Stretched thin

As you may have noticed, my posts have been become increasingly intermittent this past month. Due to an ongoing project at work that is taking up a lot of my time as well as other commitments at home, I feel stretched unsually thin. Much like this Aeonium arboreum ‘Atropurpureum’ in the succulent bed along the driveway.

If you look closer, you’ll see that this aeonium is getting ready to bloom.

Like most agaves, aeoniums are monocarpic. This means that flowering is a fatal event.

The center of the rosette has begun to stretch. In the weeks to come it will turn into a conical flower stalk. After the flowers have finished blooming, the rosette will die, but luckily there are half a dozen baby rosettes that will carry on until they, too, bloom and die.

I hope my own stretched-thin-ness won’t be quite as irreversible. With any luck, I will be able to return to more frequent posts very soon. In the meantime, thank you for your patience and loyalty!