Wednesday Reading Meme

[osprey_archer]

What I’ve Just Finished Reading

It’s been All Hummingbird Cottage All the Time up in here, but I did manage to finish Angela Brazil’s A Popular Schoolgirl, which sadly is only sort of a boarding school book. Our heroine Ingred boards during the week, but goes home on weekends, which doesn’t lend itself to that enclosed hothouse boarding school feel. A pleasant read but not memorable.

What I’m Reading Now

Dipping into books about houseplants and gardening mostly! Contemplating whether I would like to have a little indoor tree to go in the not-exactly-bay window that wraps around the northwest corner of the house. Possibly a Meyer lemon? The book makes it sound like you can actually get lemons off an indoor Meyer lemon, which does not appear to be the case with most indoor plants…

What I Plan to Read Next

Siddhartha Mukherjee’s The Gene: An Intimate History. My students rave about this book, and since they read it for a class, I believe that means that I can justify reading it on the clock once the slow summer season begins.

Comments

[troisoiseaux]

Our heroine Ingred boards during the week, but goes home on weekends, which doesn’t lend itself to that enclosed hothouse boarding school feel.

Well, that's just cheating.

[osprey_archer]

I GUESS Angela Brazil is allowed to write non-boarding school stories if she wants to... but why does she want to????

[lucymonster]

Omg, you can get actual lemons off an indoor lemon plant? I've never heard of that! You should absolutely go with this plan and report back on your lemon yield.

You should also definitely read that book on the clock, lol. It's only responsible! You need to be on the same page as your students!

[osprey_archer]

I will have to look more deeply into the lemon possibilities before I commit to a whole tree, which is definitely a Statement. But it is tempting!

It's IMPORTANT that I read this book so I can give my students informed guidance about which classes to take. An integral part of my work as an advisor!

[asakiyume]

You can get lemons off non-Meyer lemon trees too--my mom had a lemon tree that she grew from a seed that eventually gave her lemons, and my sister gets lemons too from hers. ... Meyer lemons are delicious, though, so if you're getting a lemon tree, a Meyer lemon sounds like a great idea.

[osprey_archer]

I was thinking Meyer lemons because that's the one my book mentions, but I would not be averse to a lemon-lemon tree either; probably comes down to which kind of tree I can procure more easily. I have a few lemon recipes I love but I don't use them a lot, so even a tree with a pretty low yield could fulfill my lemon needs!

[qian]

Citrus trees are meant to be very easy to look after at home! They just need a lot of light, some feeding and not to be watered too much. I've murdered 1.75 calamansi plants (.75 because the second may or may not revive at some point), but lemons are supposed to be more robust, I think. And I got edible fruit off both calamansi plants before they were defeated by neglect/aphids ...

[osprey_archer]

I may not end up having enough light for them (I have nice west-facing windows, but they're shaded by outside trees, which is nice for everything except my possible lemon-growing plans), but I could put it on the patio at least some of the time in summer to raise the sun quotient... Maybe I will put the tree on a little trolley so it's easy to wheel outside.

[ethelmay]

A friend of mine has gotten as many as six lemons off her indoor Meyer lemon tree, which from the Facebook picture is not huge. There were many more flowers than fruits. I think she takes it outside in the summer sometimes.

[osprey_archer]

Yes, I'd want to take mine outside and put it on the patio for extra sunlight! If I end up getting one, I might put it on a little trolley so it's easy to move.

[regshoe]

Our heroine Ingred boards during the week, but goes home on weekends, which doesn’t lend itself to that enclosed hothouse boarding school feel.

I know, right?? That was a bit disappointing.

Hope the Hummingbird Cottage stuff is all going well! I love the sound of an indoor lemon tree that produces lemons.

[osprey_archer]

I just want girls having midnight feasts!! But that might be a bit of a later-era boarding school story thing anyway - more Enid Blyton's Malory Towers than Angela Brazil.

An indoor lemon tree just sounds so charming. Imagine just plucking a lemon off your tree and making lemon bars.

[oracne]

I read an assortment of Angela Brazil at one time - I found this old post: https://oracne.dreamwidth.org/1326462.html

[osprey_archer]

I clearly mis-osmosed somewhere the idea that Angela Brazil is a boarding school story writer. Some of her stories are set in boarding schools, but there are also plenty of stories about day schools, and also stories about girls that don't involve school at all.

[superborb]

I think the only difference is you have to hand pollinate an indoor lemon tree!

[osprey_archer]

Do you hand-pollinate it even if you take it outside sometimes to the patio?

[superborb]

I guess it's really dependent on if any pollinators make a visit, so I would assume probably not required if it's out for any significant time?