Here’s a new Scratch n’ Sniff post.
(Don’t do it)
I was shown this innocuous looking little plant.
I was advised to pinch one of the leaves just a little bit.
Then, take a sniff.
YIKES!
Skunk!
Ya. The plant smells just like a skunk. Ick.
To express my opinion of this plant, I have created my own, very mature drawing of stink lines.
I would rename this plant “Coleus Africanus Stinkzoidus”.
In case you really do want to look into growing a skunk in your house, here is what it is.
Here is a strange plant that is happening in the basement.
Sorry about the sign being in the way of the picture of the plant, but that doesn’t matter because the interesting bit is down under.
The roots don’t seem to know which way is up………. or down. I think this guy is trying to escape.
Happy New Year!
It looks like DG didn’t make again this year.
Hmmmmm. That image looks familiar.
BTW, this picture is not an antique from the 1970’s. It is, in fact, brand new. I guess DG hasn’t changed much over the years.
Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to all.
DG wore himself out so much getting ready for Christmas that he has fallen sound asleep, still in his Santa Suit. We will wake him up when the turkey is done.
P.S. This is another image taken from a linoleum cut done in the early 1970’s.
P.P.S. Don’t worry, I do not have many of these old prints, so this is not going to become a “thing”.
DG is all ready for Christmas. He has found his Santa outfit and tried it on.
Actually, this drawing was originally made as a linoleum cut back around 1972 or 1973. That shows you how old DG really is.
Back then we made our Christmas cards by cutting the pictures into linoleum blocks and using them to print the cards ourselves. We printed them on construction paper. Those were the salad days fer sure.
Last year I found the original linoleum blocks for the cards in a box in the basement. The original printer’s ink was in the box as well, and the brayer and other printing necessities too. It turns out that the ink was still good, so I printed some new copies of the cards, scanned them into digital format and, voilà, DG as a young man.
He doesn’t seem to have changed much since then. We can only wish we could do that trick ourselves.
I found another plant that has tiny flowers on it. But….. to top off the tiny flowers, the leaves are pink as well. And to top that off….. these “flowers” are weirder than those other tiny flowers.
See that little round flower just above my thumb? Well, that isn’t the flower. Those are specialized leaves. You have to take a closer look to see the flowers.
See the little yellow flower in the middle of the leaf? That isn’t the flower either.
That is called a “cyathium”, or “false flower”. The yellow “petals” are also modified leaves. The flowers are the even tinier things in the middle of the cyathium. They are blurry in the photo because of my cheap camera and lousy photography skills. The flowers themselves are not blurry.
Here is the name of the plant to look for if you are interested.
This is what a garden rake looks like after you have driven your car over it.
I am not certain how that happened, but I suspect that *somebody* (me) left the rake leaning against the garage wall with the teeth sitting a little too far out into the garage.
Nevertheless, DG is lovin’ it because that means that I can no longer subject him to the old step-on-the-rake gag that hurts so bad.
I think that DG should not be so cocky because we still have some tricks up our sleeves.
After all of that Thanksgiving feasting, DG inadvertently stepped onto the bathroom scale and got a shock.
Consequently, I was forced to put him on the “97 Diet“.
What, you may ask, is the “97 Diet”?
I made up the 97 Diet, so you won’t find it described out on the interwebs….. well, except for here. It is basically a diet that allows you to live to the ripe old age of 97 years…. and then die of disappointment.
The foundation of the 97 Diet is that you can buy any sort of food you want, but then you have to discard the food and eat the box that it came in.
This is very similar to the famous Shredded Wheat® and Cardboard diet (which I also made up)……. except that you aren’t allowed the Shredded Wheat. It works great. You should try it.
DG says, “Happy Thanksgiving“.
I was introduced to an interesting new SPOTH recently. This one has the smallest flowers ever. Check it out. Here is the plant.
That is a pretty small plant, but it’s blooming. See the flower? No? Look a little closer.
Now do you see the flower? Not yet? OK move closer.
Now you can see it.
So, exactly how small is that flower? Here it is next to a millimeter ruler.
Each of those huge lines marks a millimeter, so it looks like this flower is about 2 mm across. I wonder what sort of insect would pollinate this plant.
In case you are wondering what the name of the plant is, here is the label.
As you can see, if your plant has teeny, tiny flowers, it also must have a teeny, tiny label.
Cute, and certainly not as scary as Blue.
