The Wearin' o' the Green

Okay, so St. Patrick's Day was last month. Usually I'm green for St. Patrick's Day, and so are my baby goats. But I freshened does late this year, hence we're green in April. In years past, when I registered all my kids, they needed tattoos for registration identification. Now, it's just so I can figure out who is who. Since they have dark ears, I use green tattoo ink, which shows up better than black. Somehow, I manage to get green ink all over me as well as the goats' ears... and they smear it from their ears onto whatever their ears touch. As soon as it dries, it is quite permanent. It dries quickly. Now, two days after tattooing the last two kids to be born, I still have one green fingernail edge.

In other green news, the Ric Rac cactus (Epiphyllum anguliger) in my greenhouse, the one that crawls all over the fish netting on the ceiling, finally managed to keep buds on long enough to bloom. Usually they turn black, perhaps because my greenhouse/jungle room is too cold for them. The first one ever to bloom opened Tuesday night. It was lovely and extremely fragrant. Two more buds are preparing to open. The first photo was taken Tuesday evening, when it first opened. The second photo is from the next morning, when it was fully open and about to fade. They only last one night... It's a good thing their leaves are handsome.


In other colors, the pink orchid I bought in bud at the Salem Orchid show and sale has opened and is brightening up the kitchen window ledge. Outdoors, the yellow Leopard's Bane has taken over for the bloomed-out daffodils in the path from house to shop. Leopard's Bane must be quite effective at keeping leopards away as we've seen nary a one.




It's a green and growing time of year on the Fink Family Farm.