Coming Attractions

This morning before work, I went to Amazon.com and bought some stuff, which I'm sure will eventually result in some blog posts somewhere down the road.

Gratuitous Cryptanthus 'Black Mystic' flower shot. I know the file name says 'Black Magic.' I can't seem to ever get that right the first time. I'm not even sure there's a difference, from what comes up with Google image searches.
I've decided that the plant-toxicity list is just not going to be accomplishable without help, so I purchased Handbook of Poisonous and Injurious Plants (Lewis S. Nelson and several others), and pre-ordered Wicked Plants: A Book of Botanical Atrocities (Amy Stewart, nemesis de moi), the latter in hardback, even, so it'd better be good or I'm gonna be pissed and I'll say mean, mean things about her. I'm not necessarily expecting Stewart to have anything to say on the subject of houseplants, but perhaps she'll throw me a bone or something and mention Dieffenbachia, which is poisonous in a cinematic enough way that it wouldn't be out of place. Failing that, I'll accept a brief note about poinsettias (Euphorbia pulcherrima). But there'd better at least be poinsettias.

There's also an even cooler and more expensive third thing, which ought to be good for weeks of blog posts at some point or another, but unfortunately it's sooooooo incredibly (potentially) cool that I can't tell you what it is. I'll give you a hint, though: of the things I do at PATSP, it's most closely related to the transmitted light photography.

Of course, this is all assuming that I manage to remain upright and functional during the spring. We can't assume that just because I survived last year, I'll make it through this year too. I hate spring with a passion exceeded only by my hatred for summer. (And actually, dealing with the poinsettias in the winter's not great either. And early fall is awfully close to summer, really, a lot of the time. So basically I like October, and I like January, and the rest of the year can go to hell. )

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N.b.: I was not compensated for advertising any of the above products, nor for advertising Amazon.com, and rest assured that if, once I get them, I think they suck, you'll hear about it, I can just about promise. But for now, I'm excited.

I should probably also note for the record that although I'm not lying that I'll say so if I don't like Wicked Plants, I'm not especially worried. Flower Confidential was good, after all.