Nonsmoking, Native Plants, and Fish

[queerbychoice]

Susan is quitting smoking! I told her I would move in with her sooner (in two months, though we later amended it to three months at Susan's own request) if she quit than if she didn't (in seven months). She had one more cigarette after that, and no more since. She has now gone one day and six hours without a cigarette.

[Edited to add: She un-quit a few weeks later, when the school she teaches at started again. She's still hoping to quit again soon.]

Today we went to Floral Native Nursery in Chico and I bought native plants, which I planted in Susan's back yard. The locally native plants I bought are California coffeeberry (Rhamnus californica), California grape (Vitis californica), deer grass (Muhlenbergia rigens), monkey flower (Mimulus puniceus), and coyote mint (Monardella villosa). The plants I bought that are native to other parts of California are golden currant (Ribes aureum), California fuchsia (Epilobium californicum), interior California buckwheat (Eriogonum fasciculatum), and blue flax (Linum lewisii). The monkey flower, coyote mint, fuchsia, and buckwheat are all in bloom right now. The currant seems to have lost some of its leaves during the truck ride back to Susan's duplex, so I hope it recovers.

Susan bought a second aquarium, just in time for the daddy convict fish and several of his babies to mysteriously die, leaving few enough fish that they all fit comfortably in a single aquarium now. I think we're going to fill the other aquarium with better behaved, less violent fish instead of with cichlids. Some tetras would be nice.

Comments

[morningloryblue.livejournal.com]

I quit smoking after 10 years with the disgusting habit almost 6 months ago! I feel a hundred years younger and I am much more confident as a woman because I trust that I can be disciplined and have control over my body again. I cannot tell you the value of this empowerment in my life. Plus, it has transitioned me from stagnant lifestyle to a very, very active lifestyle. I am THRILLED to hear that quitting smoking is on the agenda in your life space for a loved one, too...Life is about to be much, much brighter!

P.S. Tetras are great and strong fish :)

[seifaiden.livejournal.com]

What spawned your interest in native plants? I rarely see you mention plants that are not native to your area.

[queerbychoice.livejournal.com]

Basically, I'm lazy and sufficiently self-aware to recognize that I am. I want to be able to grow pretty plants, but there's no way I'm ever going to want to spend my free time watering and tending to them regularly. The Sacramento Valley gets a fair amount of rain in the winter but no rain at all in the summer. The majority of standard non-native garden plants have no hope in hell of surviving our 110-degree summer heat and no rain at all from May through September (sometimes even a month or two longer than that) unless they're watered constantly for at least half of every year. Me spending that kind of time watering plants is defintely not going to happen. So that means the only kinds of plants I could reasonably hope to grow would be desert plants (ick, I don't like sharp spines, nor does the look of most desert plants much appeal to me) and plants from the world's five Mediterranean regions, which occur at the southwestern edges of Europe, Africa, Australia, South America, and North America. Plants from the other Mediterranean regions of the world tend to grow extremely well in California with no help at all, but some of them grow all too well and have turned into our worst invasive weeds (for example, yellow starthistle is from the Mediterranean region in Europe). So although I do plan to grow a few plants from other Mediterranean regions when I can find good evidence that those particular species are not likely to be invasive, it makes sense to focus primarily on native California plants because they will mostly take care of themselves and be certain not to destroy the environment.