An Exit and Entrance

There has been some excitement here at Jennifer Russell Studio!

As you many know, Georges Bête, is very fond of plants!

And a while back we brought in a whole bunch of succulents to live at the studio. 

Unfortunately, one of the plants died. 

Georges gave me a bit of a lecture on caring for plants because he knew that I had over watered it. This is ironic because one of the great things about succulents is that they are easy to take care of since you shouldn't water them often. 

"Well", I replied, "I cannot deny my undine nature!" To this, Georges agreed and stood in quiet contemplation of this truth. 

Time passed, and Georges and I had the tremendous pleasure of attending the wedding of Scott Bourne and Joëlle Frances! What a wonderful time we had! Such a magical weekend!

They are the caretakers of a lovely grotto, in which live some succulents:

I remarked to Joëlle how lovely they were and related my and Georges sad succulent story. I explained that I have too much of an affection with the element of water. 

And she said, "Why, you should get one of those Japanese moss balls that live in water!" I said, "Whaaat?!" and she said, "Yep!" Well, this was news that I couldn't wait to share with Georges. 

He was thrilled with the idea of getting water plants. "Mon dieu! Why hadn't I thought of that before?", he asked himself. But before we left the wedding, we nipped a couple succulents set aside as party favors, and then introduced them to our own succulent garden at home.

Then some research came into play and we learned all about Marimo Moss Balls! Then we discovered that Brier Pet and Feed had some available! Gleee!

This is how it happened:

They arrived in a bag!

Here they are in an appropriately shaped shell bowl! 

Here they are outside of the water. When they are submerged, they have a fluffy appearance, but in the hand, they feel just like every day, rough moss. Of course these plants are NOT moss. They are algae, and they can be found in such disparate places such as Japan, Estonia and Scotland! So, naturally, they would not like direct sunlight, and don't mind the cold. Perfect!

We are entranced!

In this unusually shaped glass container, the light refraction is extreme! This moss ball looks to be huge! I am enjoying Georges fascination with our new plant friends.

This is a more accurate view of their size. 

Marimo Moss Balls live in fresh water pools and lakes. The constant motion of the water keeps the algae in a ball shape. If left in a still container long enough, the algae will succumb to gravity and flatten out. It is funny that these two balls seem like individuals, but since they are algae, they are conglomerates of many lives all stuck together.