Two weeks ago the city cut down two of my neighbor’s Coconut Palms to put sidewalks in. The palms weren’t really in the way, I think the city may have been concerned about lawsuits from falling coconuts. I just googled man killed by coconut and found two stories – one from Thailand about a monkey killing his owner and the other from Brazil – man killed by falling coconut while snoozing under said palm. So it’s not an urban – hmm rural(?) myth. Actually, whenever I looked up at my neighbor’s palms, I found it impossible not to think of what would happen if one of these babies hit you in the head – but I imagine disasters all the time – such is my nature.
Actually when you think about it, the less disease kills us off, the more freak accidents will have their way with us. Odds grow shorter and shorter that some weird projectile (my pet fear) or accidental poisoning or something else equally freakish will happen to us. Once we were gone by 45 years old but now god knows what will kill us off if Cancer, etc doesn’t do the nasty. But I digress. time to think of nice things like pretty flowers and good things to eat.
Here is my latest garden harvest including five coconuts that I rescued after they took the palms down (no, I couldn’t watch).
This bounty includes three varieties of mini-eggplants, kumquats, and scotch bonnet hot peppers. Just for the record scotch bonnets have a heat rating of 100,000-350,000 on the Scoville scale as compared to 2,500 – 8,000 for jalapeno peppers.
Here’s a close-up of a scotch bonnet.
About a month ago I started some tomato seeds. Isn’t it exciting when they first emerge!
They’ve just moved to their new homes.
Here’s a close up of a tender youngster.
Enough about the veggies, this guy just bloomed for me after hanging around for about a year. I had never seen him in full fettle. I bought him sight unseen so it is a real treat to watch him unfurl. He has two more buds about to pop.
These are berries from my wild coffee bushes that I use for hedges around the deck. I think these are of the Brazilian variety.
My gorgeous pink Vanda just sent up a flower stalk. Yay!
A Dendrobium in bloom. They love the full sun I get on part of the deck.
Oh yes, I do have another veggie. These hot peppers survived our week of frigid fortysomething farenheit night temperatures. They soldiered on and are beginning to really produce. These are either Thai Hot or Goat Horn peppers. I had a marker but used the wrong pen and the name washed away.
Here’s a close-up. This little beauty is prolific!
Here’s a Phaleonopsis at the peak of her bloom.
My Christmas cactus marches to her own drummer. She finally decided it was time to shine late January/early February.
What I see when I get home and turn in the walkway.
Binky skulking around his new favorite plant.
Binky told me to to remind you . . . .
