Our youngest grandson is 8 years old. And, as is customary for every child at one time or another, a few days ago he decreed he was running away from home.

He took great care in packing his backpack, stuffing it full of all his favorite books.

Yes, books.

📖

Because if you’re striking out on your own, you only take necessities, right?

Turns out there was a monkey wrench in his great plan, because the backpack full of books was too heavy for him to pick up, much less carry. He asked his mom, then his brother, if they’d carry his books so he could run away. Both calmly declined, stating a preference for life indoors with air conditioning. (It was on its way to about 105ºF that day.)

Since he couldn’t convince either to carry his books to help him run away, he decided it was worth the sacrifice to stay home.

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I bought a modestly-sized monstera plant I think around 3 weeks ago, happy to find it for a good price. ($15. for the record.) He was well rooted and healthy. G named him Barry. For some reason I’d gotten the impression monsteras are a slow growing house plant, though they can definitely grow to be quite large.

Ummm… about that…

I got a grow light because I knew it was something we needed. Plants need light to flourish and indoor plants don’t get a lot of light, at best. So I got a mid-sized grow light and plunked it over Barry, where it cast a suitably bright light.

Barry seems to be happy with his circumstances. He’s green and growing. In fact, he’s growing much faster than I expected, gaining several inches in less than a week. I need to move him away from the light within the next day or two, or risk his leaves being burnt.

Oops.

I bought the light less for Barry than to hopefully get some coleus seeds to germinate. I bought some rare seeds and some not-so-rare ones, so here’s hoping we get SOMETHING from them.

The rare varieties are shown at the top of the page – the deep purple at left (I don’t know the name of that one) and the red-splashed at the right, called Black Dragon. Of the two I have at least a middling hope the Black Dragon might grow. Here’s hoping

But I’m also pragmatic enough to know it’s a crap shoot with seeds, even if I do everything by the book. So I hedged my bets and bought some less exotic seeds from Wally World.

The package is shown at right, before I emptied it into a seedling tray.

More common coleus is still perfectly fine with me. If I can get even a couple of healthy plants to sprout & grow, I’ll be a happy camper.

I’ve seen this plant growing outdoors in temperate climates,, as an annual. I’d love to grow them outdoors here, but that ain’t gonna happen. I’d have baked coleus. Guess I have to be content with an indoor garden.

Meanwhile my daughter-in-law sent me a photo this morning — of snow in southern Iowa. She said they hoped it wouldn’t mess with their peach tree, which was covered with blooms. Thankfully peaches are pretty resiliant. They may lose some blooms, but it’ll bounce right back.