You Grow Girl™

I don’t know the name of this flower and have never seen it before.

Do you know or have a guess?

I very much doubt that it is a native since I found it growing on the property of the resort. Regardless, it sure was reinvigorating to see blazing colour in the middle of winter’s greyness. Sigh.

Even the bee was pleasing. Life! The hundreds I saw last year and the hives I could see and hear buzzing loudly up in the cliffs…. in that context the word “pleasing” doesn’t really come to mind. I was stung walking through some bushes. Good news: I lived!

Whether or not the bee in this photo is actually a killer bee is beyond me, but I’d like to think it is. I have a small obsession with killer bees. I know they’re a small menace, but there is something almost fantastical about the idea of killer bees swarming the world and taking over. Dun, dun, dun. What can I say, I watched a lot of giant ant and flying piranha b-movies as a kid. And of course, the Wu-Tang Clan have forever made it impossible for me to think about killer bees swarming the world without thinking of them. Their exploitation of the killer bee phenomenon and what was implied in some of the over-the-top reporting of them (the “Africanized” bee) was completely BRILLIANT.

And on that note, here’s my favourite Wu-Tang song (NSFW).

The green pods are fresh off the tree and the brown pods are the ones to open. I tried opening a few with a big rock, but holy cow is it ever a lot of work.

Here’s a video of a friend trying to open an almond.

It’s been a year since I started the Daily Botanical feature. What a feat of happenstance that the first image was taken in Cuba and now the first image of 2009 was also taken in Cuba.

I’m currently torturing myself with photos and videos of our trip to Cuba last year. And while in the midst of this I figured I’d post a picture. I took this photo from the top of La Gran Piedre, literally a big rock on top of the Sierra Maestra mountains. So freaky to see houseplants growing in the wild, non? I spotted a few on the path through the forest going up the mountain and then these Tradescantia zebrina (or close relative. It’s hard to tell with the sunburn) and Kalanchoe plants at the peak.

Here we are at the top (Dec 30, 2007) with the full view and the plants behind us. I am wearing the seed necklaces I bought from a woman on the way up. Note the camera strapped to my belt all nerd-like. I managed to stuff no less than 4 or 5 cameras in my two bags.

Remember summer? Yeah, me neither.

If you’re looking for a crunchy little cucumber, especially one to pickle, give ‘Parisian Pickling’ a try. I’ve grown it a few times, although none have ever made it to the pickling stage. Few even make it past the garden since I love to pick them off the vine and eat them while working. Come to think of it, one of the big benefits of growing even one edible plant in your garden is that there is always something to munch on while you work. And gardening always makes me hungry.

With snow now blanketing the ground it seemed fitting to choose the brightest picture I could find in my reserves to post today. I took this one back in June. I remember the day well. It was warm. Unlike today, which isn’t.

More about cosmos.