cogitatio

Tuesday, October 18, 2011

First Baby plantlet

So after only 24 days here it is the first plantlet in my violet collection.

Princess Jade

http://www.flickr.com/photos/sakerr/6257522768/in/photostream

Saturday, October 15, 2011

TAVS sponsored Judges course

So, my local violet group hosted a judges course today, which I decided to audit, It is based on the AVSA Handbook for Growers, Exhibitors and Judges, and is a course you need to take to become an AVSA judge. I definitely recommend taking the course if you ever get the chance. It gave me a lot of insight into the way plants are judged in a show, I also learned a couple tricks that I will keep firmly up my sleeves.

I will say this Judges are not afraid to speak their minds, especially not in a room full of judges... I think I would have cried if they talked about my plants that way, ok not really but Judges definitely have to be firm on their decisions. I think it sounded so harsh because the plants were not actually groomed for a show, our own clubs show not being until the spring, but also because they didn't want perfect plants so that those writing the exam could actually practice taking off points and so that we could see as many faults as possible.

One of the plants there was Senk's Long Legs, and while explaining the plant Sayeh, it's grower accidentally snapped off one of the leaves. Happy Accident for me as it now is sitting in a rooting pot on my stand, along with a couple leaves of Lakeshore Silver given to me by Doris Brownlie a wonderful Lady, her husband John is the hybridizer for the Aca's and Lakeshore series.

Our clubs meeting is this coming tuesday and we are picking up project plants, and I get a new member package with what, more leaves ahh yippee. Definetly a violet overload week coming up so I am pretty excited.

Well to make a long story short, I definitely recommend writing your AVSA judges exam if you get the chance, it is a great way to meet more violetors, (be careful typing that made up word out spellcheck changes it into something quite different) as when you are a judge you get invited to other clubs events to be a judge.

All you need to write your exam is an AVSA number (your number obviously) and proof that you have one three avsa blue ribbons, two of which have to be in the regular violet classes, aka not designs or special containers. You also have to grow 25 plants, I think only 10 have to be registered, but come on who isn't growing 25 different violets.

The more the merrier I always say so keep your ear to the ground and become an AVSA judge the next time the opportunity comes by.

Steve

file://localhost/Users/Kerr/Downloads/P1040922small.jpg

Friday, October 14, 2011

ebay auctions

Belinda is doing an auction of some very nice looking plants right now, including a couple of her own hybrids.

I would participate but live north of the border.

http://www.ebay.com/sch/cajunladyb/m.html?hash=item4cfadb39b0&item=330626185648&pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&_trksid=p4340.l2562

Thursday, October 13, 2011

Leaf propagation

I tried rooting a violet leaf in water, after it had been down in a leaf pot for a week it looked like it was under extreme stress in comparison with the other leaves that I had put down, so I took a risk and dug it up to find some rot creeping up the petiole quite merrily, eek. So I removed all of the rot, and placed the leaf in water, a method I had never used before and it rooted, and it only took 5 days, wow, after asking some other people what they do with these water rooted leaves, I decided to throw the leaf in question in soil, so that it could form actual soil and not water roots, hopefully it is good to go now, here is a pic of the rootlets forming just before I set it in soil, they were three times longer than 12 hours earlier, this leaf means business now...

http://www.flickr.com/photos/sakerr/6241310340/sizes/m/in/photostream/

Also someone mentioned that you should remove the tips of the leaves so that they quit growing, and also because the injury releases hormones in the leaf for healing that aid in the callus formation. I took one of these leaf tips from frozen in time and wanted to see how much of a leaf you really need to root a plantlet.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/sakerr/6241309130/sizes/m/in/photostream/

Since I already know that the mother leaf is rooted I decided to excavate this leaf tip to see if it was doing anything, because it certainly hasn't rotted or dried up and it has been in the soil since about the 25th of September, lo and behold it had roots, but it had also rotted up from the main vein in a semi-circle about half the size of my pinky finger nail, somehow the plant had combatted this rot and callused and rooted anyhow.

I wonder if many people out there have experienced this before with leaves starting to rot and yet rooting and providing plant lets anyways.

Tuesday, October 04, 2011

The Have List

Barring any unforeseen complications this is my list of varieties, some plantlets and some leaves,and some in the mail ha ha talk about counting chickens before they hatch. If you know of any peachy violets or violets with strong yellow, or orangy markings let me know.

1Denver Doll

2Lyon's Bunny Hop

3Little Bo Peep

4Mini Minx

5Little Lizzy

6Tiny Wood Trail

7Baby Brian

8Jolly Orchard

9Lil Bit o'Irish

10Little Ruby

11Lollipop

12Lucky lass

13Mac's Willow the Wisp

14Morgan's Barossa

15Morgan's Enchantment

16Morgan's fool's Thin air

17Skagit Tiny Limelight

18Smitten Kitten

19Morgan's Pu-yi

20Morgan's Juniper

21Pacific Pearl

22Ramblin Lassie

23Chantaspring

24Blushing Trail

25smoldering pink

26Rob's Shadow Magic

27Ozio

28Decelle's Julie Belle

29Princess Jade

30Trinket Terrific

31Tongwensis, upsala clone

32Frosty Spring

33Rob's Antique Rose

34Monet

35Midnight Treasure

36Green Dragon

37Genetic Blush

38Anthoflores Little Axel

39Norton's Elaine

40Sumira

41Tipsy

42Neptune

43happy Harold

44Aca's Red Ember

45Rob's Zoot Suit

46Jersey girl Trail

47Little Chippery Trail

48Rob's Delicious

49Rob's June Bug

50Rob's Knickers

51Rob's Seduction

52Rob's Whiz bang

53Warm Sunshine

54Candlelight romance

55Ness' Cranberry swirl

56Smokey moon

57lakeshore Silver

58 S. Ionantha clone

59 Comfort Zone

60...

Friday, September 30, 2011

New Start

So I went to start a new blog and found this one.... oh yah, hopefully I do better this time.

Wednesday, January 24, 2007

Isn't She Beatiful -- "Neat-o"

A church leaders conference unlike any other.

I just spent the past two days in Grandville Michigan, the conference hosted by Mars Hill Bible Church was definetly something else. When you think of church conferences where does your head go? Lots of worship for sure, sessions on governance structure to bore your socks off, and hype that is quite litrally through the roof. Not so for Isn't She Beautiful, worship was the punctuation of this event rather than the focus, and the major sessions were focused on bible study, being the eucharist and the importance of the sabbath, the creative process with regard to hermeneutics, Salvation and all the different things the bible says about it. That made up the three main sessions taught by Rob Bell, he spoke for at least 8 hours over the two days and all I have to say is wow communicator, I love his simple style.

There were also two break out sessions with a few options: Approaching the Aids epidemic, a lot of info and new thoughts like have you ever thought about getting an HIV test so that you can connect and relate more to those who may have HIV, you could relate its confidentiality, you could actually say I have had it done, a step towards trust. The session with their student ministries gave more details on where they have been and come from with it, they have gotten beyond the children are the church of tomorrow to actually believing and having a ministry which has this ministry as an active and integral part of the church today. During the second session I attended the Elders workshop and really got an inside look at how they operate, the pain they have gone through over the past few years to have a healthy loving supporting elders team, and the processes they are looking at in ensuring that their community some 10 000 strong is all heading in the right direction. It really showed that their community isn't shiny and perfect and that they are not scared to be real about it.

The main thrust of the entire thing I think was to bring hope and to be a eucharist, a soul feeder to the pastors and leaders in attendance, something which really culminated in the final session where Rob talked about prayer shawls and the symbolism they carry. Which was followed by a worship and reflection time where you could take communion, be annointed, pray beneath prayer shawls... all being served by their community... their elders serving us, providing us with opportunities to serve each other.

I think that it was a great encouraging weekend which although it may not have had any profound lightining flash aha moments said old things in a new light, perhaps the correct light.

The greatest part was definetly the opportunity to spend time with some great guys, our conversations alone on the conference on church on whatever were great, Our group of nine consisted of my friend and pastor Dom, Of Joe Manafo, Nathan Colquhoun and Darryl Sylvestri of theStory a new church in Sarnia On., Phil Prendergast (Dom's Brother in law) and Marty Lewis (a.k.a. Mega-Mart) of New Hope in London On., Jared Siebert National Growth Director "Guru" (he seems pretty darn smart to me) for the Free Methodist Church Canada, and James, also of London On, he is currently in the process of starting a new church community in the downtown core of London, it sounds exciting!! Anyways I cant remember his last name (I did just meet him) so I hope that one of these guys will comment and give us more info on him.

Anyhow, a great time, lots and lots of stuff to inspire and reflect on.

Later Kerr

Great ideas are processed through dialogue, so lets figure it out

: Name: Steve; Location: Willowdale (GTA), Ontario, Canada

Combining three lives, I am currently finishing off my bachelors degree as I serve in leadership at The Embassy, my church community where I have been able to serve alongside of some of the best leaders I know. My plans are to eventually get an MDiv, or MTh, we will see where that goes and well it's all up for grabs from there. I really enjoy reading and dialogueing over where we're going, the church both here locally and I think the decisions we make here will influence the directions we take globablly, that's why the dialogue we have is so important and I hope we are at least moving in the right direction.

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