Harvest, Schmarvest

A few posts back, I was reveling in the large crop on my orange tree.  Now, I revel not.  The oranges were worthless: lots of seeds, lots of pulp, hardly any juice.  On the plus side, they were easy to peel - a plus that rapidly became meaningless as, one after another, we tossed the peeled fruit into the trash.

What happened?  T'was not the tree.  T'was not the bee.  T'was me.  I selected the wrong kind of citrus for my private one-tree orchard.  Algerian Clementines are self-fruitful but produce better crops if pollinated.  But, if pollinated by anything other than another Algerian Clementine, you get what we got: yuck fruit.

The tree blossomed profusely, smelled delightful, attracted lots of bees.  Ah, but who knew where those bees had been?  What were the odds that every one of those little fellas showered the night before, removing all traces of pollen from their prior day's work, that they then spent the night in isolated clean rooms away from their unwashed hive-mates, that their first stop of the day was an Algerian Clementine across town, after which they made a non-stop beeline to my place?  Any bettors?

Bees don't care where they get their nectar.  Got flowers?  I'll be right over.  Bunch of sluts.  Kinda reminds me of myself in my younger days.

Yesterday, the orange tree became history.  It's gone: cut up, rooted out and trash piled.  The pretty, aromatic blossoms alone didn't justify the special care and feeding I was providing.  In its place is a pygmy date palm.

Pygmy Date Palm

It grows slowly to about 9' tall and wide.

Will it actually produce dates?  

Don't know.  No pygmies around here to eat 'em, anyway.

Wow!

A pleasant memory of growing up in rural northern Minnesota, was seeing the northern lights. They appeared rarely but when they did, we'd all rush outside to view the constantly-changing, colorful display.  We'd stand there, awestruck, and exclaim, "Wow!"

Last night  at dinner this question came up: are there southern lights, as well?  Indeed there are. They're called aurora australis; northern lights are aurora borealis.

I thought the northern lights would be excellent subject matter for a painting and started working on it last spring, thinking I'd finish it before we left LHC for the summer.  No way.  After 3 abortive attempts, I set it aside.  Six weeks ago, I started over and screwed it up a couple more times before finally creating something I liked enough to hang on the wall.

Wow!

Acrylic on Canvas 24" x 30"

Mike Delaney

December, 2014

Guineas

Trish started it.  She said she was reading a book I might enjoy, said the setting was New Guinea.  I'm no geography expert but vaguely recalled there being several colonies or countries called New Guinea.  I asked Trish, "What's with all the New Guineas?  And, why isn't there an Old Guinea?"  There had to be an old one, couldn't be new ones if there wasn't an old one.

I brought up the Guinea subject later, at Gary and Nancy's, with Terry and Lisa in attendance.  I said there was a Guinea in South America and that Devil's Island was part of it.  Devil's Island was an infamous French penal colony, the setting for the movie Papillon.  Gary agreed but ours was the minority opinion.  We were partially right: Devil's Island is indeed off the coast of South America but it was part of French Guiana, not Guinea.  It's now the independent country of Guyana.

French Guinea was the first colony to bear the Guinea name.  Located in West Africa, it is now the independent country of Guinea.  Other areas of Africa were claimed by other European countries and named Guinea, some with the 'New' prefix, some not: Dutch Guinea, German Guinea, Spanish New Guinea, Portuguese New Guinea, etc.  The British minted gold coins (from 1663 to 1814) that were called guineas because the gold came from the Guinea area of West Africa.

The setting in Trish's book is the island of New Guinea, which used to be called British New Guinea; it's located north of Australia.  One online source said there 13 different places named Guinea at one time or another.  Currently, there are four: Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Equatorial Guinea and Papua New Guinea. Good grief!

My first ever exposure to the term 'guinea' was guinea hens.  My uncle had a few, very ugly, very noisy.  He also had geese, nasty buggers that chased me when I was a little kid.

PS: Papillon starred Dustin Hoffman and Steve McQueen and they did a great job of acting.

Got Oranges?

December, 2011.

The 1-year old tree yielded 9 oranges.

It's an Algerian Clementine Mandarin Orange.

December, 2014.

Don't know how many; 80 maybe?

We got zippity doo dah in 2012 and 2013, lack of pollination, I think.
The harvest starts this week.

In other plant news: I promised (blog post of 10/9/10) to provide a picture of the new plants in the lower terrace.  My faithful readers have been clamoring - in ever-increasing volume and frequency - for me to fulfill that promise.  The long wait is over!  Read on.

Before: lower terrace, October, 2010.  Ho-hum.

After: lower terrace, November, 2014.

Viva la difference!

Left to right: Blue Myrtle Cactus, Century Plant, Tubac Prickly Pear.

Valley of Fire II

Arches, balanced rocks, petroglyphs, slot canyons and magnificent colors abound here.  Here are a few of the best sights.

Atlatl Rock is a 10 minute walk from our campground.

This picture shows only a few of the petroglyphs there.

The atlatl, a launching stick for spears and precursor of the bow and arrow,

is pictured upper center above - the guy with his arms raised above his head.

It appears the guy is wearing a skirt, was probably a crossdresser.

Could be a woman but I don't think they did any hunting,

women's lib not being a popular concept at the time. 

The other images, period graffiti actually, are similar to others in

 various southwest locations: a hot dog on a stick, big horn sheep, a film strip,

 the Target store symbol, several snakes, 3-toed boogeymen and a dildo.

Above and below pix were taken on the 1.2 mile White Domes hike.

Slot canyons are spectacular but not a good place to be in a downpour.

Below, a wide range of colors in a relatively small area - amazing!

Fire Wave above and below, a 1.5 mile hike, round trip.

Poodle Rock

Valley of Fire

The visitor center blends in nicely.

Trish on the rocks.

A member of the Hole in the Wall Gang?

Valley of Fire, an hour’s drive NE of Las Vegas, is Nevada’s oldest and largest state park. And, it’s gorgeous!  We arrived here late Monday morning, just a few minutes behind our friends, David and Elaine; their 5W is parked across the road from us.  Spending holiday weekends at a campground is popular with RVers.  The best campgrounds are full to capacity, including this one.

We lucked out with the best site in the campground.  It has a huge, level concrete pad, electric and water hookups and is right beside the restroom/shower building.  It's a handicapped site, which we can use because Trish qualifies for permanent handicapped parking.

Above and below pix were taken just a couple blocks from our campground.

Side Effects

Three days ago I bent over to get a T-shirt from the dresser drawer when, suddenly, my back seized up.  This happens every few years for no obvious reason.  I'm just minding my own business, bend over to pick something up (in one case, bending over to wipe my butt) and zap-gotcha!  I'm frozen in place, afraid to move, afraid it will bite me again if I do.  I take a few deep breaths, wait a few moments, and then, very slowly and carefully, rise to a standing position by walking my hands up my legs to avoid using my back muscles.

Usually the pain eases off in a day or two and I'm back to normal in 4-5 days.  But this time it wasn't improving so I visited the doctor yesterday.  Diagnosis: inflamed/enlarged muscle is putting pressure on sciatic nerve.  Treatment: MethylPREDNISolone.  I've never used that drug but my favorite youngest sister, Marge, is using it to help her cope with a rare but nasty health issue.  She said that the possible side effects were off-putting, but that it was effective in treating her condition.

I don't normally read possible side effects warnings on prescribed meds but I did this time.  Let me tell you, they're enough to make brave men tremble - much braver men than I.  Here they are: bloody, black or tarry stools; facial flushing; feeling of whirling motion; hangnails; headache; changes in body fat; changes in menstrual periods; increased navel lint; chest pain; fainting; fever, chills or sore throat; increased hunger, thirst or urination; mental or mood changes; muscle pain; poor gas mileage; weakness or wasting; seizures; hairy boogers; severe nausea or vomiting; slow wound healing; rust or corrosion; stomach pain; sudden severe dizziness; swelling of feet or legs; bad karma; tendon, bone or joint pain; toe jam; thinning of the skin; unusual bruising or bleeding; delusions of adequacy; unusual skin sensations; unusual weight gain (lots of unusual here; where's Tom Jones when you need him?); vision changes or other eye problems; harelip.

Trish says it also tends to make people mean and short-tempered.  Medical professionals, who just love to give things the longest names possible, call it ScreamingAssholeSyndrome.