#'cause the lamp isn't that bright and it has yellow light and all but it is what it is

[a-s-levynn]

"When you're alone / I am granting you more than / The debt that I owe" A Series of Small Offerings - II/5 - day13

#a series of small offerings #i was genuinly started to work on the other line for today and somehow at the halfway point it started to feel more fitting to this one #but i still feel like it could work with the other one as well.. so let's just say this works with Higher in general #i really really like how this one turned out actually even with all it's imperfections and #my shitty desk light killing the quality but like it's pitch black after 17:00 so not much to do really #'cause the lamp isn't that bright and it has yellow light and all but it is what it is #btw the other line was: And we are exhausted by all this pretending / We just can't resist the violence #sleep token fanart #sleep token #vessel #vessel i #vessel sleep token #sleep token vessel #levynn tries to draw

[arctic-hands]

I hadn't watered Hortensia since I moved in June because at first I thought jostling her around with dry, somewhat solid soil would be less traumatic than being jostled with wet, soft soil, and then after we moved in we had a horrendous gnat problem and I didn't want them to breed in moist soil. They're mostly gone now, but it's been four months since her last water. But she's a succulent so like. She can survive drought stress.

The real trouble began when I was in the hospital for nine days and no one turned her grow light on daily while I was gone, then like the day after I get home the bulb dies and it was impossible to find a grow bulb at the right wattage for that lamp for cheap so thanks to capitalism breeding waste it was more effecient to just buy a new lamp, which finally came in late yesterday but by then I was too tired to assemble it. And even if it had been sunny lately (it hasn't) and we didn't have the blinds down for privacy, the window doesn't get much light to begin with. So she's been without light for like three and a half weeks now.

Meanwhile like most of her bottom leaves had drooped and bent irreparably, so after I set up the new lamp I had to shear off those leaves and cauterize with what little cinnamon I had on hand, and then water her for the first time in like three months.

Poor thing. When I cut off the bad leaves and set them aside, instead of barely oozing thick clear aloe vera goop they immediately began oozing thin yellow juice. No idea what that means, and I'm hesitant to go to the succulent reddit because if the general site's recent shittiness, but I'm pretty sure it's not a healthy sign. On top of that, the soil was so dried out and compact that it became hydrophobic and the water just sloshed around the top for a few minutes before finally being absorbed, so at the end of the process I had to go around what was left of the bottom leaves with a paper towel to absorb the droplets before they caused rot.

So like. Hortensia's survival is a bit dicey right now 😬 I've been saying after I killed Charlie Vera that if Hortensia dies I'm not getting a new one, but it's been two and a half years of Hortensia and I like having something green in the home, especially in winter time. So idk.

Anyway, the new lamp is super bright. Dunno if that's a great thing in general or in this specific circumstance. I extended it as tall as it would fit in the alcove, but Hortensia's middle leaves are still pretty tall and I'll prolly have to move the setup within the year if she survives. Dunno what I'll do if she gets light/sunburn, as that lamp isn't adjustable in brightness.

Also I'm amazed that baby aloe made it, tho it's barely grown recently. On that note, last time I put Hortensia under drought stress (early on, out of abundance of caution after over watering Charlie to the point of root rot), she spawned like five babies almost immediately so we'll see what happens next.

[Image Description: A decently tall aloe vera plant in a large plastic pot comprised of many neutral faces emerging out of the pot all around it. The aloe, along with the inner leaves standing straight up, has many leaves extending up and out towards the sides. The aloe is lacking leaves on the very bottom, and towards the back the stump of a leaf is visible. The leaves are a vibrant green, but noticeably paler where the leaves meet the center of the plant. In the front of the pot is a baby aloe with a few leaves about three inches high. The pot and aloe rests in a window alcove with the blinds drawn, with cloudy darkness visible between the slats. A table lamp with a flat, rectangular head of many small LEDs is curved over the plant, bathing it in bright light and washing everything else out. To the left in the alcove, a silver tabletop Christmas tree is halfway seen. End I.D.]

#aloe vera #succulents #plant care #plantblr #the hopefully successful succulent story of hortensia vera