Of Living Stones and Cacti

I love you all and thank you for your encouraging notes about the mammograms, this year and last. I haven't heard from the lab yet, but that's probably a good sign because the phone calls come faster than the letters. Letters~good; phone calls~not so good. Update! The mail just came, and the letter says I'm normal! That's great, seeing as how I've never considered myself normal before.....

Here's what I've been playing with this week, other than Marley: I found shelves of Living Stones (Lithops) at Lowe's, and I've been making small, rocky landscapes with them and a few cactuses I already had and some gem stones and geodes I had collected for just such an occasion.

As with everything, I went overboard, (4 trips to Lowe's) but here are photos of a few that I took in the glistening morning sun under the arbor, partly shaded by the ever attentive Harry.

Sometimes it's difficult to tell the difference betwixt flora and mineral.

They come from distant lands, like Africa and Afghanistan, so I've never seen them growing in the wild, but I think they must look amazing.

Their botanical names are Greek to me, but they have cute common names, like Chocolate Soldier, Split Rock, and Baby Toes. I think a couple of them look like the goofy plant in The Little Shop of Horrors. I'm taking a couple of the pots to Dave, Deb and Molly when we meet tomorrow at the park for a picnic because they like unusual plants, too.

I'm just very drawn to all these tiny plants.

Anyway, this is what has held my attention for a moment. I'm taking a class (big surprise there) May 15, and it's a brand new adventure that I'll tell you about later.