(no subject)

Okay, so maybe spending four and a half hours training on the first day I woke up not feeling sick wasn't such a good idea.

The first 2.5hours had felt really good though. And I'm still trying to figure out where evening training fits in to thing. Generally, if I'm a little sick, a few hours of taiji and a lot of water will help me get better. Wushu, OTOH, would usually be a bad idea. Practice was light, I knew I was pushing stuff a little in the evening, and I probably should have had more water, too. I tried to tip things back in my favor by having a giant bowl of veggie pho afterwards... but while I am not horribly ill, I'm tired and achey. That my hands and feet aching is usually the first sign that I'm getting sick is not my favorite thing.

(I'm pretty sure I will be up for Taiji tonight. I'm going to work and nap at home this afternoon, though.)

wee basils

BTW, anyone looking for some nice little basil starts?

After I moved some from the last bunch into a larger pot, I started a bunch more. They are doing very well. Of course, the large plants are also doing well, and have in fact decided that they are in fact lettuce and must produce the huge basil leaves of doom. I'm thinking I perhaps have less room for more wee basils than I'd thought. But they are small, cute, and healthy, and free to good homes (though I'm not up for going much out of my way to get them to good homes.)

Wee Basils, part two

Just to elaborate on the situation -- I have eleven small basils. Small enough I'd prefer to give everyone at least two of them.

They will need to be kept warm. Basil is very temperature sensitive. These all have been living happily on a propagation mat that keeps the soil temperature around 70 degrees -- but you don't need to go to these extremes. However, if they're put in a cool window cill they will at least fail to thrive, and if the temperature drops below 50 degree they will almost certainly die. Basils often do well on the top of computers, refrigerators, and in other warm spots.

They will also need supplemental light. Even in a nice south facing window there isn't going to be enough light this time of year for them to grow. If it's warm they probably won't die, but it's just not the same... Supplemental light means a nice bright full spectrum light of some kind. Indoor Sun Shoppe has some nice little lights for about $20 -- and you can get perfectly workable CF bulbs to put in your own lamp for a lot less than that. No need to invest in a metal halide lamp or anything. But they need light, and it must be bright (which means for a small lamp it should be right above the plants.)

BTW, this is not to suggest that I will refuse to give you basil because I don't think you'll provide a good home. If you think your setup will work, that's good enough for me. These are just guidelines I've found useful, having had my own sometimes tragic history with growing basil indoors in winter. Like everything else, it's not hard at all as long as you have the right gear.

They should also be given some kind of fertilizer every week or two for optimal growth ;-)