Repotting

a few weeks ago, i repotted the jade plant which has outgrown its pot. it was like a tug of war between myself and the plant. the plant has probably spent at least 2 years in its old pot. after shaking and pulling, the plant finally came out of its old pot.
the roots has formed around the pot

the plants soon-to-be new home. see the upgrade.. hehe.

here's how i repot my plant: (according to my own method)

• mix the potting mix and compost. i used a 1:1 ratio. for pot of that size i probably used about 10-12 cups of potting mix and compost each.

• i mix the both mixes in the wheel barrow. (round about this time, you can mix some slow release fertiliser with the mix)
  
• then i find 3 stones to place on top of the drainage holes. (remember the khb txtbooks?) so as not to block the drainage of the pot.

• then i fill about 12-15cm of mixes in the new pot and then stand the plant together with its old mix inside the pot and start filling up the mix.
• after potting, i ensure they have a good drink of water.
  

plant settling in its new home. hopefully next year, the plant would be taller :) i am already seeing new growths after repotting.

Minnesota - City of Lakes (Part 2)

This is a continuance of previous post about the highlights of my stay in minnesota.
i particularly liked these peanuts gang statutes scattered about in the city park in St Paul.They look so cute..they were taken couple of weeks before i arrived.


by the time i went,the grounds were covered with snow..


other highlights were :
disney on ice

christmas decors by marshall fields - apparently marshall fields (a nationwide dept store) puts up a christmas display in their shop every year.
it was colorful and some special effects was used throughout..i thoroughly enjoyed the display. the 2005 display was the Cinderella.

steven curtis chapman and mercy me concert - it was my first time going to christian concert.
it was a great blessing for me. i probably shed some tears along the way as i was very moved by the songs.

Minnesota - City of Lakes

jake has finally burned our trip photos from his laptop to dvd. we took so many picst. i will just summarise the highlight of each of my destination. stuffs i remembered fondly..

minnesota- is a state located in the midwest of US of A. so in winter it gets pretty cold (much colder than in NZ and it snows too) It has two city; Minneapolis and St Pauls. I stayed in Roseville which is 10mins away from Minneapolis.

things i like most about Minnesota:

ppl were very friendly. it reminded me of good old adelaide.

the highlights for me were: (in no particular order)

• the sculptured garden (although i was frozen into my bones)

Left: Sculptured garden feature was covered with snow







Right: 3 weeks earlier, jake snapped the pic at the sculptured garden

• minnesota insitute of art (jake has to drag me out from the place)
• watching a NBA game (between timberwolves(Minnesota team) and LA (not lakers but clippers)

left: cheerleading squads. they change their costume and location several times in the game.







right: Crunch, the Timberwolves mascot.

eye soother

i decided to do picture blog today. been busy plus lazy..is there such a combination of feeling/mood?
been to the library today ..raided the gardening magazines and almost broke my shoulder carrying those reading materials in my library bag.
anyhow,these are the pics I took of flora & fauna following my trip to lake matheson in south island. it was an hour's walk and i lose count of the number of types of ferns I saw.
i only took pictures of the ones i haven't seen b4..i believe some are moss like plants. they are so pretty ..and they sooth the eyes

sempervivums, echeverias and what not

i have been struck by gardening bug lately. In Style magazine don't really get my attention, and I been reading gardening magazine a lot..cc said i have turned into the Ultimate Si Lai. My interest in horticulture probably runs inthe family.. i have uncles and mom who's into all sorts of plants. one probably dominates the orchid scene in sarawak/malaysia and one owns a nursery.

anyhow, i have acquired some sempervivum and echeverias when i last went to the hospice shop. i actually went to check out bric-a-brac but discovered the volunteer has brought in those plants.

sempervivum and echeverias are a type of succulents. they are mostly a bunch of hardy and tough cookies and i like them in my garden given that they thrive well with or without attention.

sempervivum and echeveria forms rosette like structures and they are quite colorful.
they produce long stems of flowers (true for echeveria)

here are my humble collection:

good ol's fish & chups

thanks everybody's for your concern regarding my pc. it has improved slightly but MSN Messenger is still dead. i am too lazy to do anything further at this stage. i mean i have reinstalled MSN Messenger but it still refused to function.so i am using windows messenger. ancient version of MSN messenger.

anyways just want to blog about a place we went when my parents were here.
we drove past the Fishmonger and decided to stop by for quick supper. Fishmonger is a fish and chip shop ; a modern one with clean look but still smell greasy..has salads to choose from.

we decided to try the hapuka fish with potato and kumara (sweet potato) chips
the fish comes with slices of lemon and it's absolutely divine to have the fish with the lemon juice.

btw, the Fishmonger is located at parnell road.

i just googled and if you guys are interested can take a look at the website
they actually have another shop in remuera.

p/s: notice the cute vinegar bottle ;) doesn't it remind you of the minyak cap kapak bottle? KEKE

sick pc

my pc's currently not its usual self. it's taking ages to load etc.

and worst of all, my msn messenger won't start. even after i reinstall. something is wrong with my connection :(

i hope the problem can be sorted soon.

other than that, have been busy at work with month end. reconciliation after reconciliation.
i get bugged so much by all sorts of people at work too, argh. some wanted to know where these figure has gone to, some wants to know why this figure was found there..etc...fortunately i have a really cool boss. i have nicknamed my boss my tuition teacher (TT) ;) hehe. TT is what i called godsend ...TT has taught me many tricks in the past couple of weeks. :D