Hope

The lotus seed I'd all but given up on? Well today it sprouted a shoot! I had to check it wasn't the second seed being super wonderful, but no, the first one was just a bit of a slow starter.
Now I'll have to get my pot organised.
Think I'll start with a bucket first, but will need to organise the pot quick smart, it would be nice to have it sealed and ready to go.

My little nugget of hope.

I'm thinking about getting my act into gear and doing some painting again. I have a lotus picture I want to experiment with, and a few ideas for a big canvas that could either be really lame, or rather funky.

The seed

I decided to stop putting it off and just do it. I'm trying to germinate a lotus seed.

1. Scratch off an area of the hard, outer seed coat to expose the seed inside so water can penetrate
2. Keep scratching
3. Realise why lotus seeds survive unscathed for over 2000 years. I've scratched the tops of my fingers, and the seed coat looks unblemished.
4. Finally get through to the seed
5. Place in jar of warm water
6. Change water daily, keeping jar in a warm, sunny spot.
7. Have the two coldest days of the year so far immediately after. Tropical Queensland only ever gets this cold for about 2 weeks. So of course its the day after I start trying to germinate the lotus that this winter snap begins.
8. Persevere anyway.

Will keep you updated on the progress of the lotus seed. I'm hoping as a symbol of longevity and fertility, and beauty from adversity, its going to bring some seriously good cosmic karma my way.

On a slightly more positive garden note, the fig tree my dog dug up (TWICE) has actually sprouted a new bud after some serious trauma. Roots started last week after 3 weeks in a bucket of seaweed solution and my first attempt at grafting. Lita managed to amputate the growing shoot, so I salvaged it and tried grafting a bud back onto the rootstock, holding out little hope for the previous graft union. The old graft seems to have survived though, not sure about my attempt - maybe another week or two, doesn't look too healthy, so I'm not holding out a lot of hope.

Going to take a trip to my health insurance fund, try and get some money back on my FET medication scripts. Progesterone ain't cheap. And now I'm stocked up again.

The Lotus

I was walking in one of the local parks the other day, and noticed the lotuses (is there a plural form of lotus?? Loti sounds just stupid), were still blooming. Unusual, as they usually stop blooming early February. Sure, its not like the whole Lotus pond was filled with flowers, but they're still pretty special regardless. Ross River has lots of Lotuses along the edges, and they bloom for a good 6 weeks around Christmas and New year. All of these elegant, blousey flowers towering above the quiet waters of the river. And there is something decidedly sturdy about them as well. The flowers sit a good metre above the waterline, tall and strong, among these large, robust leaves.

The Buddhists revere the Lotus as a symbol of life, something beautiful and wondrous rising out of mud. A symbol of the potential in life, and in all of us.

So I brought home some seeds from one of the dried pods. I was kind of impressed I managed to do it without getting wet to be honest. Usually I try and do something "clever" like that and end up falling into the mud. "Gracefully" of course. Especially if there are a few people watching. I always did enjoy playing in creeks as a child.

But not Sunday. "Graceful" managed to stay out of the water. And get her Lotus seeds.

Now, I just have to save up for a nice big water barrel of some description to put them in! No rush to plant them out I figure, all these articles cited Lotus seeds from various tombs surviving thousands of years, so I think a few months will be quite safe. I just have to decide whether its best to get them going now while the weather is warm, or wait until closer to the growing season at the end of the year. I don't know that the plants really go dormant up here in winter, the water really doesn't get cold.

Might wait until I get that pot sorted first, just in case they decide to really take off and grow fast.

I love the whole idea of having a lotus plant, their beauty and tenacity, and the delicate strength of the flowers. Now I get why you're supposed to meditate on them. And on that minor epiphany, I'm going to actually do some work...... its less than four weeks until my acupuncture exam now - bleh. Better get cracking.