On Sunday I tried to revive the ill plant I bought last week. More than half of the plant was affected by an illness of some kind.

I took the plant of out of its pot. Some of the stems were dead, and a few more had large black spots on the part between roots and stem. Perhaps it was some sort of fungus. I threw away the stems that were visibly affected, and placed the healthy parts into separate pots. I felt a bit like a plant surgeon.

I hope that, by placing the cuttings in separate pots, at least one will get to survive. I've placed them on the window-sill where they'll get plenty of sunlight.

Before the operation.

During the operation I felt a bit like a surgeon. Let's hope the patient survived.

After the operation. I hope that at least one of the cuttings will survive and grow back into a healthy plant.

This weekend we bought a few plants for in the living room. We went to Lowe's, a hardware store with a garden center and we got three large plants and two small ones.

I was very happy to see a Starfish flower, the same cactus that my grandmother gave me four years ago. It was the last of this type they had in store, and it's in pretty bad shape.

I still bought the cactus. It's a nice challenge to see if I can get this plant back into shape or if it will die within a few weeks. Currently it's on the bar, and I'll leave it alone for a few days so it can adjust to the temperature in our house.

The sales price is $4.95, but the lady sold me the plant for a dollar because of its sad state. All plants from Lowe's have a one year warranty -- should they die I can go back to the store and get my money back.

Yesterday we bought our first new plant in Durham.

Unfortunately we had to leave two plants in Arlington, but they were quickly adopted by other people on our floor in the week before we left.

This plant I saw the other day at Kroger, and it's a type that we used to have in Haarlem as well. It's dense, compact and has a nice light green color.

Yesterday evening we went out in Durham, in a bar called Satisfaction. Around 10.00 pm they started a karaoke session, which was surprisingly very entertaining. I did not get on stage (a next time) but we song for many hours. A fun evening, we were home around 2.00 am.

When we left to the U.S., many friends and family members offered help in moving house, arranging things storing our belongings, which made leaving a lot less stressfull than it would have been without their help.

One of the thing I'm especially grateful for was the fact that all our plants from the Hooimarkt found a nice new home. They are now in many cities in Holland: Leeuwarden, Leiden, Amsterdam and Alkmaar, as well as in Middenmeer.

The other day I received this nice picture from Jerry and Marjolein, showing that the plants are doing fine.

These three plants all have their own story. The first one, on the left, is a cutting from a plant in Florijn. In 1997 I moved to my first apartment when I started my study in Amsterdam. The first time I came to see the house, this plant was in the livingroom of the apartment, left by the previous renters. It was without any water and in a pretty bad shape. I gave it some water, and came back two months later after our trip to China. The plant was still there, and still alive. The original plant is now in my old bedroom in Middenmeer, with my parents.

The plant in the middle is a cutting from a cactus that my grandmother Groen had in her apartment. It's remarkable because it can grow really fast and has beautiful flowers when it blooms.

The third plant is a cutting from the plant that my parents received when I was born, so in a since it's just as old as I am. Unfortunately, this plant is vulnerable to a disease that killed several other cuttings already.

The other day I got a present from Tibor and Janneke: a small funny plant called Split Rock. It looks like a green stone, its latin name is Pleiospilos Nelii.

I left it on my desk this weekend, and this morning I saw a small flower has grown.

Because I don't like winter I'm always optimistic about the coming of the spring.

Our plants seem to share this optimism.

---

This is (a part of) the plant from Florijn.

The end of March it will be 6 years ago since I moved into Florijn and found it there.

This winter we'll take care of somebody's plants. They'll go abroad for a couple of months and they left 4 big plants in the halway. It's nice to have so much green in the house.

Today's is the last day before my test.

Oma and Paula just left.

They were here for the first time and brought us some really nice presents: plants!

I was reading my book on the couch (on rooted bisimulational convergence), when somebody called. The moment I hang up the phone I looked out of the window, and guess what I saw... the cactus is blooming! It's very beautiful, click here for a big picture.