I missed putting out a Valentine item in February. March roared in
like a lion. I'm beating April Fool's Day with my Valentine-theme video
and article. Inspiration started with kin's visit on February 14.
The relatives brought flowers. I'd baked Valentine theme cookies
made from Red Velvet and Strawberry cake mixes. I searched for kiddie
Valentine cards and found one card, no envelope. A few days later, after
they'd left, I found a stack hiding in plain sight.
My journey in creating the Valentine blog theme started out small,
but became gargantuan when I collected hearty items to group together,
created kid-like artsy photographable items, and integrated videos in my
mix. The journey was quite an adventure in inspiration, organization,
and implementation.
Heart Use as a Verb
Hearting is an obscure but increasingly creeping use of heart as a
verb. Creeping, as in slowly moving, not creepy as nervousness inducing.
Consider "I heart NY" and "I heart radio", which seem normal in use of
heart as verb. As a thought, maybe "I heart [something]" can seem less
tension than the "L" wprd.
Indoor Shots
My video includes indoor images and also outdoor images. I got in
touch with my inner creative child for cutouts, punches, arrangements. I
also rustled up images for Valentine cookies that I'd baked
occasionally over many years. BTW, cake mix amounts in boxes have
downsized over the years that cookie dough dollops were less mannerly
this time around.
Outdoor Shots
I mentioned creeping use of heart as verb. A piece of my video shows a
hybrid of Halloween creep and hearty Valentine approach. Numerous other
outdoorsy shots include archives of heart-shaped prickly pear plants
from February 2010 and also February 2025. Eh, the 2010 ones were more
plentiful and cuter; the more recent environment wasn't as, uh,
fruitful. For my non-prickly pear plant shot, the red bud tree with a heart-shaped bloom had caught my eye.
The time period between February 11 and February 23 was exciting for
the snow, ice, and cold, especially for power outages and boil-water
status. Eventual return to pandemic normalcy was welcome. "What Really Happened During the Texas Power Grid Outage?"
(Mar 23, 2021, runtime 16:47) is an informative video that described
the deep freeze. It has loads of info about power grid, events, images,
and animated graphs. The YouTube description also includes good content
and links. A nice touch at end of video requests that commenters be
respectful.
Environments outside were pictureworthy. I needed to take a few pix
through windows, unwilling to venture into such bone-chilling cold and
also risk ruining my camera. I created several composites and
organized into groups that show ice, snow, and aftermath. Images are
loosely organized as follows, but also include related items:
Snow, ice, damages to tree branches and other plants
Neighborhood walk February 12 (day after a big snow dump)
Neighborhood walk March 11 post-thaw
Additional related miscellany
I poked around the web for determining post-freeze damages for some
plants. Also stumbled on some plant info I hadn't known before, and some
that reinforced info from previous research.
Deep-freeze Damages
Two sources are from February 25, but seem to have content that describes the aftermath of the freeze.
The ones nearest and dearest to my heart for this article are sago,
tree cholla, and cinnamon cactus. Pic'd in the video, but unmentioned in
this section, are thread-leaf agave, photinia, and prickly pear.
"How to Prune a Sago Palm" didn't provide much in the way of images, but caught my eye with bulleted advice:
Sago palms are toxic, so wear gloves and be careful when touching
the plants. Also don’t let your animals near them or to eat them.
Prune from the bottom up, clearing the fronds at the trunk by 6″ to
2ft. These are the oldest and lowest leaves and it helps increase air
flow.
Only remove completely dead and damaged fronds. Cutting healthy
fronds can weaken the plant, but you can expose the trunk of the palm
for ornamental purposes by removing extra fronds.
Don’t trim sago palm fronds that are between 10 and 2 o’clock positions.
I asked for help in IDing an unusual deserty plant. "cholla" bubbled
to my consciousness. I stumbled upon "jumping cholla", which didn't
resemble the plant much. Shortly afterward, I received suggestions of
"tree cholla" (Cylindropuntia imbricata), at Wikipedia and World of Succulents.
Such a cute plant cluster, resembling miniature prickly pear
"paddles"! I did Google image search with that description in mind. When
I stumbled on a candidate plant, I spotted an image of a cinnamon
cactus. The page at "World of Succulents"
even parenthetically refers to it as "Cinnamon Bunny Ears". One image
in my video contrasts the iced-over plant with the post-freeze thaw. As
the homeowner scraped most other deserty plants, time will tell if it
survives.
Related: "2023 Ice 'N' Arborgeddon" article | video
This year, May has been an especially eye-popping year for blooms. This blog and accompanying video represent sightings simply from short walks in and near the neighborhood on May 16, 17, and 18. (Includes coupla non-bloom subjects.)
While strolling in the 'hood one day,
In this kinda wet month of May,
Many blooms, so picturesque,
E'en a non-bloom piqued me, yes,
I meandered and pic'd another couple of days!
My theme today is hearts, the iconic symbol for the day. I've written about it in the context of things nearest and dearest that pop into my brain for this article.
Valentine's Day! It seems to have sneaked up on me very quickly this year! Last year, I had plenty of time to publish my convenient cooky recipe for making heart-shaped, red cookies using two flavors of cake mix. If you feel you have time to run to the store to get the ingredients and bake them, go for it! OTOH, you can just stretch the Valentine celebration (observation) for the whole week and wait until the weekend to bake them.
The pixstrip at the top of the article is an assemblage of some pictures I took at my most previous visit to the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center These prickly pear cacti caught my eye because of heart shapes. At that time, I knew I'd want to write something up and include cropped pictures of them.
Another heart theme item I'm including in this article is info about PaintShopPro's picture tube feature, specifically hearts. (PaintShopPro is a graphics editing tool.) The associated pixstrip is a screen capture with the Picture Tube icon, icon label, my "spray" of hearts, and the Tool Options dialog box with option selections. My version of PaintShopPro is very old, so the interface does not resemble the ones from a webpage that discusses PSP picture tubes.
This year, I myself am skipping making the cookies. I think I had been making them annually for about five years straight, sometimes for two to three different groups of people I'd see. Several conditions have converged to nudge me to forego the activity. Although I had re-entered the working world back in July after a 17-month hiatus, my perception of decreased discretionary time seems to have settled in only right after the new year started. Even towards the end of 2010, I managed to adhere to my self-imposed goal of publishing an article three times a month, one for every 10-day division. So far, I've managed to post only one last month and this one this month. Not sure if I will manage another article before February ends.
Here's a thought if you have enough fortitude to resist the psychological exertion to DO SOMETHING TODAY. Wait till tomorrow. I'm looking forward to tomorrow (Tuesday). That's the day the stores and drugstores knock off 50% for the cookies and candies. The meal? Just offsetting it a day. For an article that provides a different view of Valentine;s Day, read the New York Times' "When Love Outgrows Gifts on Valentine’s Day"
If you feel you must DO SOMETHING TODAY, here's a list of last minute suggestions for the day. Pick any, some, or all:
My profession had been technical writer/editor. Through TheWriteJob clublet (blog at http://thewritejob.blogspot.com), I have been exploring my inner creative writing, which includes mostly language enlightenment, entertainment, and a-muse-meant. Over time, I have become more active with images and my YouTube channel.
