far, especially the facial scrub.

New leaf, old leaf

After a number of phone calls and emails (my fault for getting things wrong on the application form) I am a card-carrying member of the Genetics Society!

I wound up work at the desk around 6:00 pm yesterday and headed out for a long walk to check out the local Aldi and pick up a few bits and pieces.

Haribo Smurfs at Aldi.

And traditional edelweiss shirts.

Frogs. Not the most interactive of pets.

Same goes for lizards.

The local garden centre sells cobblestones.

So much colour.

Even though a lot of the vegetables were gone, there was no reduction in the number and variety of plants.

I think these were a bit too purple for the mobile phone camera.

A half dozen little lavenders.

I hadn't noticed these before, but the garden centre also had maple trees.

They didn't look very healthy...

And the price tag was a lot more than the little one I got.

I thought these were cacti...

But they turned out to be Alpine plants! Very interesting.

Although I'd gone to the garden centre to get boxes and earth for my radishes, I decided against it. The seeds will keep until next year, and even if they don't they were just a few francs. I should concentrate on getting things right with the stuff I already have. I noticed little black flies in the soil and it seems like they're a sign of over-watering, so I held off over the past few days and the salad leaves are coming on like nobody's business. Neglect it is.

Ikea were selling off terracotta pots so I got half a dozen small ones - they seem to be sold out of the bigger one I wanted to use to repot the maple. I got a little stand for it and it's now outside my office window to cheer me up when I see it's lovely distinctive leaves.

Every forest begins with a single tree

Back from Dublin and had a great time celebrating Dad's birthday, catching up with him and Mom, and seeing friends.

The classic subversive housewife apron.

The obligatory Irish version of "Keep Calm and Carry On".

Not sure if this stuff ever existed outside Ireland - blast from the past found in the carvery of a local hotel when we went out for lunch.

Flash onto reflective plastic at night is not good for actually seeing anything, but this is a "look out for hedgehogs" poster at the local station.

I went to the large shopping centre at the other end of the industrial/commercial zone beside us yesterday to get a diary to use for gardening, as I seem to be accumulating more plants and actually keeping them alive. There's a massive multi-story Migros and I ended up going up to the top floor instead of down to the stationery and food floors. I was going to turn back when I realised I was in the sports section, but then saw the hobby section and wandered in there to see what they had. Then I spotted the gardening section and went to see if they had radish seeds as they were touted as easy to grow in the container gardening books I got delivered to Dublin. I stopped to admire some herbs in pots... and behind them I found something very familiar!

There were two trees from one supplier, in these shallow, wide pots, both of which were looking a little worse for wear, and four of different varieties from another supplier in more normal pots.

Never seen anything like this one before - green and pink leaves!

Gorgeous frond-like leaves. There was another like this one (photo didn't come out).

But the one I walked away with was this one - the leaf shape is just what I think of as quintessentially "maple". They were even on sale, as if my rubber arm needed more twisting... I got lots of friendly comments on it - really must start learning German seriously. -_-;

So, scouring forums and shops online for advice on what size of pot and type of soil to use for it, and will head out and get that later today and get it set up in a non-full-sun spot on the balcony. It will be a challenge since I've only just managed to sprout salad leaves and herbs, and keep adult plants alive, but it just makes me smile every time I see it.