We interrupt our sequential look at the four seasons to return to the Midwinter family in Riverblossom Hills. We would not normally do this but there have been quite a few developments. We again return to Simone Midwinter's diary for a few entries to help us catch up.

Dear Diary

I know I said that Jonah has green fingers but now he's got green toes, green feet, green hands, green legs, green hair, a green body and dresses in green. He looks like a cross between The Simcredible Hulk © and the Jolly Green Giant. It seems as though he used too much pesticide on his gardening plots and suddenly was affected by PlantSimism.

He seems obsessed with the garden. He now talks to the plants and the trees, which strangely does seem to have a very positive effect. The lemon tree had been wilting but now it is quite healthy after he gave it a good talking to. I sometimes think he prefers talking to the garden than being with me.

Well, only time will tell how things will develop.

And things only seemed to get worse.

Dear Diary

Quite some time has passed and Jonah is still green. We now have a lovely daughter, who we named Melody and she has just become a toddler. I would say that we also have another daughter named Flora but really I had nothing to do with it. Jonah shook his head one morning and the next thing I knew was that he was walking inside the house followed by a green pointy-eared toddler. The big difference is that "his" daughter could already walk, does not seem to be bothered by the potty and can conduct a proper conversation with us.

My relationship with Jonah is somewhat strained. As his needs are now different from mine, he seems to stay up all night in a room with a sunlamp instead of choosing to come to bed with me.

I don't know how much more of this that I can take.

Simone managed to take quite a bit more as the following indicates.

I am now a High School Teacher and Jonah is a Real Time Strategiser. We have a bookcase from which people can study anything and also a pinball machine that it pays to play.

Melody is growing up, literally. Tonight, she grew up from being a toddler to a child. It was a very happy time. We were all there to see this transition. Flora, however, had made the transition a few hours earlier and instead of growing from a toddler to a child, she grew up into an adult.

This means she could have her own spores at any time and Jonah could immediately become a grandfather, although I doubt that is the proper term. Now there are two of them outside talking to the plants.

I think I should just give up trying to understand and just get on with what already is a very different life.

PlantSims are this Expansion Pack's weirdness. Also, considering how expansion packs have gone, it is quite easy to become one. Apparently, zombies, werewolves and vampires can all become plant sims as well although Servos cannot. Most of the previous forms of "alternate life" have their basis in folklore. Zombies, werewolves and vampires are creatures of legend. Therefore, it is not much surprise to find that the mystical pagan figure of "the green man" or "jack of the green", clothed in leaves and possessing an affinity with the earth, is the basis behind the plantsims. As the already created family with a few plantsims is called "Greenman", that somewhat confirms it.

I did not plan on one of the sims who I called in to help review this expansion to become a plantsim. However, I did not know until it was too late about ladybug houses being the best way to handle a pest problem. Instead, Jonah sprayed the vegetables and the trees quite regularly and suddenly was transformed into a plantsim.

Although some features are kept of the individual's original appearance, Plantsims have a bright green skin, green hair and dress as though they went to the same tailors as the Jolly Green Giant. Apart from physical appearance, the first noticeable difference is that they only have three needs. Sunlight, Water & Love.

Sunlight is self-explanatory. They need to spend a lot of time outside or alternately under a sunlamp. Because Jonah had a sunlamp in the living room, he was able to stay up almost all night. Every so often, however, he did need to rush outside and get a burst of the sun's rays. If this need gets so depleted, with the last possible energy, the plantsim will dash outside to where the nearest source of sunlight will come from and collapse. They will remain unconcious until the sun comes up. This could be a problem, however, if there is deep snow on the ground. Plantsims can feel the effect of extreme cold and extreme heat like any other sim.

Water can be satisfied in different ways. Drinking it, showering or bathing in it, swimming in it or being sprayed and sprinkled by it.

Love is at is says. Hugs, kisses and any form of attention satisfies this need. Even having a conversation fulfills this need.

Someone who has just become a plantsim immediately gets a gold gardening skill badge. This gives the added ability to talk to plants and trees, which is a very powerful thing especially if there are crops growing in winter and have become quite sickly from the snow.

Plantsims can reproduce like unaffected sims and have children in the usual manner. They can also reproduce asexually and "grow a plantbaby". The plantbaby comes from a spore shaken from the plantsim's head and is at once a toddler without the need to learn to walk, talk or use a potty. It is taken for granted that they already have those abilities.

They also have the same personality and skills as the parent sim. On a bit of a downside, these already acquired skills cannot be used to give a head start at University or in a Teen Job. Once the Toddler Life Stage is complete, the toddler grows up into an adult plantsim.

The adult life stage is the same length of that of any other sim. Once they pass through that, they become an elder and that also is no different from that of other sims. Plantsims can die of old age and any other way that can kill regular sims.

Yes, your plantsims can be cured. A call to the Garden Club or the Nightlife Gypsy and they can buy a potion to restore their lives to being normal sims. However, I cannot see Jonah or Flora doing that in a hurry.

I find it to be a welcome change being able to play a form of ingame weirdness without having to go through sim weeks of searching or befriending or skilling. In a manner not dissimilar to being a servo, it is challenging to be able to live a sim life but have to adapt it to cope with plantsims' unique needs. I like these green sims and although I do not plan for my neighborhoods to be overrun, I can see a place for them in many communities.

I guess I'll have to find out later how long one of them can survive in a swimming pool without a ladder.