Hello, my name is Sandy. I'm an artist in Perth, Western Australia.

I’ve been playing a lot of Skyrim. And my backyard has turned into a mad scientist laboratory for plants, sans any actual science equipment. There’s just pots and recycled aluminium cans everywhere. A new rosemary cutting experiment. Three mint plants now.

My life at the moment has petered out to games, gardening, food and football. A nice balance, and I’m interested to see how long this contentment lasts. I seem to have a 3-6 week attention span for things before the feeling of routine starts to get oppressive. But right now is nice for now.

I hope you are well. x

Permalink. Posted 27 November, 2011. Tagged: games, hobbies, skyrim.

Last weekend, I decided to try the mint in a cup thing again. This is a picture from day 2 – by about day 3 or 4, it was covered in tiny brown spots, bugs presumably but I’m not sure. I figured it was done for, so I added a little worm tea (liquid from the compost bin) to the cup to see if it would help. Two days later, my little mint sprouted tiny white roots – yay!

I’m so pleased. :) Thought I had an accursed touch, but turns out sunlight and nutrients really do help plants grow. I’ve since moved this mintlet to a small pot of soil; removed the scungy leaves and buried the rooty part. It’s been 2 days and the remaining leaves haven’t died yet, so I’m optimistic of this guy becoming a healthy, fully grown plant.

These are the references I used for my mint experiments, in case anyone else wants to try:

• How to grow mint indoors (eHow)
• Rooting mint cuttings via water (GardenLab)
• How to raise new mint plants (Gardener’s World)

Permalink. Posted 7 November, 2011. Tagged: cool links, gardening, hobbies, mint in a cup.

When shopping for baubles and finery in China, know that there are 2 types of jade in the market – hard jade and soft jade. Hard jade (known as jadeite) is worth more and usually used for jewellery, while the cheaper soft jade and agate are used for sculptures because they are easier to carve.

To spot a fake is simple – jade has four properties to look out for:

• temperature
• sound
• texture, and
• hardness.

Read the rest of this post…

Permalink. Posted 3 November, 2011. Tagged: china, jade, sandy's notes, shopping.