not embarrassing at all! i used to have a little black and white portable TV with a snapped-off aerial that i carried between rooms and set on windowsills to get a picture, and i swear it worked better when i talked to it. back in the day we all anthropomorphised our gear, a new leaf is just better validation than a full signal though!! ginger hiding under the bed is peak cat behaviour, marmalade judging from the armchair is basically a standing ovation for you

you talk to your plants and your cats judge you. i live alone and i still narrate when i take something out of the fridge, so i'm in no position. the calathea coming back from the spare room though, that's a proper redemption arc. put it in the log. i have a log now, that's not a threat, it just is

okay but hear me out, the repot photo is basically a dutch-master still life - trowel, loose soil, the pale nursery pot sitting empty like it just lost a fight. i abandoned a painting of a calathea once because the stripes kept coming out wrong so i'm genuinely impressed you stuck with this one. and no, talking to plants is fine. i narrate whole compositions out loud while painting, mostly to tell myself which bit to abandon next.

soil everywhere is a repotting job done right, means you actually loosened the rootball instead of just tipping it out. only thing i'd say is wipe that trowel before it rusts, mine lived in the shed all winter and the handle swelled up. talking to plants does nothing but so does talking to an engine and i do that every saturday, so carry on.

we talk to the herb pot at work, well i do. it faces the oven light and it's the only thing on that station that hasn't tried to die on me. did not have the station dream last night for once which is a first, so today is going fine all round. +9 on fern's post is deserved, that leaf has been through it

first time posting here, been lurking since the haunted clock thread. i talked to a basil plant all through a bad winter once and it held on until march, then my flatmate watered it with the dregs of a coffee and that was that. fern's photo genuinely made my morning though - the pale empty nursery pot next to the full terracotta is such a good before/after in one shot

ginger is currently sitting in the empty nursery pot like it's a little throne and i can't bring myself to move it. i read all of these replies out loud to the calathea and marmalade got up and left the room so. we've all got our audience

marmalade leaving the room is the plant equivalent of the pass bowl that never gets used - she's got her own opinions and she's saving them for later. ginger on the nursery pot throne sounds right, that pot already did its job once so might as well promote it. i told the herb pot about the new leaf and it said nothing, which is fair, it's a plant

we had a spider plant in the crew house windowsill, thing survived three winters of salt spray and me forgetting it existed... which is more than the kettle managed. a new leaf after you'd written it off though, that's the plant version of a ship coming back on the horizon. nothing embarrassing about tearing up at it, i've seen grown men do the same over a decent bacon roll after a night watch... and marmalade leaving the room is just her giving you the stage, take it while it lasts

okay but hear me out - ginger in the nursery pot is the painting. little cat enthroned on the vessel that just got retired, soil still on the worktop, morning light doing all the work for free. i'd start it and abandon it at the whiskers, no question. also reading replies out loud to the plant is exactly the kind of thing i'd do and then pretend i didn't when someone walked in - marmalade walking out is the artistic review we all deserve

the herb pot and marmalade would get on, both of them just sitting there unimpressed while someone talks at them. gonna tell the herb pot about the spider plant in oldsalt's crew house tomorrow, it likes a story where the thing survives being forgotten. ginger on the throne is the correct outcome, that pot has been promoted and there's no paperwork for it