Living, thriving, green

At "church" yesterday (Yes, "church".  I am pagan, but we belong to a group of pagans that meets every Sunday afternoon for rituals, forums and classes), a friend of ours mentioned that she would like to have a plant for her room.  Something living that she can care for that would help make the room more cheerful and friendly.  As I have a plethora of plants (inside and outside my home) I happily told her that I would give her a couple of mine.

These are in my kitchen.  There are more in the dining room.

                                                                         
Having a green, living thing growing in my home is something I can totally get behind.  I think I may have said this before, but in my not so humble opinion, my home is not a home without at least one cat and living plants in almost every room (not at least one cat in every room, just one or two total cats).  I believe this so strongly that I even have plants on a shelf in my bathroom.  What?  They help clean the air and make that uber-tiny room smell better.  The trick is keeping the cats from eating the plants.  :)

Why do I like to have plants?  There are several reasons why I like to have plants in my home.  I grew up in places filled with plants.  My mother always had beautiful plants, no matter where we lived.  My grandmothers had flowers and other plants around and inside their homes and I grew up admiring their beauty and colors and amazing scents and I thought that it was normal for people to have their homes filled with living, growing things--animals, plants, children.  Homes are places that should be filled with love and with life, and what better way to do that than to fill your space with things that flourish with loving care?

Schwartz the plant muncher, and teenage boy.  

                                                                           
Plants also clean our air. They filter carbon dioxide and some polution out of the air we breathe, making it cleaner and better for us. They also provide us with oxygen, something that is essential for human life. Also, I like it when people come into my house for the first time and notice the plants and comment on how beautiful they are and how happy they look.
My plants provide another benefit for me, too.  Whenever I walk into my kitchen and see them up on top of my desk, they give me a little psychological boost and make me feel better.  And, now I have a bonus happy!  My stargazer lilies are starting to bloom, so now whenever I am coming home from somewhere, or going out to check the mail, I am greeted by the beautiful lilies on my front porch.  This makes me unreasonably happy.              

One of my Stargazer lilies

                                                                 
There is one other thing that comes to mind right off that my plants do.  I have a philodendron on my front porch, behind the lilies, and that plant is home to a nest full of baby birds.  The baby birds and their parents have provided much entertainment for the cats who allow us to live here with them.

If you look closely, you will see the mommy bird in her nest.

Now, there are some problems with having plants, too. I have some pretty bad allergies and plants tend to collect dust, and sometimes their soil gets moldy and that is a problem for me, so I do have to be careful to keep the indoor plants dust-free and to not keep their soil so wet that it molds. There is also the issue of having cats and houseplants. Cats like to nibble green growing things, and not all houseplants are safe for cats to munch. Even keeping the plants up very high does not necessarily protect them from a small cat who is an awesome jumper, so special precautions have been taken to ensure the safety of both the plants and the cats.

Winnie, the other plant muncher.

                                                                     
Plants, cats, children.  Things that all flourish with loving care.  These are some of the things that make a house a home.  :)