Still blooming through the winter!

I have been beaten down by a number of things before and since last post, and I thank all of you who are supportive. It was extremely nice to visit some friends on Christmas Eve. It has also been nice to make budding, new connections. (Ahem.)
` However, I still sometimes go out and get high off handling dirt, mostly removing male pine cones from the sedums and iceplants. I know it's been a while since I've posted succulent photos, and I have so many new plants I haven't shown on my blog (although I have on Facebook).

"October Plant" sedum, still blooming in January!

I am actually planning to back-post some photos, showing what they have looked like over the months. Right now marks the first time I've loaded and edited some photos on this "new" computer I got on Black Friday. I had extended technical difficulties both with my health and with this laptop, but now everything seems in working order.
` It also amazes me what one can be motivated to do when the neighbor's cat spends his time on your desk area. You know, where my stuff is supposed to be organized, but keeps getting unorganized? He enjoys playing a part in that. And so we got him a cat perch so that doesn't happen. It works, too!

Chester is the most affectionate, happy, energetic cat I can hope to indulge.

The first time I turned on this laptop since last post was the day after writing it, when I probably took half an hour or so to figure out how to find WordPad, and then wrote a large part of a script for a new video. The second time I turned on this laptop was at the beginning of the year, when I started writing this blog post, and then rounded up some video clips for my next video.
` I was able to find all but the one with the music on it. I also found a video editing program, but my computer was too slow to run it.
` Not only was this laptop incredibly slow, but the left shift key didn't work. I had actually found these things when I bought this laptop, but then I caught a severe sinus infection and was brutally ill for about a month, and two courses of antibiotics. While I was sick, I thought perhaps that these problems were not real, but a result of my being incompetent.
` No, they're definitely not because of me.
` So I took this laptop to the tech support part of the electronic store... and it worked perfectly. Apparently, there were some Windows Updates slowing it down, or something, but they didn't happen in the store. And the corner of the shift key popped back out. Spontaneously! It works now!
` So, here's some more sedum photos:

The giant red "Jelly Beans" sedum, in comparison to my hand.

The small red sedums are getting reddish, some of the purples and yellows are starting to stand out as well. This is what it looks like with minimal weeding and pine cone dumping -- still not bad!
  

Here is another photo of the October Plant with other sedums, as well as iceplants, fuzzy lamb's ear, and up behind the pink flowers is a blue Eschevaria, also with pink flowers growing high. There are also a few male pine cones around, but who is counting?

Did I mention this is January?

The green sedum is also still blooming one pink branch. The surrounding yellow and purple sedums are mostly green this time of year, but still provide contrast.

Here is the same green sedum, but now you can see all the plants around it, including a Sempervivum, just to the left.

Here is the same area, but looking at it from a different angle -- an angle from which I have many photos over the months, showing the comings-and-goings of different plants and their blossoms.

Another shot of the jelly beans (S. rubrotinctum), but with a better view of its other neighbors, one of which is large and frilly (S. takesimense?).

Flanking the giant red-turning sedum are "regular-sized" red-turning sedums.

This yellow one is a Japanese species called Sedum makinoi or "Ogon", its delicate leaves doing just fine after being covered in snow and ice!

Nearby is a small bit of sedum, poking out from betwixt the iceplants. It has perplexed me before as to its identity, and has turned from red and white to bluish...

I had thought it was literally a bizarre-looking offshoot of the small red sedum, because I saw one that looked like both species combined. Now, I think it must be a piece of a S. spathulifolium, cape blanco, because I planted one of those, it came to look very similar, and also turned bluish:

I also have some nice magenta and green going here (S. spurium?), near a lamb's ear and a Sempervivum.

To end with, here is a photo taken on January 15, a day in which there were few male pine cones to be seen anywhere among the plants!

I only wish that my life was as tidy as this garden. Things have been rough for me over the past few months. One of the more recent developments is that I wrote a letter to my grandmother telling her about what's been going on with me and the family all this time, why I don't talk to my mom (which she could never understand before), and even that my mom has been avoiding her. Like when my mom visits Ohio, she doesn't always tell my grandma.
` I feel terrible about keeping that a secret, especially since my grandma has been wondering about all this stuff and I can never seem to articulate what's going on over the phone. Now I can finally be honest with her! What effect this has had, I don't know, but I'm sick of lying.

My life never ceases to be full of situations to resolve.

I have another story I can tell you, about why I don't have glasses for eye strain, even though I finally ordered them in December. But I will spare you that until next time, when I get it all sorted out!