PARQUE DONA INES ALBERTO ARECES MALLEA phd AND GABRIELA OCAMPO WHY/HOW THEY FAILED

After my return from New York, 2002, I had the chance to work and watch closely the two mentioned in the tittle. Ignorant foreigners, one with more degrees than the Duchess of Alba and the wife, aboriginal from Central America.

If you read this blog often you may be sick about the importance of inventories. However, the damage by these two can not be forgiven and/or/forgotten. 8 million dollars wasted, along our flora/fauna without any rigorous botanical records before the massacre or after.

Restoring a forest is not for amateurs without any previous experience or expertise. It  is not a matter of just digging holes and planting endemic trees collected all over the island, without much consideration to other environmental variables.

THE ONCE AND FUTURE FOREST

Leslie Jones Sauer

pages 30-31 

Poor Herbaceous and Shrub Recruitment

Because of the ease we cultivate plants in our gardens we may be unaware of how different a forest is.  For example, rampant reproduction by seed is a very important phenomenon in the garden and yard, for both desirable plants and weeds.  Not so in the forest, a landscape of very long-lived plants where reproduction is limited and where there are simply fewer chances  for recruitment even under the best of conditions.

While popular interest often centers on old trees, stands of wildflowers, where they still persist, may be far older.  What happens to be hundreds of mayapples, for example, 

may really be a single plant with myriad stems.  The same is true for trout lily and many other forest ferns and wildflowers.  Many forest wildflowers are in fact ancient clones that have been colonizing a site for centuries. 

The plight of native herbaceous plants is especially serious because reestablishing them is so difficult and takes so long.   Once its ground is lost, a new plant has little chance in the highly structured environment of a forest. All the vacancies are filled and, when they do occur, such as when a great tree dies, many well established plants are better poised to take advantage of the gap than a woodland wildflower.  

Once established, an herbaceous plant must hold its spot; 

hence the strategy of living a long time.  Living in the shadow of the trees makes flowering and setting seed a biologically expensive effort, so forest herbs tend to produce fewer and more infrequent seeds than their field-dwelling counterpars.  Many often rely on "vegetative reproduction"; that is, a new plant is established from a sucker or other vegetative part of an existing plant rather than from seeds only.  

This is a form of asexual, or clonal reproduction.  Indeed, 

vegetative reproduction, not seeds,  is often the rule in the eastern forest, and for woody species as well.  The trees of the temperate land are often called the "sprout" hardwoods. For many species reproduction by seed may occur only infrequently.

Some questions may be spinning in thy heads. That is the intention. Only a fool will be proud of destroying 15 acres of land with the biggest tractor available, compacting the soil, killing in fact every creature on top and below ground, without forgetting the top soil running down the slopes during two years. Leaving a moonscape where there was flora and fauna to be accounted for.

After the massacre, how can I forget  the scene: two fools on the hill spreading Kentuky Rye and Bermuda grass seeds in the compacted, destroyed soil when we were about to leave the premises. 

Or the caravans of tens of trucks with  80,000 pounds of 'top soil' spread on the compacted hills of Parque Dona Ines, over a 2 million tons total, also going running down the hills after each rain storm.

How can any one with such degrees, a polyglot do this? Never considering that a forest, has native grasses, herbaceous plants, vines, ground covers and shrubs?

The culprits, Gabriela Ocampo and Areces Mallea were not alone. Accomplices: The municipality of Trujillo Alto, 007 Recursos Naturales, Fundacion Luis Munhoz Marin the whole Board of Directors. 

I have to declare that many gullible people fell in the salt and water endemic dream these two preached for some time. However, one single voice for the last five years,  has not only kept the fraud on the surface, but researching, studying to go beyond the benefit of the doubt, with references and going back to journals, photos kept at the time.

that is that 

no sleeping and no laurels

down these here pastures 

 

THE ADVENTIST AND THE HACKER

THE last post in my previous blog endemismotrasnochado, still strong with 6,225 visitors from 112 countries, was written on 20 April 2010.  This post will deal with the usual suspects. 

Those clusters maps allow your humbleness to find out the origin of visitors to your favorite and its branches. Having being educated/trained to teach history, geography, latitude and longitude, with solid notions on  cartography I often wonder why in hell some visitors arrive to these chores since there is NOTHING in common between their geographical station and mine.

Unless they come to laugh at my pidgin English,  criticize my abrasive, acerbic, unforgiven tone or enjoy my talent as a photographer.  Look at your own blog reader, if you have one.
Figure it out.

My case is simple.  Some hacker/hackers from those far away places, countries in the third world and/or those European countries like Rumania, a third world if there is one, were able to penetrate the blog and all the email addresses in the account.  


Next, they sent an email to everyjuan I had written in the previous two years,  informing them of  some misfortune I had suffered in London requesting $1,500 dollars, since I had lost me passport, money and credit cards.


Martin Anderson, simultaneous interpreter/translator in the Civil Court in Manhattan, New York,  a good friend from Wisconsin and former colleague, was one of the recipients.


The other person receiving the email describing my British misfortune was my real sister. Lets call that bitch, Olga Iris Feliciano, and her husband, Angel Luis Rosa Lugo, fictional names (to protect me
real identity) from Savarona and residing at  Villas de Castro, calle 9-0-13, in the recently created,  Caguas Country.

Considering that irony is the incongruity between what happens and what actually occurs, I had a good laugh imagining the fool hacker requesting a ransom from my thief Adventist sister and husband.


Olga Iris and  her scum husband, had stolen from yours truly in the last thirty years: $50,000 USA dollars from a property in Savarona that should have been shared as brother and sister from a legal matrimony, but the Adventist, an avaricious beach
who has received rent money for 3 decades  with no moral qualms as to what belongs to the brother, your humbleness.. 

SCREW THE ADVENTISTS

FROM THE EDITOR

I have to declare that after rereading some of the Pulitzer
material in endemismotrasnochado in Spanish/English after
all these years, the quality has improved somejuat
since the bitter, intense anger has being going down.


that is that

VIDEO CLIP UNIIVERSIDAD SAGRADO CORAZON NOISE POLLUTING HELL NEXT DOOR

WORDS UNIIVERSIDAD SAGRADO CORAZON NOISE POLLUTING HELL NEXT DOOR

YESTERDAY was a day of discoveries.  I made a phone call to the hell next door in the tittle to find out the email address of Mariano Rivera, or whatever his name was, the engineer in charge of buildings and grounds to inquire again about the damned constant noise from this university.

I had the chance to chat with Beatriz Ortiz, bortiz@sagrado.edu, who politely informed your humble servant that our hero is no longer with them.  Surprise, surprise. When will this 32 acres noise plantation will hire one? How long have they been without one? 


At any rate. She was patient and kind enough to listen to my list of complains and criticism for five minutes. But provided no answers since bureaucrats are not prone to do that. When questioned about the traffic jams early morning and evenings going all the way down to Munoz Rivera avenue caused by their staff and students? " We are working on it".


My response was simple. I had informed the Dean, Mr. Ricci two years ago that assigning odd and even numbers to all with parking permits should solve the problem. Some will enter  by Eduardo Conde avenue and  others by San Agustin stret. One does not need to go to Harvard or wait two years to solve such a simple thing.


Later, I had the opportunity to chat with Nancy Irizarry, nirizarry@sagrado.edu,  receptionist in the grounds and buildings office. When inquired about how long has Sagrado Corazon being without a chief in this office? "Oh, I can not tell you that". Fine says yours truly.


Give me please the email address of the president,  says the one and only. Sorry, I can not, the response. You have to call their office. Well darling I had it. But will not used it since I have written this president 3/4 times without any response. I imagine they think looking the other way will allow the problems to disappear  in time.


Which brings me to Titania a dear fellow blogger from Australia who once commented on my acerbic tone, and my burning of bridges.  Well that is still true. 


I will construct fortresses and castles. There is no point in bridges down here. Reason never prevails. But I have tried with opened hands to solve matters, knocking gently at their 
doors. But the will is strong, eventually I will knock them down maybe i a court of law.

that is that.

EYE ON THE RAINFOREST A CULT AND/OR A HOAX?

AS a plant collector, creative horticultural critic for the last five years, certified in Commercial Horticulture Landscape Management, in the New York Botanical Garden, I have some  credentials/trajectory/a collection  to inquire about rare, unusual, illogical, questionable situations, in the field of my vocation.  People dealing with any environmental/ecological/sustainability affecting our flora and fauna without credentials say/speak/do about things they do not have real credentials or experience to claim.  Alberto Areces Mallea, phd destroyed 12 acres with his 'agronomist',  Gabriela Ocampo in Parque Dona Ines. What better precedent in Trujillo Alto?

Read below, part of a cover letter from the director of  EYE ON THE RAINFOREST in Patillas City,  available in their site aneyeontherainforest.org  and you be the judge.

3t, born of Zoroastrian parents in Kenya, East Africa, has been an avid explorer of the natural world and her travels have taken her all over Europe, India, Nepal, east and north Africa, and USA. Her painting and digital work have documented her travels. 3t is merely the pronunciation of 'Thrity', her name.
Since 2000, 3t lives in the Puerto Rican rainforest where she is Director of Tropic Ventures Rainforest Enrichment Project in Patillas, Puerto Rico. Her main area of interest is trees and the research and development of sustainable forest management and timber production in secondary forests of Puerto Rico. She is involved in tree planting, identification, selection for harvest, logging, sawing operations and the marketing and selling of sustainably‐grown and harvested valuable hardwood.

.

I read and I read, reread the biographical information of the mostly foreigners, few natives in charge, not finding relevant/meaningful credentials in pertinent fields: entomology, botany, arboriculture  and  agronomy. 

However I did find lots of words of wisdom, sustainability, good will, ecology, environmental correctness, but one huge black hole no botanical inventory of flora and fauna. 

On a phone conversation with one member of this horticultural cult, a USA national, I was reassured that  neither him nor his Sun Ra followers colleagues had any.

The strangest thing is that they do not sell plants, but the cultist demonstrated no interest in swapping seeds or plants when I mentioned, all this making the experience more weird if I may. 


It is a common trend among sophisticated people working with the landscape, propagating and collecting to exchange plants/seeds/stems unless one is a phony and unaware

Finally, while reading one article in their site with a twenty or so books in the bibliography this one, was missing:
The Once And Future Forest by Leslie Jones Sauer. Please take a note on this. All anyjuan needs to know while dealing with forests, forest restorations and or lumberyard issues is there.


When I mentioned my interest in collecting, like any average Joe six pack, he offered Heliconias.  Confirmed he did not have any botanical inventory. How can this be possible?

This adventure started some time ago, when I observed some flowers of plants  in their web site I did not recognize, nor have I seen in any reference books.  Only a fool would place a photo of an insect, animal, flower, tree without the provision or writing the botanical name just in case of any inquiry. Or remain silent after five emails trying to find out.

Show me the botanical inventory of the flora and fauna!

To Patty Boyko

That is that. 

Check their site. 

You may learn something.

GOOD HOUSEKEEPING RESTORING ISSUE

YOU probably remember that old magazine from yesterday. I used to look at the pictures at the dentist/doctor office,  in those 'we love hot dogs, apple pie and Chevrolet' days.  Everyjuan was pale men, women and children..

At any rate, here are the pictures of the EAST/SOUTH  gardens  If you stretch the imagination one could be a pond, the second a river. Actually a  clay sailing boat was depicted moving towards the east.

One or two fans thought it was a shark fin. However I reminded them Me Yellow River, is not salty.

That is that.

If you are into photos or videos click on the links to your left.

EAST-SOUTH RESTORED ENCLOSURES REVIVAL

WHAT can  say/write?   I am very excited with this project.  Concrete is not a friendly material to the  body, sight or ears, spirit, humor or temper.
I have been successful hiding, covering it with green roofs, walls, vertical and horizontal gardens.  But it will never be enough. The isle is plastered with it.

The Assyrians and Babylonians used clay as the bonding substance or cement. The Egyptians used lime and gypsum cement. In 1756, British engineer, John Smeaton made the first modern concrete (hydraulic cement) by adding pebbles as a coarse aggregate and mixing powered brick into the cement. In 1824, English inventor, Joseph Aspdin invented Portland Cement, which has remained the dominant cement used in concrete production. Joseph Aspdin created the first true artificial cement by burning ground limestone and clay together. The burning process changed the chemical properties of the materials and Joseph Aspdin created a stronger cement than what using plain crushed limestone would produce.  Mary Ellis,Inventors. about.com

In Puerto Rico, the concrete/cement/cinder block fever took off in the 1940's. A real pity since the logical intelligent materials to construct in this climate would be wood and/or bricks.

If you want to get technical about the pain in the arse concrete is, go research on your own about heat absorption/consequences in cities compared to brick for example. 

One hundred years ago (previous post) the average temperature in the concrete/asphalt isle  was 78 versus 80 now.

The heat during day and night time is intolerable, and gets worse, not better with the destruction of biomass, every imaginable tree/vegetation is destroyed for any particular reason or no reason.

Perhaps, the most irritating defect of concrete/cinder blocks is resonance. Inside any structure sound is amplified. Think of if people in a culture unable to modulate their voices HOLLERING, chit chat, small talk constantly indoors.

Unfortunately, this property of concrete indoors become much more intense outdoors.l Imagine all kinds of vehicles, power tools, music, on and on.

Perhaps the constant, annoying,  intense noise is partly responsible to the high crime statistics. Think of University Sagrado Corazon an institution for profit  with night and day noise pollution. I bet hundred of thousands of people live in similar circumstances.   


So there, concrete makes peoples life in a city a miserable struggle just to remain sane. In your humbleness case, so far so good.


Just put yourself in someone else place. Noise destroys the meaning/sense of privacy, of being alone with your thoughts. That is the why of the second sentence. Concrete destroys all quality of life in the urban context.  However, the average Joe six pack does not notice it.

That is that.

SUGGESTIONS
FOR 
THIS KIND OF PROJECT

You will need: chalk, a tape measure, ruler, masking tape of different widths, 2/12 brush,one inch and 1/4 inch artist brushes, a thirty square feet plastic cover in case of rain, as it just happened, when I was one third into the painting and a cushion for your knees.

Six gallons of paint around 
$300, (it is not cheap) and around 40/60 hours of painting, measuring, taping...
You should always start with the borders with the tape. In case of rain you will not have to mark again!


Make sure you have some stamina. If you can weed on your knees or sitting for twenty or thirty minutes at a time...go ahead....

 
.

PORTO RICO EPILOGUE

  It was at one time believed that vegetables could not be successfully grown in Porto Rico, but now at the agricultural experiment station at Mayaguez, as well as elsewhere on the island, vegetables of the Temperate Zone are being grown from good seed and with proper cultivation.  One cause for early failures was that most Porto Rican homes are on the hills where conditions for vegetable growing are less favorable than in the valleys.
Very heavy downpours together with plant diseases, due, due to  long rainy spells, have also proved hindrances.  The uplands of the island are well adapted to coffee growing, but there is need of improved varieties, especially suited to American tastes.  Coffee land, in 1909, was valued at from $5 to $50 per acre, and sugar land at from $100 to $200 per acre.
 The citrus fruit industry, which has been developed mainly during the last 20 years, is making rapid growth.  There is no danger from frost, and New York, one of the best of markets, is easily reached.  Pineapples and many other tropical crops are grown.  The avocado, or alligator pear, and the native mango are found in all parts of the island.  Bananas also grow in most parts, and cocoanuts along the sea coast.  There is considerable trouble from plant diseases and insect pests. More cover crops, such as cowpeas, jack beans, sword beans, Layon beans, and Florida velvet beans are greatly needed to improve sandy soils, and to loosen the heavy clays.

That is that.

I have taken the liberty of deleting the last paragraph dealing with livestock, since the horticulture I practice does not.

But if you live in the Caribbean, our history in this regard can not be much different no matter the language of the master..  
I respect banana republics for both: having bananas, a hymn, currency and a flag.  But we are not in such a bad situation politically.  What to we have but cheap labor?
Prostitution and tourism? Drug trafficking, money laundering and inept politicians from top to botton...

The history of humanity has been one of pillage and rip offs to each other. The fatherland, family, state and church have been lying to ALL with their faithful accomplices, school systems in every country spreading their lies.

that is that.

Raoul Servais - To Speak or not To Speak (1970)

PORTO RICO IIII

Agriculture

  Farms and crops.  In 1910, Porto Rico had 53,371 farms, embracing 2,085,162 acres, three fourths of this classed as  improved land. Average size of farms is 35.7 acres.  

All farm property including land, buildings implements, machinery and livestock is valued at $102, 379,000, just a little less than three fourths being invested in land.   The average value of a farm is given as $1,754.

Of the farms listed in the Thirteen Census 44,521 are operated by white farmers  and 13,850 by colored farmers.

Only 2 percent of the farms are operated by managers, yet

these farms average 343.4 acres, about 11 times as great as  that operated by owners, and considerably larger than

that operated by tenants (21.7) acres.
The average size of farms operated by white farmers (42.2 acres) was nearly three times as large as that of colored farmers (14.7 acres). Of farms of less than 5 acres there are 20,650, yet there are 207 farms of 1,000  acres or more.
  In 1909, the value of all crops  of  Porto Rico was $25,559, 265, sugar cane, the leading crop of the lowlands, making slightly more than half of the total.  Cane was grown on 6,806 farms, and from 145, 433 acres the harvest was 3,087,612 tons. With better seed, improved methods, and modern machinery this crop is proving profitable.
Coffee was grown on 25,433 farms and 186,876 acres the yield being 52,717,727 pounds valued at $5,292,179.  Another staple crop is tobacco, grown on 8,329 farms in 1909.  The yield from 22,142 acres was 10,827,755 pounds valued at $1,938,092.  The value of all fruits and nuts grown in 1909 was !$2,293,532, more than two fifths being represented by bananas.  The value of all vegetables was placed at $1,214,310.


Why am I doing this? Too many blogs are useless entertainment, ego trips. This blog, your humbleness pretend to be a reference for the curious. I figure it will be finished in two or three more posts. 

that is that

apagad e iros...

PORTO RICO ll

Climate and rainfall.  The climate of Porto Rico is generally uniform and, although the humidity is rather high, is delightful throughout most of the year. The mean annual temperature is about 78 degrees, while the winter months average about 70.  Summers are not oppressive and there is generally a good breeze.  Prevailing winds are from the northeast.  The mornings are likely to be clear with showers in the afernoon.  Very heavy downpours are not uncommon, from 10 to 12 inches of rain sometimes falling in 24 hours.
Winter months are drier than summer.  The annual rainfall ranges from 150 to 40 inches.
  The people.  Porto Rico, acquired by the United States in 1898, is thickly settled with a mixed population.  In 1910 the census showed 1,118, 012 people, a gain of 17.3 per cent in ten years.  Labor is plentiful and cheap.  On the whole the people are more progressive than in many other tropical islands.  There are railroads and two or more well built macadamized roads.  The cities of San Juan and Ponce have electric roads.

EDITOR'S UPDATE

Many fools academicians and not still refer

to this concrete asphalt hell with no quality of life as,

Paradise or Enchanted Island. That is a bunch of crap.

Maybe, just maybe perhaps, a hundred years ago it was.

This are the stats for now, take me word or go research on your own, a click will do it.

Temperature

80 degrees low/flat lands

70 degrees in mountains

Rain

171.09 in Pico del Este

29.32 Magueyes Island

If you ask me I have no idea where either one is, makes no difference.

Population by July 2011

3,989,00

plus the same amount or higher of 'better future/life' for their children, exiles in USA and 

the world. "Diaspora,' academicians, call them.

 

Now is time to extrapolate if you ask me. The islanders have a complex view regarding black and white blood/genes in their veins/family tree. Everyone wants to be white or less black. 

Parents infuse their ethnic beliefs on their children. On the celebration of 'el descubrimiento de America" or whatever, in school activities related to that event children dress up as Spaniards or Indians, never

as black.

For example if you look white, but have small ears, big nose/lips, kinky hair you are not white.  If you are telephone black but wavy or straight hair, with white features you are an Indio or a darkie as in India, but not black.  An so on and so forth. If interested find 'The 'Miscegenation in America', the authority in the subject.

Ethnic composition

76.2 white

6.9 black

0.3 asian

0.2 amerindians

4.4 mixed

0.2 other

In Puerto Rico, just like medieval times in Spain where one had to prove purity of blood or not being Muslim/Hebrew, race related issues are pretty interesting, rarely mentioned or discussed. I am not black, have nothing against blacks, but will never call affectionately one, negro/negra/negrito/negrita as it is usual in some circles. Condescending I am not.

Nor I believe they have rhythm/music/art/ grabbed by the scrotum.  It is just that society in general is racist scumbags not allowing them blacks to be. That is why there is just one black judge in our highest court and Mayra Santos writing short stories.

Blacks are cool if they play ball, dance, or play music, minstrel like. However if you watch television you will rarely find one. It is like Mexico. You will see indians like a needle in a hay stack on la tele. FIN.

That is that.

 

 

PORTO RICO

FARM 

KNOWLEDGE

 A Complete Manual of Successful Farming Written by Recognized Authorities in All Parts of the Country; Based on Sound Principles and the Actual Experience of Real Farmers- "The Farmer's

Own Cyclopedia"

PREPARED EXCLUSIVELY FOR 

SEARS, ROEBUCK AND CO.

EDITED BY

E. l. D. SEYMOUR, B.S.A.

PREPARED EXCLUSIVELY FOR

DOUBLEDAY, PAGE & COMPANY 

GARDEN CITY NEW YORK

 1918

                                                         

       

1PORTO RICO

THE island of Porto Rico, oblong in shape, about 36 miles from north to south and 100 miles from east to west, is the farthest end of the Greater Antilles. It lies between 65 and 68 degrees west longitude and 18 and 181/2 degrees north latitude and is about 1,500 miles east of New Orleans.

  Surface and soil.  The greater part of Porto Rico is rough and broken, yet the highest elevations are only about 3,000 feet.  The main range of mountains extends from east to west. Of the 3,600 miles making up the total area, about one

tenth consists of islands bordered by low lands of greater or less extent.   Inland there are many deep and narrow valleys.  Much of the soil of Porto Rico has been formed by the decay of volcanic rock like that forming the backbone of the island, yet the soil varies greatly.  In respect to area, red clay is one of the principal soils.  Foothill soils, bordering the plains, are dark in color. The soil of the mangrove swamps contain coral sand with some organic matter.  Near the seacoast there is much coral sand. Most of the rocks of Porto Rico are limestone, but there is some granite, marble and sandstone. Practically

all of the island was once heavily timbered, but most of the timber has been removed. 

thanks to

TITO COLLAZO 

for scanning

the illustrations

at left

this will continue as those

old film series soon.

here or in 

caribbean botanical review 

                   

DESTROYING THE EARTH AND PROUD OF IT!

I STILL enjoy reading old magazines and newspapers, not from Puerto Rico, goes without saying. On March 28, TIME magazine publishes: Your Next Job: Made in India or China, on page 58.

Thirty years ago the average person in China or India could afford almost nothing beyond basic food and almost nothing beyond basic food and other simple necessities of life.  That poverty was a problem for all of us.  With so little spending power in the developing world, the global economy was dependent on handful of wealthy nations, especially the U.S.  Today however China and India have
become a new source  of growth for the global economy. 


Hundreds of millions of Chinese and Indians can now splurge on Sony LCD TV's, Australian steaks and Apple iPhones. Last year, Indians and Chinese bought 19.9 million new passenger vehicles, 70% more than Americans did according to J.D Power.  This new bonanza for consumer goods increases demand for copper, cotton and other natural resources; the machinery to manufacture those goods; the ships and trucks to transport them; and the people to design and sell them.
The result in higher sales and bigger profits for companies such as Boeing and Rio Tinto, as well as more jobs.

While I read this four or five times to make sure that I understood, not the meaning, but the implications, I could not believe it.  The days of  international mortgage and banking scams in the first world seem forgotten.

The article does not mention electricity, food, housing, health, education and fresh water for Chinese and Indians. The cultural defects defining USA are evident. Buy and sell. Everything else will be solved by itself.

Besides all this bonanza being hypothetical, the truth is that cheap labor is what developers are constantly searching for . Cheap labor, cheap natural resources.

What is next? A house with a picket fence with a lawn, a TATA in every driveway, hamburgers, tbones and hot dogs for every Chinese and Indian?

The sad reality is that ironic or not, that may be the intention. When I check housing projects in the third world, (what better example than my wrapped in concrete/asphalt fatherland) ALL are the same no matter where on earth.


Forgotten are cultural values, the toxic fumes, the 24/7 traffic jams, the impossibility to construct enough highways for the vehicular volume.  I have seen a traffic jam in China in some frontier, a hundred miles long during one week in the news.


Development is always the same, less arable land, less food, less water. Opportunities for insignificant percentages of the population with total destruction of the environment.  Puerto Rico have  set a great example in every department mentioned. .


Unfortunately, the imbeciles making it possible: lawyers, bankers, engineers, architects, academicians and politicians still speak/write and sing about the beauty of this asphalted hell without any quality of life, where traffic jams, floods, crime, unemployment dominate the islanders life.

that is that

Dario apagueis la luh.

ANOTHER RAINY DAY

IT HAS been raining for the last thirty five days on a off. A pain in the arse, if you ask me. I do not understand the infatuation with rain forests, its flowers and vegetation.

In my garden the flowers of  Plumerias are destroyed by its force, to name one.  Your humbleness declares that tropical rains are the worst thing that could happen to many flowers except those corny, steel like in the Heliconaceae, Zingibeceae  and Strelitziaceae families, admired so much by Floridian hordes, with hundreds of garden accolades down here. In my opinion these flowers look better in a glass jar, than in a garden unless you have a one acre farm/space.

Too much of a good thing, all this rain..Mosquitoes multiply with the aid of plenty abandoned structures and rubber tires by the thousands. Blankets, towels, bed sheets, get smelly with the humidity.

I could not survive in one of those countries where it rains for days, weeks and months. Humidity is really unpleasant making the pavement slippery.


Fortunately the soil in me garden is ninety five percent sand, with excellent drainage, otherwise, another would be the story.
Rain is also excellent for the propagation of insects and fungi.


However, this cloudy Maine atmosphere days are nice for photography, planting, and cool sex if you think this last one is as important as news/printed media, films, and infomercials make the gullible believe: to have your pecker longer, thicker and stronger with pills or creams. This in turn satisfies your partner because they like them with those attributes, the fornication lasting longer as bonus.

IN BRIEF

Guanica city in the south of the concrete asphalted isle is my favorite place to vacation. With thirty inches of rain a year, one will rarely encounter the problems mentioned. Besides, I have always been a fan of the desert.


People, down here are not fond of it. For many islanders scarce vegetation is ugly and sterile. Thank god for stupid people. That allows the others, not belonging to that segment to enjoy those scenes, topography, geography, its flora and fauna most of the time without nasty, unwanted children hollering and doing what they do.


I think that is that. Now you go and write or think about virtues and defects of rain. Perhaps it is difficult for most to find the defects since, LIFE is impossible without water, but juathejeck, give it a try.

Bonus

After my ROTHKO days, 
now I am into
the micro short film
Akira Kurosawa era.
Buajaha 
bilingual one.
Check
me out in youtube.


that is that

\

POST VIDEO CLIPS SENSATIONS

I have found the botanical names for 4 plants in my collection in two days! This is rather unusual considering that Passiflora foetida and pallida L. took 18 months until I discovered the New York Botanical Garden web site with Lord Nathaniel Britton illustrations, research and plant idenfication during the 1900 1920's in Puerto Rico along his wife.

The other 3 were mentioned in caribbean botanical review yesterday. But for all loyal readers this one Calathea loeseneri, is from Brazil. One among a few in that family with an impressive light violet flowers, reminding me of bird of paradise. 

Your humbleness has made seven video clips. Some have been shared in a couple of blogs. They reflect my view on the ugly urban reality surrounding me in terms of landscape, architecture and people. I am not to fond of most people. They are too sentimental, unable to take criticism or making an effort to be better.

The sensation after slowly improving some technical issues is of emptiness since once they appear on youtube or the blogs, that is that. There is not much any one can offer as an opinion since the truth does not require elaboration. Ugly or beauty, dumb or smart are probably universal values, considering each culture standards for each.


The writing I do with all known defects in terms of sintax, grammar and else, feels more warmth. Even if no one reads, or a few, with or without comments. It is another kind of trip.


I think I will continue doing both, but the writing deserves more affection than video clips, since it leaves some satisfaction unknown in the other.

That is that.

APPALACHIAN STOCK IN PARADA 27 SANTURCE

ANTIGONUM CAJAN SQUASHES PATRICK BLANC OR VERTICAL/HORIZONTAL GARDENING ISSUES

THE FRENCH botanist Patrick Blanc 'invented' the concept of vertical gardening. Borne in 1953, is 2 years younger than this Caribbean blogger, gardener, humorist, light percussionist, provocative, misanthropist, trend setter, 'writer' and critic.

Three years ago, when I discovered him, I thought, what every juan else did. Juat a cool guy!  But some things were wrong with the portraying of the invention. It took some time, but this never resting gardener, has finally squashed the concept.

If you believe Cristoforo Colombo discovered America, click and skip. Nature discovered vertical gardening, not Monsieur Blanc. Epiphytes are the clue.

Once that is clear, then, the educated/well trained gardener/horticultural practitioner must consider the following requirements to have a healthy vertical garden.  The substrate or fiber/soil should provide  efficient capillary action to allow the nutrient solution/irrigation in a close circuit  and available light for the chosen vegetation to survive and look healthy and cool.

All the above cost money, energy, systematic maintenance and in my opinion could only be pragmatic in the first world, not ours, the other half with 3 billion of starving, without electricity, food, water, a roof, a job, schools, or a future for biped creatures.

Some fools in Florida/Puercorico buy and place their  pots in a milk crate. Later,  they nail them on a wall calling it a vertical garden.  

Antigonum Cajan or yours truly on the contrary, digs five holes in a concrete driveway,  with a chisel and sledge hammer. He plants 7 species of vines from seed, places some wires from the fence to the iron works in the windows, creating, not only a vertical garden up and down the fence, but an horizontal one also. 

Hello Antigonum Cajan, farewell Patrick Blanc,

All the above without significant amounts of money, effort and/or waste of energy, local flora and fauna in focus.The desire and/or will to be better, superior, a feeling that keeps me company shadow like.  But not in absolute terms, I have my flaws in other fields of knowledge.  and others wisdom wise.

That is that.  

BONUS FOR THE FAITHFUL

them photos from the roof

are dedicated to you:

those who agree 

those who do not

known commentators

private ones

and

those who do not understand what the hell is going on

Por que el reino de los cielos

sera para vojotros

esta ehcrito en ese libro goldo.

  

GARDEN VIEWS AT RANDOM

IT HAS been a while since I brought the subject. Today I took some pictures from angles not depicted previously and others known.

The commodities department is looking certainly well: Passiflora, Manihot esculenta,
Taro, Citrus aurantifolia and Capsicum will be the most productive crop so far. Papaya wise, the production went from 17 to 2. 

I reiterate that unless one has a huge family, edible gardening present a problem of  surplus, at least  in my small 'farm'. One is left with the option of giving it away since down here sophisticated networks of exchange do not exist. If they do, your humbleness does not know about them and vice versa.  

IN my view the garden is not a pretty flower here and there, monotonous rows of this or that. It is a whole, thought, planned, designed and kept, with flora and fauna in mind. No chemicals, except glysophate for weeds in concrete cracks and no absurd irrigation. In brief what everyjuan else does blindly, monkey see monkey do.


I have noticed that 8 or 9 blogs about gardening are mostly about pretty flowers. Nothing wrong with that particularly if one thinks it is cool to present macro photos that  nine hundred people have already taken and could be found in the web.

Yours truly prefers to go the other way. After all the garden stinks or not.  With a flower here and there the public can not judge either way.  Aesthetics being subjective show one's grasp regarding composition and innovation.


In the garden plants are relocated as needed. Shade, heat, snails, slugs often rule in the decision. Constant monitoring of health and pest issues are taken into account.


That is why I approach gardening the way I do. It is never a fixed, static installation. The visual, composition is pertinent, however to maintain a healthy vegetation is more important in the long run. 

If any photo tickles your fashion click on either you have it or you do don't for a better resolution.

That is that.