What is your Grandmother Name?
hounds_x_two
6 years ago
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Not Your Grandmother's Snake Plant (Sans.)
Comments (9)Heya pirate_girl: I have some problems with Sans getting stalled too. A couple of my Sans-crazy friends say--once your conditions are warm enough--to water and fertilize almost like a tropical, and plant in a larger pot to let the rhizome grow in size. Sansevieria can get stalled when the rhizome is potbound. (Except S pinguicula which doesn't depend on the size of the rhizome in the same way.) And bottom heat keeps 'em moving... I hope that's not a repetition of stuff you've heard a bunch already. I'm still working on implementing those tips on my plants. Sometimes, to get a plant going, another trick is to make a full-strength batch of Miracle Gro (or even 1.5 strength) and let the plant soak in it--fully immersed--for an entire day. That's counterintuitive because we cactus & succulent folk often fertilize at 1/4 or 1/2 strength, but in this trick, we're trying to give the plant a shot in the arm. I have a big Sansevieria suffruticosa 'Spiral' 'Mutomo' which was exploding with stolons and offset when I bought it, but now it's stalled. I'd love to get it going crazy with more spirals and offsets now that summer's basically here. Also, I have some great S pinguicula that I want to start moving. I bought them a year or two ago and they just sit there looking pretty. Whaddya think? Is that in line with the kinds of things you've heard or you're thinking? -- DC...See MoreOur Grandmothers' and Great-grandmothers' kitchens
Comments (30)When I was a small child...until I was about 5 years old...my grandmother lived in the house my great-great grandfather built between the beach and the marsh of the Southern Maine coast. He'd bought a house, reversed the plans, and added a whole extra house worth of a wing. One side faced the ocean, and one, the marsh. They made it into what would now be called a bed and breakfast, I guess, and their guests were hunters in the Fall and bathers in the Summer. Oh, and they served 3 meals and tea every day. They being my great-great grandma and her maid/girl Friday (and my grandma, once she got old enough to help). I don't know what their average guest load was, but I do remember seeing a picture that had been used as an advertising picture post card with the crowd of guests out in front of the Woodbine Cottage...there had to be at least 30 people there. I remember my grandmother telling us how she used to have the chore of picking the meat out of the lobsters. The skin on her hands would turn red, start cracking and sometimes bleed (I don't know why lobster shells do this, but having picked the meat out of 3 at one point, I can believe her). This, so they could put big bowls of lobster meat down the middle of the table for the guests to help themselves. See, lobster at that time was dirt cheap, and for my great-great grandfather, who had his own boat and traps, an economical way to stretch the food costs associated with feeding the guests. My poor grandma still got a flash of anger in her eyes some 50 years later, when she related how the guests would put their cigars out in the bowls containing the remaining lobster when they were done with dinner. They baked all their own bread, made all their own pies and sweets, in fact, cooked everything from scratch...and a far more difficult scratch than people of our generation cook from, if they do! On a WOOD stove/oven. Without a REFRIGERATOR, let alone a dishwasher. In the Winter, they shut down the entire ocean-side wing, and lived in the original house to save heat. I have only the hazy memories of a young child, but I remember that kitchen as small. And as y'all know, generally the things of childhood are usually smaller when visited as an adult. Naturally, by the time my grandma was mistress of that kitchen, with grandchildren underfoot, more modern appliances had been installed. But there was still a narrow, dark stairway going down into a cellar in one corner (I assume that was the root cellar) and a small closet with a toilet in it in the other corner. I don't know what the use of it was before they put a toilet in, maybe a pantry? There was a kitchen table, where we ate, and a window seat (probably a storage chest) where my brother was bedded down after he had his tonsils out, so that he could eat with the family (he got ICE CREAM while I had to eat boring old chicken, potatoes and peas :( Funny the things you remember). With about 6 people around the table, I do remember my grandma having to sidle around the table to serve things, which paints a picture of how small the kitchen was. I have lived with and cooked in a number of small kitchens in my life. The smallest was in a condo I rented, which was called a "junior one bedroom", meaning that it was a studio apartment with a small bedroom tacked on. I could literally stand at the stove stirring a soup, reach over to the sink on my left for some water to add if I'd let it boil down too far, and pivot on one foot to open the fridge behind me to pour myself a glass of wine to sip while I cooked. And yet, you do learn to make do with what you have, if you like to eat well. I cooked a 5 course Japanese dinner for 6 people once in that tiny kitchen. You just learn to prep all your ingredients before you start actually cooking, and you sit down and plan your timing carefully before you begin, picking dishes that can be made ahead or partially ahead, using the minimum of last minute pots, pans and dishes. Yes, our grandmas and great grandmas generally made simpler dishes than we might now, but those simpler dishes were more difficult then. No (or very few) convenience foods, prepackaged mixes or instant ingredients. Recipes weren't as precise either, they couldn't be, because ingredients, measurements and temperatures weren't all that precise either! I shudder to think of trying to bake a loaf of bread or a pie in an oven heated with wood or coal!...See MoreWhat to call step grandmother
Comments (10)never had a step-grandmother, but I called my mother-in-law by her name, & she called me by mine. We were grown-up people, we had known each other before I met her son, & we both knew she wasn't my mother, although I think she sort of loved me (she & her son, my then-spouse, were too close for her to be entirely happy with any woman in his life). & when I was growing up, once I reached some age, I forget what age it was, I called my aunts by their names, without the "aunt". They always treated me like a human being with a brain (back in the day, adults often talked down to kids), & I had wonderful relationships with them. If kids are old enough to be aware of different relationships, they may be more comfortable calling step-grandmother "Doris". or they can call her "Sylvia". Tell 'em I said so LOL!...See MoreOrigin of names for grandmothers
Comments (18)I don't know much about New England naming traditions, but I always wondered why the March girls in Alcott's Little Women affectionately called their mother "Marmee". Was (or Is) this common in New England? Alcott and her books seem quintessentially New England to me, but I have no idea if that is an accurate impression. In my family we called our great-grandmother "Marmie" or "Mormie". That makes sense if Marmie/Mormie are diminutive forms of mormor, Norwegian for mother's mother. Our great-grandmother was an immigrant from the Stavanger district. I had never considered this naming aspect before! It's funny, though. Marmee March seemed such a gentle, warm, and wise parent in contrast to my family's Marmie. Our Marmie was 6 ft 2 in in her stocking feet with hands as wide as bed slats (and "twice as hard" as Harper Lee said of Calpurnia in TKaM). She was extremely taciturn, and her zone of what she considered her personal space was at least a four ft. radius. If someone approached her and got too close, she began backing away from them. She didn't want to be hugged or kissed by anyone, not even her grandchildren. She was not a warm and fuzzy person. In spite of this description, our Marmie was actually a very kind woman. But 'social distancing' would have been no problem for her....See More
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