Loki Versus House Plants: Round 6,741

So in my latest desperate attempt to have green things inside our home for more than five minutes before they are completely decimated by our cats, I've resorted to enclosing everything in glass. That's right-- I'm making moss terrariums.

It seems kind of a stupid idea, honestly. I mean, I live in the Pacific Northwest, for God's sake. The gardeners here spend hundreds of thousands of dollars each year keeping moss off the lawn, roofs, sidewalks, and if they sit still for more than five minutes, cars and/or children, and here I am bringing it indoors and making a centerpiece out of it.

On the other hand, it's free. Also it's green, and I've gotten to the point where I'm so desperate for something green in the house that I actually found myself perusing the fake plant aisle at Michael's the other day. I know there are beautiful silk plants out there now, but I was raised in a family of serious gardeners and therefore look putting at fake plants in my home the way that gourmet chefs probably would look at serving discount store brand frozen pizza in their restaurants. If I'm considering buying those, I'm at the end of my rope. I want Connor to realize that plants grow leaves, and if they fall off you can't just snap them back on. Not that moss is really going to do that, but it's a start anyway. Plus, when it's raining outside for eight months out of the year and getting dark at 3:30 in the afternoon during the winter, you tend to spend a lot of time indoors, which is why I go a little crazy, I think, if I don't see some sort of growing thing inside my house other than the mildew that constantly tries to take over my kitchen and bathroom.

I might add that I'm also really cheap, and the thought of buying a more expensive substitute when I can grow the real thing for pennies really bothers me. Also those silk plants look real enough now that Loki would probably shred them anyway, just on principal.

So after Connor's therapy session yesterday, I ran by one of my favorite thrift stores and picked up a couple of neat containers. I went out into my lawn, dug up an appropriate patch of moss, plunked it in the jar, threw in a couple of rocks for good measure, and voila! Terrariums.

Loki immediately had to explore these strange things. That's my hand in the corner of the picture-- I was totally convinced he was going to take one look at them, think-- "Aha! Plants!" and swipe the glass containers off the counter. Instead he gave me a look of disgust and stalked off. I mean, how dare I think he's that stupid!

As if he's going to destroy them while I'm around. Of course he knows better. He'll wait until it's two a.m. on a night I've stayed up too late watching a horror movie and am lying awake in bed, convinced there's someone sneaking into my house wearing a ski mask and carrying a machete.


Crazy cat.



~Jess