Beatrice, 1

The Cold One has left me. It is very sad. I weep.

But she gets to live in London and tour Europe. I can't fault her for that.

Upon leaving me, she also left one of her dependents, Beatrice, in my care. I think this might be fun. Beatrice came to us last year. She and her sister, Viola, lived out on our back porch. When I got home from Jerusalem, The Cold One was in Florida and had left me instructions to please take good care of them. I had not yet developed my green thumb with plants. In fact, I was even really bad about taking care of my garden. Needless to say, I forgot to water them and they nearly died. Luckily, The Cold One came back and saved the day. Nursed back to health, they bloomed beautifully for the rest of the summer. When winter came, they were moved inside where no one actually expected them to live. We had prepped ourselves all summer to let them go when the weather got cold. Miraculously, they survived. The Cold One was very attentive and talked to them quite often. Spare Oom became the PICU (Plant Intensive Care Unit). Several other plants of mine that were dying got moved back there for Cold One to save. Over the winter, I developed my green thumb and started saving plants instead of killing them. Soon most of the plants were moved out of PICU and into to the rest of the house. Beatrice and Viola stayed in PICU, due to their fragile state.

Sadly, Viola became infested with bugs and we had to let her go before she spread the disease to the other plants. It was a mournful day. Beatrice held strong, however. She is one tough cookie. That doesn't mean she was healthy, by any means. Although she had new growth, she also had many dead or dying leaves and stalks. Sadly, much of the new growth was at the end of the dying stalks.

This morning, The Cold One officially moves out, placing Beatrice in my care. In my first move as Caretaker, I decided to give Beatrice a hair cut...cut her back so that she can grow more beautifully. I figure if the dead parts were gone, she could focus her energy and strength and nutrition more on the living parts. In order to make The Cold One's separation more bearable, I have decided to document the life of Beatrice whilst she is away. Thus, here are pictures of Beatrice's hair cut.

Here is Beatrice, post haircut. She's looking a bit sparse, but we're hoping for her to fill out again as summer comes and we can move her outside.

Note all of the trimmings around her. Also, please note the brownness of the trimmings and the greenness of Beatrice. This is happy. The pile next to her reminds me greatly of when I get a hair cut and it looks like there's a dead cat on the floor. I think Beatrice and I are kindred spirits.


Until next time... pray for Beatrice.