Seymour is No More

A couple of weeks ago, I wrote about Seymour, the unusual philodendron in our home who had run amuck while seeking sunlight, grown in creepy ways, and even embedded itself in part of our carpet.

I learned afterward that some readers had not caught the reference to Little Shop of Horrors.  Seymour (played by Rick Moranis) is a shopkeeper who has a sentient plant that turns out to be a man-eater and says frequently, "Feed me, Seymour. Feed me all night long!"

I've never actually watched the movie (it's not my kinda film,) but I have heard the songs.

Anyway! My Seymour got chopped. We'd untangled him from the slats of the blinds and then wound him up like a lasso when we put up new shades. That abrupt change and movement was hard on him and soon his extremely long tendril wasn't looking very healthy.

So, I trimmed off the Seymour portions and we are down to the nice little philodendron that I've had since my father passed away in 2009. 

I couldn't resist taking him outside and measuring him before I put him in the yard waste recycling bin.

Seymour was over 8 feet long!

And his stem was grossly thickened - bigger than my fingers. Those brown protrusions in my hand are what were working their way into our carpet.

The first leaf I measured was 9 inches long

and the second one was 10. It's fascinating what a plant will do in search of light, and this one found it and thrived.

The teacher in me keeps thinking of what a great Science study this would have been. But alas, Seymour is no more. Still, I am being careful.

Don't try anything, Seymour. I'm watching you!

Feed Me Seymour - In My Own Living Room!

 Second Post of the Day

After twenty years of use, our binds have begun breaking down. Two of them no longer can be opened, shut, or raised up and down. Others are fast approaching that state. And so it was time to get new shades.

The very first one to break happened about a year ago and it was closed when it gave up the ghost. We had several plants at the window, and they did okay because they still got some light. One philodendron, though, got sneaky.

See those huge leaves? That's my Seymour. See those little leaves? (Basket on bottom left.) That's what Seymour used to look like, and still does in certain parts of himself.

When those blinds could no longer be opened, Seymour began climbing and pushing his way through the slats in search of sunlight. The stems thickened and the leaves got bigger and bigger and bigger.

As a teacher who especially loved teaching Science, I have been observing and enjoying the transformation of the plant over time.

But I never looked behind the couch. I could water Seymour and friends over the couch without needing to step behind it. It wasn't until we got the new furniture and moved the old loveseat out that I go a creepy surprise.

Seymour had been on the move.

And not only that. Seymour had started to EMBED HIMSELF INTO THE CARPET!

Those brown protrusions were burrowing into my carpet!

The yellow line shows the holes (they are difficult to see.) I had to yank pretty hard to get the brown protrusions out of the carpet.

CreepyCreepyCreepyCREEPY!!

I almost lopped off Seymour's errant branch then and there but instead decided to curl it up and wind it through his basket's handle.

I will have to disentangle Seymour from the blinds before they come down and the shades go up. But if Seymour doesn't behave, or if I find more creep factors from him, it will be good bye Seymour.

And I am not kidding.

EeeW!

Dad's Slides: Purdue Horsemanship Camp

Even after Bobbie Sue and I aged out of Girl Scouts, we still had another opportunity to attend camp with horses. In June of 1973, we went to Purdue University's Horsemanship Camp near Seymour, Indiana.

The camp was actually held at the Jackson County Fairgrounds in Brownstown which butted right up to the Jackson-Washington State Forest.

This meant that we stayed in the woods and had lots of trails for hiking during our downtime. This is the cabin where the girls at the camp stayed.

 Our 4-H leader, Jerry Synaesal, hauled Cee and Starbuck, Bobbie's horse, to camp for us - Brownstown is in the southern part of Indiana and only about twenty five miles from Louisville.

 Me, Jerry, Starbuck, Bobbie, and my sister, Jenny.

 The horses were stabled in the fairground's livestock barns.

Me with Cee, Bobbie, and Starbuck letting the horses stretch their legs after the three hour drive south.

 Another view of the barns at the fairgrounds.

It was a wonderful week spent learning about horse care and improving our riding. This was a terrific opportunity for me since most of what I knew was from reading books and then trial and error experience with Amy, Nick, Pokey, Cee, and Flame. I will ever be grateful to Jerry Synaesal and his 4-H club for the way it started me on the path of becoming the horsewoman I wanted to be. 

There were a lot of other 4-H teens from around the state in attendance, and both English and Western disciplines were represented. We were instructed in horse care, conformation, how to show in halter and performance, and so many other aspects of horse ownership.

The 1973 Class of Purdue Horsemanship Camp graduates. I've put a blue arrow pointing to me, and Bobbie Sue is to the right of me in the blue shirt.

At the end of the week, a horse show was held so that we could show what we had learned. I was so excited to win two third place ribbons in large classes against kids who'd grown up with horses and had far more experience than me.

 In fact, those wins meant so much to me that the ribbons hang in my horse room to this day.

I was especially excited about the ribbon for horsemanship - I had felt so far behind the other campers and that win showed me that, despite my lack of lessons and experience, I could catch up with more experienced kids and that I could ride well. 

I left camp with far more confidence in my abilities to care for my horses and feeling, for the first time in my life, like I was a horsewoman.