Clematis, Weird Wednesday, Thankful Thursday

 

Because the weather in April was so mixed and unreliable, I left my trellis "under cover" (fiber cloth) all month. When I finally removed it on 30th April, I found my clematis in bloom! Only a few flowers, though - with a lot of bare branches in between, after the past harsh winter. I think when it has ceased flowering, probably time to cut back the whole plant and see if I can start over once again from one or two green shoots at the very bottom... (I've done that before. (The origin of the plant I still have is one I had on the balcony at my previous flat - and this summer it will be 16 years since I moved!) 

Sometimes I wish I could do the same with myself! ;-) Yesterday (1st May) I woke up feeling dizzy and unwell, with no real clue why. It reminded me of a vertigo attack back in January 2023, which also came from "nowhere" - but at the same time a bit different, and seemed more connected to neck pain this time (my neck being a "weak spot" since way back). Perhaps I had just been lying in some weird position. On the other hand, I also felt kind of nauseous, with a slightly upset stomach as well, so maybe something I'd eaten? (But what?) 

The only thing that stood clear was that in spite of another beautiful and warm spring day outdoors, for me it would be a day best spent at home resting, close to bed and bathroom... 

Going with the theory that it may be to do with my neck, I took out my TENS unit, which I havn't been using much lately, but for many years (after an accident) used daily. For anyone who may not know, TENS stands for transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation and is a method of pain relief involving a mild electrical current, and the machine is a small, battery-operated device that has leads connected to sticky pads called electrodes. After two 30 min rounds with that (with an hour or two in between) I actually did feel better. (Not sure that really says anything about what was the cause in the first place, though.) I still didn't feel hungry but decided I probably had better eat something anyway, so I made pancakes (four small ones) and ate two of those with apple sauce for lunch. In the afternoon I felt okay enough to sit for a while at the computer and put in a blog post. That was just about all I did that day, though. Fell asleep for a while in my TV chair in the afternoon. Gave myself another TENS treatment. Had two more pancakes for supper and went to bed early.

And this morning I woke up feeling pretty much "normal" - enough to go ahead with today's chores, including changing the sheets on my bed, cleaning the bathroom, and doing three loads of laundry in the afternoon (in our common laundry room in the basement). Also back to normal intake of food.

Someone else referred to the "Thankful Thursday" theme on their blog today - which made me ponder about the fact that normally, when I can, I book the laundry room for Wednesday afternoons. This week, because Wednesday was 1st May, and a holiday, I had booked it for Thursday. (We're allowed to book it also on holidays now, but out of old habit I still usually avoid doing that.) Anyway - this week I'm "weirdly" thankful that I had not planned to do laundry on Wednesday, because if I had, I wouldn't have been well enough to go through with it. Whereas today, I was!

Tomorrow I'm having a "truckload" of groceries delivered around noon, so hoping I'll still be feeling up to dealing with that. (At least delivery means I don't need to go anywhere! But it does still involve quite a lot of bending and lifting...) 

Probably better be off to bed now!

Life of a Clematis

'Baby' Clematis, July 2020

A few weeks ago, I decided to do some radical tree surgery on my Clematis Alpina plant that had been living on my balcony for 11 years. It seemed old and tired, with only some life at the top, but a meter or so of old bare branches below, also entangled with remaining dead branches from a another dead clematis already removed (it was another kind of clematis, less hardy than the Alpina). But also a little bit of promising new green at the bottom...

So I decided to try and save that green part at the bottom. I cut out a chunk of the roots underneath, and planted it in a smaller pot, which I placed indoors on the window sill in my study. 

It immediately started producing new runners (is that the word?) climbing up the little trellis. It has even produced a flower bud already! My plan (fingers crossed) is to keep it indoors over winter, then give it a bigger pot again in the spring, and put it outside again next summer. 

If it works, that will be amazing, because this plant actually comes from one that I had for years on the balcony at my previous flat. When I moved from there to here - 12 years ago - that plant was as tall as the one I cut down now; and I realized I would not be able to move it (trellis and all). So back then I just took some cuttings from it and hoped those would survive. The cuttings did grow roots, and the plant survived the first winter in the new flat in a small pot indoors; and was then moved out on the balcony the following spring.

Here are some photos from my archives:

Left: 'Grandma' Clematis on the balcony at my previous flat, May 2008.
Top right: 1 year old 'Mama' Clematis on my new balcony, June 2009.
Bottom right: Tired old 'Mama' Clematis still on the same spot, April 2020.

 

Clematis Alpina

The clematis on my balcony are in bloom - again. Each year in spring I am astonished at their ability to survive the winter out there. 

When I first uncovered them this year (I wrap them up in fibre cloth for winter and hope for the best...), I was almost certain that the one on the left must have died, as there were no signs of life at the bottom...

Further up on the trellis, the branches of the two plants are all entangled in each other though, and it's impossible to sort them out from one another. 

 So one has to wait for the flowers before one can tell.

And again it turned out that after all there is still life in both plants - revealed by the fact that the flowers are different colours!