XMAS 2007

NEW POSTER FOR THE NRA

When are people going to wake-up in this country and realize that guns kill people - unlike the moronic motto of the NRA: GUNS DON'T KILL PEOPLE - PEOPLE KILL PEOPLE. And, from the people I've heard it spoken, uh, let's just say, they're ALL revolting rednecks!

ORCHID ENCHANTMENT

These pictures were taken Saturday, March 24 at the Krohn Conservatory in Eden Park. Such varieties! The show only lasted two days and the people running it were most helpful. I didn't write the names down of the actual cultivars but most of these I'm posting are of the Phalaenopsis variety. These are the easiest to grow. I have several which have rebloomed a few times. They are addicting. I'm always tempted to buy orchids. They, to me, are the most elegant of all flora.

Here's a good site to read about them:

http://tinyurl.com/3by3oq

HAPPY ORCHIDING!

ST PATRICK'S EVENING

I'm going to see many family members and friends this evening. Irish lamb stew is on the menu and there will be plenty of Irish whiskey,beautiful music and dancing.

ALL ABOARD THE SHAMROCK BLIMP!

PANSIES

COMMON NAMES: Violet, pansy, heart's- ease, Johnny-jump-ups, love in idleness.

BOTANICAL NAME: Viola.

FAMILY: Violaceae.


Violets (pansies) have long been associated with love. The fairy spirit Puck used their juice in a Midsummer Night's Dream to make "man or woman madly dote/Upon the next live creature that it sees." Most Elizabethans called them "hearts-ease" and often associated them with an innocent, unspoilt love; they are appropriate for that because the violet flowers do not produce seeds. The seeds come from unopened, self-pllllinating flowers later in the year, a quality called "cleistogamy"

A pansy, or pensee (from the French penser, "to think"), is what is in our thoughts, and we rely on purity of thought not to see the world crooked. Violets and pansies represent love, but love in its highest form.

Circa 1925

Here's a charming, old postcard.

SHAMROCKS THAT ROCK!

The next few days, we'll be taking a look at shamrocks.

SPRING'S COMING!