meandering about...

Well, I've had a bad couple of days actually... it's been hideously slow at work, and there's nothing like sitting in a truck in an empty parking lot for 45 minutes or so to put me in a peachy mood...

did have some rain this morning, not so much here at the house as west, but I got to see the rainbow. Now rainbows are extremely hard to take pics of, but here's the best shot...

Now obviously, the end of that rainbow is in that warehouse... which means that somewhere in that building they store a pot of gold. I considered going in and looking for it, but then I remembered that the pot of gold is traditionally guarded by a leprechaun... I hate to make blanket statements, but leprechauns are not my favorite group of people. They're notoriously sneaky, generally bad tempered, and to top it all off, mean drunks. And they just happen to be drunk most of the time. (I'm not judging, just saying...)

After some thought, dealing with those little varmits just to get a handful of gold coins that you can't even spend at the grocery store didn't seem worth the bother. So I moved on...

Finally ended up sitting in a city park in Farmers Branch, one of the communities North of Dallas... They have a very extensive rose garden.

This garden is planted with varieties that have the 'Earthkind' designation, which means they have undergone rigorous testing, and can survive the Texas climate statewide... In order to come up with this designation, the plants have to survive for four years with no commercial chemical or organic fertilizers and no pesticides. The testing gardens are allowed, and are encouraged to use mulch and compost. That's a pretty tough standard... Right now there's only about 100 varieties being tested, and aproximately 20 to 25 varieties that have made it...

Even with that tough testing, this is really the wrong time of year for roses here... they are at their best in the spring to early summer, then they slow down for a while and have a new flush in the fall, sometimes blooming right up to Christmas... we don't usually get our first big freezes until the first part of January. Still there's a couple that were going good... This one is called Polonaise and it's a shrub rose....

The next two pics are a floribunda named Eureka...

Roses aren't my favorite. Even with these tougher varieties, I'm still pretty sure they're just too fussy for me... but there are a few in this garden that might tempt me...

here's a link all about the Earth Kind roses, even a list of varieties and such:

http://earthkindroses.tamu.edu/

I'll probably put it over on the links tab at the right too

stapeliad in a strawberry jar...

every spring and early summer, there are these places that set up by the side of the road, that sell plants. If you know what you're looking for, you can find some good deals... Agaves for 5.00, hanging baskets for 8.... this stapelia was one of the hanging baskets... Well, got it home, and within a week, branches started falling off. Turned out that the thing was planted in entirely the wrong kind of potting soil, and had developed root rot... so I broke off all of the stems, cut off the rotten parts and let them dry for a few days.

Then I mixed up some new soil, and the only pot I had that was big enough was this strawberry jar. Planted it up, hung the strawberry jar with an iron ring made for orchids, and now it's about trippled in size... (the things are serious about growing when they get it in their little minds) and he seems to be doing fine... Now, I'm pretty sure that it's a gigantea, but I won't know for sure until it blooms, and, after that rough start, blooms might be a bit much to expect this year. But I kind of like how it turned out...

Datura ... again...

OK, I know I already posted, just a little while ago, but I went out the back door to do something, and I just had to share this...

Sorry about the blurriness, but the night-time flash on my camera isn't too hot... If you want to know more about the plant... and that's all one plant by the way... here's the link to my earlier post... http://lpfleamarket.blogspot.com/2008/05/deadly-beauty.html

Some people always ask me why I insist on growing this deadly plant... well look at it... there just aren't that many plants that will perform like this in a Texas summer!

Dragon fruit for dinner...

I was at the Asian market today when I ran into these... Dragon Fruit, which is actually the fruit of the cactus Hylocereus undatus.



Now, this may be a rather exotic fruit that is only available at Asian markets... but the fact is that the plant is very common... if you have one of them grafted cactus that you get at Wal-Mart, there's about a 99% chance that you have one of these... They are the most common grafting stock around. They're not the brightly colored top... there the three ribbed green trunk that the pink or yellow or wierd colored cactus is attached to.

As a fruit, the plant is a tropical cactus, that may grow attached to the ground or as an epiphyte up in tree-tops. And they may get rather huge, some reports as a mass of green stems that meander through the trees up to 40 feet. For commercial fruit production, they are grown in Vietnam, Indonesia and are not uncommon throughout most of South America. I even found a few reports on the web about production in Israel. As to where it's from... that's confusing. Nobody seems entirely sure... they've been grown as an edible and ornamental for so long, that it's just not clear where they origonally hailed from, but the most common site is Southern areas of Mexico or Northern parts of South America.

I buy about one of these a year... They taste to me, after they've made it across the ocean from Vietnam, something like a greenish pear. I'm pretty sure the lack of extreme flavor is because they are picked as soon as they show signs of ripening to be shipped out. My reading also tells me that if they are left on the plant for about a week after ripening, they'll develop more sugars and become much more flavorful.

Last year, I ate about half of one, and the rest I extracted the seeds and planted them. They sprouted within a week, and were well on there way when we had one of our hail storms and I was too busy saving my other cactus to notice that the pot they were in was shattered and by the time I thought to check them it was just too late. I'll probably try again with this one. Not that I'll ever have a real chance of getting fruit, the plant has to be on the huge size to begin blooming and producing, aproximately 10 years from seed. I could get a jumpstart if I bought one of those grafted cactus, beheaded it and let the stock grow new branches of it's own. But even then... we are talking a tropical to semi-tropical plant. I understand they can take an occasional frost, but any prolonged cold will kill it. In certain parts of Florida, they can often be seen growing up palm trees, blooming their fool heads off, producing up to six flushes of blooms a year of night-blooming huge white flowers. The fruits average 12 to 14 ounces each. I bought this one for 2.99 a pound... and that's cheap for them.

Common Names
English: Red Pitaya, Red Pitahaya, Night blooming Cereus, Strawberry Pear, Dragonfruit, Belle of the Night, Conderella Plant
French: cierge-lézard, poire de chardon
German: Distelbirne,Drachenfrucht
Hawaiian: panini-o-ka-puna-hou ("Punahou cactus") - a famous specimen grew at Punahou School
Portoguese: cato-barse, cardo-ananaz
Spanish: pitahaya roja (Colombia, Mexico, Venezuela); flor de caliz, pitajava (Puerto Rico); junco, junco tapatio, pitahaya orejona, reina de la noche, tasajo (Mexico)
Swedish: skogskaktus, röd pitahaya
Vietnamese: thanh long

mamma mia...

It's been a few days since I posted, so I thought I'd drop by...

A friend of mine called and wanted to go to see Mamma Mia... So I said sure... Now I haven't actually paid full price to see a movie in years... I actually don't remember the last time I did... But I can honestly say I enjoyed myself.

It's a fun movie. Not serious at all, just pure, over-the-top entertainment. The energy level is very high, and the realism level is a little low, but you expect that from Broadway shows.

And, I hate to admit it, but I recognised most of the songs.

I'm not that old, honestly...

I'll actually have a real post tomorrow.

Cereus hildmannianus

Well, a few posts back I was talking about how this plant fell over and got beheaded, I thought I'd give a little update...



as you can see, the two small branches that were coming up from the bottom of the plant have grown from about 3 inches to 8 in a relatively short period of time... thriving off a root system that was established to support a 4 foot plant no doubt. The top of the stump has begun a branch right below the break, and the one branch that was already there has put on about 6 inches of growth also.

The two 'logs' that I laid down on their side in the flower bed show no signs of new arms coming up, nor do they show any signs of throwing roots into the soil like the guys on the web-site said they would, but I'm not giving up. They'll probably do everything suddenly in the space of a day... the actual growing tip, which was damaged in the fall, and I cut off, is about 5 inches, has established roots... so it should start growing anytime now... I placed it in a pot of portaluca... I have three rectangular pots of portaluca sitting on a brick wall out front. They bloom like crazy all summer, and whatever random cuttings happen tend to get stuck in there, so there's always some encheveria, semperverium, sedum and what-not rooting in the light shade of the annuals.

It's kind of time for me to start looking for a bigger pot, so I can get all these cereus cuttings planted together into one pot to save room when I have to bring it in come fall.

Also in the yard is a Golden Cat-tail... Cleistocactus winteri. This is a great plant that produces wonderful bright red blooms, but doesn't seem particularly inclined to this year... don't know why.



But, the lack of blooms is more than made up for in the new growth that's it's decided to put out this summer...

little gothic bob...

Well, I probably should have made this the 100th post... This is one of the Bob's that I carved years ago, and we always called him little Gothic bob... He sits on the mantle piece every Halloween and the rest of the year you can find him sitting in various places... wherever he feels like.



Today, he evidently felt like sitting in the agave...

The truth is that I had an hour to kill before I went to work. So I was playing with the camera...

A little technical info... Gothic Bob started his life as a garden stake that broke. I carved his head, then he was given wire arms and legs which were wrapped with burlap strips, or you could use muslin, then you wrap and knot with string... and then you have a little primitive, completely pozable Bob.

Obnoxiously cute isn't he?

It's my official 100th post!

I should celebrate! I should have a spectacular pic of somthing totally unique and deep! I should quote a famous philosopher!

I got nothing.

But the 100 post was bothering me, so I decided to just get the darned thing over with...

I've been thinking of changing the name of the blog, but I have no idea what I'd change it too... the thing is that Lucky Penny Flea Market is - or was - the name of the store. I want to set up a page for selling some other stuff, and this name is still valid, but I have no idea what I'll change this too... any ideas?

Totally out of ideas for myself, just tired today.

later.

Fragripani...

The Fragripani, aka plumeria, is blooming... I got three of these cuttings as a souvenier when I went to New Orleans 5 years ago. Put them all in the same pot... 1 didn't make it, the other 2 did. The other, much taller one, blooms pink and this one, which is blooming for the first time, blooms like this...



Actually, I'm surprised that it blooms at all... I don't treat the plant particularly well. To be completely honest, it doesn't fit in that well with my other plants. It's definitely a tropical succulent, and it's got a definite tropical look... I grow it in a pot plunged in the ground all summer, and come fall, after the first frost has taken the leaves, I bring it in and it sits dormant without a leaf in sight until the next spring. I might give it a drink, but usually not, letting it's succulent trunk slowly deplete itself of water until it can start looking a little shriveled up... next spring, it gets a good long drink, set out in the sun, and it starts growing. And it blooms with this treatment... I'm afraid of what would happen if I actually started treating it well...

I do wish they'd come up with scratch and sniff posting... the scent is amazing...

It's raining....

It's raining, it's pouring, the old man is snoring...

That's what we used to sing when I was a kid growing up in the midwest... Somebody once told me that the "old man" refered to in the nursery rhyme was the ancient God Wotan (aka Wodan & Odin) which means that children have been singing some version of that song for longer than I can even imagine...

Back in the midwest, we had long, dreary days of rain, and I learned to love them, to look at them as days to curl up with books and imagine myself anywhere in the world. Here in Texas, those long days of rain are rare and far between... I've lived here over 20 years, and I could probably count on one had the time we had those slow soaking rains that that could make the soy beans green and the corn grow so fast and so tall you could hear it grow.

Here, storms are the norm, big giant rumblers that blow through and drop inches of precipitation in matters of minutes... sometimes accompanied by straight-line winds, sometimes tornados... sometimes hail the size of baseballs. Some people say that if you save the hailstones and melt them into a round globe, you can gaze into it and see the future. I don't know, as I've never tried.

But overwhemingly, I'm grateful for the rain, no amount of hose watering can replace a good rain. The tree in my yard was beginning to shed a few leaves, and the plants were beginning to look a little droopy, and the evergreens were getting a little dull... and everything seemed to be collecting a layer of dust.

But I think my plumeria buds will be opening tomorrow.

Prickly Pear Jelly...

I seem to be concentrating on recipes this week... the thing is that I'm helping my Mother put together a recipe book for my niece of all the "family" recipes, so I guess I got them on my mind...

That and I was looking at Aiyana's fabulous blog, Water When Dry, (link to the right) and she had some pictures of her optunia fruits that were ripening, and mentioned her prickly pear vinaigrette, and I remembered that I mentioned I was gonna publish this recipe back in May, and had let it slip my mind. Anyway, this is the recipe, easier than you'd think!

Prickly Pear Jelly

1 quart of Prickly Pears (or Tuna as they're called) to yield 2 1/2 cups of juice
1 package powdered pectin (the liquid doesn't work for this recipe)
3 Tablespoons lemon or lime juice
3 1/2 cups sugar

Use ripe fruit... If the fruit is very ripe, try to mix a few greenish ones in for natural pectin. It is not necessary to burn or cut off the spines, as they will disappear during the straining process... Wash the pears well, cut in half then place in a pot with water to cover. Boil till very tender and soft, this is necessary to get all the juice.

Strain through a jelly bag, or a collander lined with heavy gauze or lightweight muslin. hang the jelly bag to let the juice drip into a bowl, or tie the gauze or muslin and hang... let juice sit long enough for any sediment to settle. For clear jelly, don't use cloudy juice...

for every 2 1/2 cups juice, add 1 pkg powdered pectin. bring to a boil... add citrus juice & sugar. Bring to a boil that can't be stirred down, and boil for 3 minutes. Remove from heat, skim (important for clear jelly) and pour into sterilized jars - seal with hot canning lids or hot paraffin.

The taste & color of the jelly depends on the variety & color of the pears... The ones in our back alley produce fruit that are deep purple, and make a jelly that is deep magenta and most people describe as tasting like cranberries and raspberries blended together.

You can also freeze the juice in 2 1/2 cup 'bricks' to make jelly later if your not up to making the recipe all in one day, or you're making a lot of juice at once...

had a nice relaxing day...

Nothing much happened today, but now that my truck is back and the AC is working good, I was able to go out and get some shopping done, as food was starting to get a little scarce around here...

Got some great fresh peaches and sliced them up over what my Grandma used to call a quick cake... Grandma wouldn't let those yellow sponge 'shortcakes' you get at the store anywhere near her house during strawberry season.

Mix together -
1/2 cup sugar
1 cup flour
two level teaspoons baking powder
pinch of salt

-then set aside.

In a measuring cup, break one egg and add vegetable oil to make 1/2 cup.
Add to dry ingredients, mix well, add a few drops of vanilla, and (optional) 1/4 tsp. cinnamon or cloves...

press into a pie pan, sprinkle with a little sugar and cinnamon or cloves

bake at 375 until the sides of cake leave pan, test center with toothpick.

Use like shortcake with any frest fruit and/or ice cream.

Hope all my blogger friends out there are having a great weekend... later.

Repotting on a dare...

Well, I was sitting around here with nothing to do... so I decided it would behoove me to do something useful... there were a few plants that needed attending to out in the lath-house.

So I went out there and started mixing the potting medium and looking at the plant and found that I just wasn't in the mood. Boredom does that to me. Fortunately, I've learned a few tricks to combat it... If something doesn't inspire me, make it an artistic challenge... DARE myself to do something. Like most guys, I can't resist a dare...

So I reached under the potting bench and came up with this little hand-made statuette of a buddist monk that I bought at a yard sale for 25 cents, and has been sitting in various flower pots ever since... And I said to myself, "Hey Handsome," because that's what I call myself, "This guy needs a little zen garden to sit in..."

So to make it a real challenge, I decided that it had to be appropriately zen, and should look like as much like a natural landscape as possible, and it had to be stuff I already had... no runs to the store.

So I spent the next 30 minutes going through pots and seeing what I had laying around, telling myself things like... "no you can't use the seashell, because if that monk is 5 feet 6 inches tall, if he's sitting by the seashell it would be 10 feet tall and I don't think there are any 10 foot sea shells, so that ain't right..." and "No you are most definitely not using the turquoise blue aquarium gravel, where did you get that hideous stuff anyway?"

Here's what I came up with... I think I pulled it off... the euphorbia looks enough like a clump of bamboo to make me happy...



and here's a close-up of the little guy that inspired it all...



But, then I had that seashell... so I decided that maybe I could use this other bonzai pot that I had out and had rejected for the zen garden and maybe I could do something else, since I had these other plants that needed to go somewhere... on this one, I decided to put zen to the side and concentrate on texture. You know, that thing that all the decorators on HGTV gush about.

Not sure I quite got the texture down, but here's what I managed to do with some plants that drastically needed some attention... some little Birdsnest Sanseverias that had broken through the side of an old plastic pot, and something that has a tag that says Notocactus umbelmianus but is really a Parodia werneri, that had gotten sunburned... turned out that this species doesn't like direct sunlight and even my shadehouse was too much for it. I'm hoping he'll do better inside...






and after that, it was 11 am and 104 degrees out there so I came in.

HEY

well, it's been a productive day in a round a bout way... did manage to get the new heating element installed in the oven, planted some ornamental peppers in the front yard - Black Pearl, great plants but no peppers yet - and managed to find out that I won't be working again tomorrow as that blasted air conditioner still isn't fixed...

Now I'm about out of things to do around here.

That's not good.

I'd have a staycation, except being stuck in the house isn't my idea of one...

Just dropping in to say hey... really.

Howdy folks...

So, here we are, sitting at home with absolutely too much to do. Which is just as well, since I will be home all day tomorrow... Truck is at the shop... I got a new AC system last march, and now it's blowing lukewarm... now I am not, under any circumstances, going to drive around Dallas - Ft. Worth in 100+ temperatures for 8+ hours a day without air conditioning...

But I have plenty of stuff to do over the next day... like put the new heating element in the oven... and plant a few plants that I have here... and maybe make a dent in cleaning the house... and I'm sure that by the time I have to go back to work I'll be more than happy to.

later...

curse you Wal Mart...

So, it was the end of a rather boring day, I was 30 miles from home and I had to get a few things anyway... and there's a wal mart. How convienent, right... so I walk in there, and here's this poor little cactus drowning in 2 inches of water...

I actually think that wal-mart does this intentionally. It's all part of their evil marketing conspiracy... they know that no one would ever buy their plants under normal circumstances, so they intentionally torture them to bring out our rescue instinct...

Anyway, it's a Mammillaria that divides dichotomously... but it doesn't look exactly like a parkinsonii (the middle spines aren't long enough, they're less than 1/8th of an inch) and it doesn't look exactly like a karwinsiana either... so I'm not sure exactly what I ended up with... I'm leaning toward parkinsonii... I've heard of a shorter spined variety, but I haven't seen it yet, so I'm gonna assume this is it until some kind person out there tells me otherwise...







If anybody has any ideas of the specific name for the plant, don't hesitate to let me know...

Hope everybody had a great 4th. I did absolutely nothing at all...

another ocotillo update

Well, we've got green! don't look like much though, more like a little weed sprouting than anything else... I guess we'll see what happens.

Happy early 4th of July... I have absolutely no idea what I'll be doing - there are no plans and my sister is pulling a little family stress right now, which I refuse to go into here.

And it's off to work I go... hopefully, I'll have a great day that involves making lots of money, and maybe I'll see something worth photographing...

Ocotillo seed update....

7 AM, I just peeked into the baggie behind the curtain and the ocotillo seeds are starting to sprout! Each of the fuzzy little seeds have a tiny root coming out. No green yet of course.

off to work I go...