Just waiting for the lights to go out.

_(The 2026 Venus flytrap season is wandering to an end. It's been a rousing year: at last count mine has got 15 open and functional traps, about twice as many as this time last year. I can think of a few reasons, mostly the plant finally finding a rhythm here after a few years of settling in. We're also enjoying an unusually sunny and dry autumn this year; the region looks more like Central Canada than the North Pacific Coast. Venus flytraps _[Dioneae muscipula] _are native to the Carolinas, where winter isn't trivial, and usually by this time of year mine lets me know it's ready for its winter torpor – the not-quite-hibernation it falls into during the darkest months. Then I put it in a cold room with mostly indirect sunlight, and it stops growing – without however dying back – till spring. And in fact the recent traps are only half the size of the ones it set last summer, a sure sign of impending sleep. But those smaller traps have also matured and opened for business, which is a contradictory indication. So I'll wait a few more days before putting it to bed.) _

_(The 2026 Venus flytrap season is wandering to an end. It's been a rousing year: at last count mine has got 15 open and functional traps, about twice as many as this time last year. I can think of a few reasons, mostly the plant finally finding a rhythm here after a few years of settling in. We're also enjoying an unusually sunny and dry autumn this year; the region looks more like Central Canada than the North Pacific Coast. Venus flytraps _[Dioneae muscipula] _are native to the Carolinas, where winter isn't trivial, and usually by this time of year mine lets me know it's ready for its winter torpor – the not-quite-hibernation it falls into during the darkest months. Then I put it in a cold room with mostly indirect sunlight, and it stops growing – without however dying back – till spring. And in fact the recent traps are only half the size of the ones it set last summer, a sure sign of impending sleep. But those smaller traps have also matured and opened for business, which is a contradictory indication. So I'll wait a few more days before putting it to bed.) _

I had hoped to have this update out on the 1st, but at least it gets to be October. It was so much fun to be working on this with live sphagnum moss finally available again, working on my favorite …

Short answer: No. But big rats beware.

This one isn’t a zine update, though one is coming zoon. I promised y’all if I met my goal of a new little bog, I’d let everyone watch with me, the way I did Celia, and this morni…

YouTube video by Life on Paws and Wheels

If you work in the gardening industry and you have been frustrated because WHATEVER you are growing, be it corn or bladderworts, and your stupid bosses keep ignoring your comments about the marketi…