Abby Bartlet looks at Jeb, during a West Wing episode, and says "You go from nothing to say, to I have too much to say, to I have to study agriculture, to I don't give a damn????" Well, that's kinda how I've been feeling lately. Sometimes it's difficult to come up with a subject for the blog. And other times I have so many things I want to talk about I don't even know where to begin. So the blog will sit for a week or so while I'm eating bon bons (yeah right). The truth is I'll sit here and make a list of things that I really want to write about and then it's all about finding the time to do it. Between working all week (my day job gets in the way), working on house projects all weekend and being an early-to-bed kind of person, I'm having a tough time sitting back and talking about one of the things I love best - gardening.

Anyway, enough feeling sorry for myself... My Christmas cactus is blooming! My sister gave us Christmas cacti last year for, you guessed it, Christmas of all things. I was pretty excited about it knowing that cacti are pretty easy to take care of and don't need a lot of water as long as they get a lot of light. So in my usual smug I-know-so-much-about-gardening kind of way, I promptly went about killing the poor things. First I watered them and out on the front porch they went. Very shortly thereafter there were burn spots evident from the sun. Oops - too much light. So I brought them back into the kitchen. They seemed to be doing ok but looked dry so I watered. And so did my husband. And so did I - you get the picture. The plants were beginning to drown in our best efforts.

I happened to be visting my mother one day and recalled how her Christmas cactus is always blooming. She keeps hers in the bathroom window and it seems very happy there. Then it occurred to me - it must thrive on neglect! (Sorry Ma, but you know how you can be about things.) I vowed to begin neglecting my cacti as soon as I returned home. And ignore them I did. Sure enough one of the plants decided to start forming buds and it finally bloomed yesterday. This is without a doubt one of the most beautiful christmas cactus flowers I have ever seen. It's an unusual coral color with a fuchia stamen - just gorgeous. So it just goes to show you - just when you think you know something you learn that a little bit of knowledge along with 75 cents may get you one small cup of coffee. Happy Gardening.