Something Nasty Under the Piano

This has happened before. . . I go around turning off lights and locking doors as I turn in for the night and as I walk through the orangerie I catch an unpleasant whiff. I think to myself that there may be something dead in here again.

In the morning, I steeled myself and had a look under the piano (the location of the last dead animal). In addition to a large amount of dust and a couple of cat toys, there was once again a dead shrew under the piano. Julio must bat them under there and not be able to get them out again. I got the cat toys and dead shrew out. The toys were returned to the cat and the shrew was thrown on the fire. Then I cleaned up the dust. Do you know how hard it is to dust UNDER a piano? Well, it's a bit more difficult than dusting the top of the thing.
Here is the space under the piano which is now free of cat toys and small dead rodents.

After I cleaned out under the piano, I found myself in dusting/cleaning mode. Julio, who was reanimated by the return of his cat toys was hanging around being helpful. He helped one of my orchids onto the floor. Remember this orchid? Well terracotta pots and tile floors do not mix.
It is on the floor near the other door. Julio is pretending that there is something very interesting outside and is pretending he doesn't see THIS!!
Close up view - grim, isn't it?

I repotted the orchid in a plastic pot and it is back on a windowsill minus the flowers. I hope next year this orchid will give us a show that is just as beautiful.

Another Glorious Orchid and Home Repair

This particular rescue orchid has really done me proud.

It has two massive flower spikes with many blossom branches coming off the main flower spike. The effect of all this vigour is that the orchid is at its peak just now. It was a pretty pathetic specimen when I bought it last year. The plant itself was nothing to write home about and the one and only small flower spike only had a few drying blossoms still clinging on for dear life.
orchid oncidium

Look at it today! It has made all my efforts really worth it. I have had to support the flower spikes with a few small bamboo sticks. It looks top heavy, doesn't it? It will be re-potted after the flower show is over.

The other orchid that started blooming in August is still going strong. That's three solid months of blossom from that orchid!

On another front, work has started on the damp in a back sitting room. Two south facing rooms have become increasingly and alarmingly damp in the last two years. As yesterday was another rainy day and The Man of the Place was prevented from working out side, he started in on the back sitting room. He disconnected and removed the radiator from the wall and started chipping away at the plaster.

Once the plaster was gone, we could see that a number of the bricks were obviously wet. See above photo with the very noticeable wet patches! My husband then started to remove the inner layer of bricks. Inside the wall cavity (the space between the inner and outer layer of bricks) the insulation that was blown in there at great expense a number of years ago was absolutely sodden. It could be squeezed and water would drip out! This was no longer a damp problem but a water-coming-in-from-somewhere problem. When the insulation was removed we could see that water was almost running inside the wall cavity from outside (it was raining quite heavily outside). It was my guess that water was running down the plate glass window and instead of running off outside, was getting channeled down the inside of the cavity wall. It is no wonder that the room was damp!I think we'll have to take advice from the people who installed our windows years ago and/or advice from our old pal Kevin The Builder.

I am so pleased and proud that I have a husband that can do things like repair our house. It is when a little home owner crisis such as this occurs he really does become The Man of the Place. Himself having a bit of lunch.Foot print in the plaster dust.

Rewards of Houseplant Rescue

Most of the houseplants that I own have either been rescued from certain death at the hands of black thumbed friends or they were scooped from the bargain section of a home improvement superstore or supermarket.

We haven't had any major houseplant overwatering tragedies this year but the citrus trees are sulking a bit. The aphids problem didn't help. I think I've got those little sap sucking pests under control.

Over the course of a couple of weeks last summer I bought some orchid plants. They weren't the usual phalaenopsis or moth orchid that are commonly on offer. These were not-quite-so-common varieties. The flower spikes on these orchids had either run their course or had been accidentally been snapped off. Once a flower spike is gone from an orchid plant, they are difficult to sell. It is hard to sell any blooming plant that doesn't have blossom on full display so the prices on these plants were very very low. I couldn't resist 'em. I've never grown orchids before and I thought I'd give these orphan orchids a shot.

I managed to completely finish off a sorry looking Miltonia. It was really beyond my abilities to save. Perhaps I'll try that one again some day and start with a healthier specimen. This orchid seems to be thriving and has thrown four flower spikes. I thought it was orchid cambria, but now I think that it may have been mislabeled in the shop. It could be orchid cymbidium. Can anybody put me straight? It has graced the Whitelees Cottage dining table for a couple of weeks now. Orchids blossoms last so long and are so beautiful.
Orchid Oncidium (shown above) not only has loads of new aerial roots sticking out all over the place it has also thrown a couple of very large flower spikes. These flower spikes are going to have to be supported as they grow.
Another houseplant, Maranta or Prayer Plant is also in bloom. It is grown more for its foliage than its tiny white flowers, but the fact that it is blooming lets me know that the plant is happy.