Garden Pic Wednesday: Hyacinth & Sedum

The fitness center we currently belong to has something the Y didn't---a steam room. I love steam rooms!

It gives me fond memories of visiting a Turkish Bath in Istanbul while I was stationed in Turkey in 1978. Have you ever been to a real Turkish Bath? This particular one was a centuries old bath in downtown Istanbul. Inside it was a marble cathedral of steam--a huge, circular space with wide floor to ceiling pillars and a high round vaulted ceiling I could barely make-out.The floor was marble, the walls were marble--everything was marble.

I went with 2 other Air Force girls. One, of them, Kathy, was quite the adventurer, always interested in exploring and trying new things and it was she who got us there. 

We paid a fee, received a white towel & washcloth, entered a disrobing area, then walked into the steamy bath itself. A wide, raised dark marble dais occupied the center of the steamy room and low-set marble sinks ringed the walls. Each sink had a little stool beside it. What you did was sit on the stool, use your wash cloth and wash yourself with soap. (It's a bath, after all.) After that, you'd move to the dais and lay down, then one of the fully dressed Turkish women, who worked there, would give you a brisk rub down with a sudsy luffa---and by brisk I mean very brisk!

 But that's one of the benefits of a steam room: it loosens surface dead skin cells and a scrubbing removes them leaving skin silky smooth.

Of course, in the fitness center's steam room here I wear a swim suit, but I carry a spa-mitten with me to scrub down near the end of my 20 minutes. Really great on the knees, elbows and feet.

Today's Pics include the head of a Hyacinth poking up and some Sedum I put along my block wall:

Hyacinth next to Shamrocks.

This particular breed of sedum below, while pretty, is quite aggressive. 
I initially put it in a pot with other succulents, but quickly discovered that was a big mistake!
Since then, I've tucked it into corners of my new block wall where it can spread and drape freely, which is perfect. Easy to propagate, too! Stick a stem of it in dirt anywhere and you get more!

In spring, it blooms a cascade of star-shaped yellow flowers.
(It's nice in a pot, too, as long as it's alone in that pot.)

As you can see it's unfazed by the recent cold temperatures, which killed every other succulent I had except for hen & chick types.

I knew nothing about succulents before this year, but they are educating me quickly. I'm going to pick better replacements.

Sedum

Be sure and stop back by for Mama Kat Thurs!