May Lotito

Rag rug from recycled fabric? It can be crocheted, braided or woven. I saw this one in an antique shop:

Welcome to the forum, Heather!  I agree with Anna the pot is getting small for all that foliage and soil is probably exhausted. It is easy to fix. Just pull the whole root ball out and tease the roots apart. Clip away any rotten or dead roots. You can either divide it into more pots or increase the pot size. Regular potting mix would work, though some are of better quality than others. Your peace lily will likely respond with blooming afterwards.

My collection of kalanchoe is growing steadily. They are colorful and start blooming in winter for months.  Last year I bought this one in fuchsia. It looked a bit artificial, maybe the blooms were forced with fertilizer. It has tripled in size and grown into a little flowering bush. I make my own potting mix with clay added so it is heavy enough to balance the weight of the plant.

Here are my lacto fermented daikon and sunchoke. The yellow color is from boiled turmeric water.

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John C Daley wrote:I am reading about the big storm you have at the moment, why are power poles not made stronger so they can carry the weight of the ice as it builds up?

The power companies have standards to follow regarding the risks of ice storm for each region. Usually power outage is from broken tree limbs overhead, breaking the power line and taking down poles. Power companies would hire companies to trim or cut down trees that might be safty hazard. It's good enough for most cases but not rare and catastrophic events like the 1998 Ice Storm.

They are black soldier fly larvae. Typically the younger instars are light in color but if the food source has tannin or other pigments the skin can be stained and the grubs appear darker. They are voracious eaters and recycle food scraps quickly. When they are present, fly larvae are out competed. Since adult black soldier flies don't eat and thus won't get into the house and contaminate fresh food like pesty flies do.

Jay Angler wrote:OT - sorry, but I had to ask...
Does that mean that you've got Lotus growing? ( Nelumbo nucifera )

Yes, I have a flowering variety for the petals (tea), seeds (edible when young) and seed heads. I also grow a non-flowering type for edible roots. I do have to dig up rhizomes for overwintering indoors. According to Judith, it's easy to sprout and grow: https://permies.com/p/3161635 It's a versatile plant if kept contained.
Other plants used above are: cockscomb, stonecrop, broomcorn and iris.

I did some flower arrangements with dried plant materials from my garden. One is western bouquet in a bamboo ikebana bowl and the other is in minimalism style with self made vase.

I don't have a heat mat or other gadgets to keep temperature constantly above 70F/21C.  However, by the sunny window, solar radiation can warm up the surface significantly.  So I was wondering if the brief hot period is sufficient to make seeds sprout and tested out the idea. I bought one dragon fruit and ate most of it. Then I smeared some pulp with seeds on a damp paper towel enclosed in a ziplock bag. I placed the bag where it received a few hours of afternoon sun. Room temperature fluctuated from 58 to 70F ( 14 to 21 C). I didn't measure the maximum temperature while in the sun but it felt warmer than my body temperature. I started on 1/16 (10 days ago)and we had stormy and cloudy days since. Total warm period would be less than 20 hours above 70F. Nevertheless, today I opened the bag and saw several seeds sprouting! If anyone has seeds that need warmth to germinate, maybe you can try this trick.

I use tightly woven fabric for filling down/feather: sewing three sides and stitch down the channels; fill in equal amount of materials in each channel; stitch the side shut and even out the fillings; stitch a perpendicular line in the middle; then do the same at 1/4 line etc until fillings are secured in the grids. I make a duvet cover that is 30% smaller in both dimensions and put the insert in. There is no need to use ties or anything to hold the two together because of the pressure and friction. And the resulting duvet has a lot of loft and is smaller than the flat cover. This is a hindsight though because I intended to made a full size and it turned out to be a short twin.