antigonum cajan evening post

DELLA M'ARCY TESTARROSA INTERVIEW WITH ANTIGONUM CAJAN

2012-02-25T07:27:00.004-08:00

oEDITORS NOTE

Miss Testarrosa is one of those gardening characters

with a galaxy of tittles, tons of words/inquiries about the
practice, with light weight gardening to show.

ANTIGONUM CAJAN DECLARES

Some time ago I sent a couple of links to the British islander mentioned above,
with her blessings soon after. Only one thing was unusual and irritating, she demanded that I
translated Mr. Hernandez review in Spain(http://www.guiaverde.com/blog/destacadas/jardin-tropical-en-puerto-rico).

What she does for a living in her blog, is to inquire at will
about gardening, garden design, photography,
history to name a few, in her blog. Therefore, she should
have inquired as she does with everyjuan else,
unless she cerebrates I have nothing transcending to say regarding our subject matter.
Well, Della M'arcy you are mistaken. A pity, your condescending attitude
let that chance flee, your narrow template climate gardening views and exposition.

THE INTERVIEW THAT SHOULD HAVE BEEN

Della M'arcy: What made you interested in gardening?

Antigonum Cajan: I could say that having some relatives on the

maternal side of the family who were farmers, being exposed to their ways in my childhood and a cigar maker on the paternal, or genetically if I may,

is part of the reason. I said agriculture, not gardening. Any person who practices and studies gardening, horticulture, will never lose sight from that fact, one came before the other.

Besides, I have always propagated, since I was 19, collecting on an off for the last thirty years. Gardening, was innate, without any pondering. In my case, similar to what whities usually write about darkies athletic abilities, a natural.

DM: Why gardening?

AC: If I have had discipline and patience, I could have been a percussionist, painter, basketball or billiards player. But there is a trick, all those activities require the presence of the other, to be in contact with other people. As a young misanthropist, with definite social skills difficulties there was not a chance, except painting. Gardening and painting have that requirement, one could become a perfectionist, covering the whole, without the need of a team, the other. These two activities, have other quality, composition, a gardener or painter without a deep

understanding of composition, becomes just one more Joe the Plumber/Six Pack or village idiot. Take your pick.

However, there is a vocation side of any activity. When one chooses,

it is not important if other people recognize how well or poorly one performs, since the motivation comes from, may I say, a spiritual urge within, a mission, angry energy beyond the profiteering end.

Finally, there is the environment, the flora and fauna context, in my situation, urban concrete/asphalt. That determines my focus, even in this absolute sterile society with a. constant noise soundtrack. Through gardening, other creatures participate, collaborate and benefit.

DM: and then? How did you become a gardener?

AC: Bella, darling, this interview is getting like a beating the dead horse contest. But here it is. I became a gardener, propagating and planting, in that order. Four decades later, I decided to get professional training in the New York Botanical Garden. I received a Commercial Horticulture Landscape Management Certificate in 2002.

Now, I was not only a gardener, I had credentials, always looking to develop, a restless urge to expand my views on horticulture, in my opinion, a much wider concept. To kick butt in Puerto Rico and elsewhere is also stimulating. Lately, much less important.

In USA the infatuation with turf/lawns was evident during that period. Herbicides, insecticides, fertilizers and irrigation, trimmers, lawnmowers, blowers, soil/water/air/ pollution and noise was overwhelming. I did not realize it then. Later, I understood my blunt/abrasive animosity to lawns/turf and/or people who practice gardening with all the above evils, ignorant fools with/without blogs.

DM: The name of your blog is very evocative-- tell me how this came about.

AC: I have had other evocative blogs: Anglospano Review, endemismotrasnochado, upinthebreadfruittree. With the infinite amount of gardening blogs with Gardening variables as a tittle, it could not have been any other way. The first two are my coinage, the last one, surges from a tittle of a tune made popular by Rafael Cortijo, a musical/cultural icon. Them blogs were finished by a hacker.

My evening post is a tribute to the Saturday Evening Post. Magazines a reading pleasure, now, most are dead and buried, thanks to the web, the cost of paper and lack of advertisements. Readership? That will require research.

FINAL WORDS FROM YOUR HOST

I have had some adventures collecting, guerrilla gardening,

concrete roof gardening, the seemingly ignored practice of gardening with vines for fragrance, shade, privacy and security. Compost and compost tea, home made insecticides, garden design with eco-region flora/fauna in focus, the destructive influence of nurseries in creativity, propagating skills among people. In addition, creative horticultural criticism and perhaps more pertinent, becoming an authority, at least on my mind, regarding the foolish garden plant selection, installation and maintenance polluting practices prevailing in Puerto Rico and USA. You are invited to research and find any other source regarding all that is mentioned here about gardening, horticulture and agriculture for the last

twenty years. Please do not forget the masters, include those landscape architects, paradigms of narrow minds without salvation here.

The issues above deserved an interview, or
a couple of questions, you beach!.

that is that.. almost

Let the record show I have encountered

olympic supremacist views in garden rant.com.

Having spent half my existence in the belly of the

beast, racism and prejudice are fine with me.

But condescending behavior, I can/will not tolerate

We, those living below the Equator, can also

ponder, discern, experiment, be inquisitive about research and set trends, imaginary or
real. It is not

your monopoly, within gardening theory and praxis, or any other
subject, you name it.

Thanks Della for the inspiration.
Without you it would not
have been the same.

SERGIO RICO VELASCO SOLID RAIN FOR ALL

2012-02-22T06:13:00.000-08:00

TWO weeks ago I herd on Radio Nederlands, an interview with Mr. Rico Velasco and his truly revolutionary concept of solid rain. Polymers are nothing new, the children of the Mayans were found to play with rubber balls in the 1500's*. However this type, is, thank to its costs and lasting period, between 8/10 years.

Wondering why such cost efficient product, accessible, already in production, sold and distributed in different third world countries, is not in main stream news either printed, in tv networks or those useless networks as Facebook, a Harvard degree is not necessary.

Imagine what is going on the minds of Monsanto with transgenic seeds and the monster construction companies into golf courses, commercial and residential pastures with lawns...with their costly, wasteful irrigation systems...A cost efficient water system or competition!

The conclusion is not good. This product will surely find plenty of obstacles and attacks, with a difficult time to find a niche among powerful countries with monopolies on this or that field of agriculture or ornamentals.

On the other hand, those people/countries with cyclical drought seasons will have an option to cultivate on eroded and dry soil.

If you practice gardening or agriculture, check the information. It is useful and pragmatic. Here some links.

that is that

http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/297894/20120213/amazing-solid-rain-hydrates-crops-water-gel.htm

http://www.china.org.cn/environment/news/2008-09/22/content_16514929.htm

http://www.bbc.co.uk/mundo/noticias/2012/01/120120_lluvia_solida_sequia_mexico_an.shtml

*History of Polymers

FREE AT LAST FREE AT LAST DANM YOU LIVfitnessclub Condado

2012-02-19T16:10:00.001-08:00

THE lord works in mysterious ways..Unlike ultimate fighters/warriors, I can not beat or kick the defenseless adversary on the ground. All this torture to me ears with 200 decibels, has ended with the cancellation of me membership, with one of me posts as the reason.

It shows the aptitude and business savy of the owners/manager. Do not keep the volume at a reasonable level, no, get rid of the elderly using one of his posts as the reason, while keeping the fire exits locked to avoid anyjuan from entering free to the premises. Believe it or not.

This is the final email sent to the not so bright, intelligent or reasonable manager, native of some southern neck of the woods..

	Fri, Feb 17, 2012 at 6:44 PM

l
Dear Mr. X, Thanks for taking 90 seconds, to respond. When a customer request respect, and his/her emails are not responded as business protocol and professionalism demands, it shows on your part, very little or no understanding of the law, health issues as hearing loss with unnecessary musical decibels for both, customers paying a membership and your staff. My requests to keep a healthy volume while I trained, even with ear plugs, were mocked and ignored, arbitrarily, more than once, increased after my requests. Following business, logic, any cancellation of my contract, within the law, requires not only a written notification. Asking me to call you, futile, since talking to you and Mark Gross was pretty much the same as talking to a wall. Since your club is run by the blind and unsophisticated, leading the blind, I have nothing to add. If I have offended you, I declare that at sixty of age, I never saw such amateurish management practices in half my life in the USA or Puerto Rico. Your club is the first establishment, where the customer with criteria, is not always right. The law, elementary school logic demanded a written statement. I did not become a member by telephone, I signed a contract, in person. You have the right to cancel, is not the issue. All of you came here expecting to create a night club or a disco in a gym? Not to get into what in the USA will be a violation of fire department codes without any control of CAPACITY and on top with ALL the fire exits, LOCKED. Lets hope there is not a fire on your premises...The law suits will leave you and every one else without socks. Finally, congratulations for yesterdays showmanship. Tell the big headed, inner city middle aged from the Bronx; that his cocky acting was very amusing... Do what you have to do, send the written cancellation. That is that. Cordially your humble servant

ROOF TOP GARDEN UPDATES

2012-02-18T03:32:00.000-08:00

SOME may think my assertiveness is a little extreme. Yet, I do not sleep well, even less, on any laurels. Willing to share discoveries that make 'original' gardening views in terms of my own practice and experiments, out dated. At least in the historical sense.

My planting a few chosen ones on the roof top after observing the growth of the Allocasia, taking advantage of humus formation and water accumulation, seems to be a really old practice. In brief, improving the soil with organic matter as you will see in this excerpt about not much talk about, The Hebrides.

Never heard of them? Go search. I think they are somewhat more interesting in topo/geography, than those lately in the news, The Falklands, and if you are from Argentina...Malvinas*..

As a tropical islander, I have a tendency to appreciate those isles without similar climate more. Since they are so different, their vegetation geo/topography seem challenging to study, observe. Many
tropical islands become a destiny for tourism/prostitution, both/one or the other. Travel guides show they all look alike, sand/palms/beaches/ocean with people doing the same stupid activities..Take cruiser trips for example. One is in a huge trap to eat, walk like a zombie, eat again, sleep and eat.

A final observation. The native islanders no matter if black/white/ Asian, migrate to the continents 'for the better future', from which their tourism comes from. Their islands of origin becoming a vacation destination for both; natives and foreigners..

Sorry for the island editorial.

Back to the studio.

From

National Geographic

January 2010

The Edge of the World

pages 76-77

"There are some places so wild, it seems, that

even the sturdiest humans cannot always endure their challenges.

St. Kilda, a tiny cluster of islands and sea stacks perched

in the North Atlantic 40 miles west of North Ulst, was occupied for more than 4,000 years. A small community once huddled around

around the curve of Village Bay on Hirta, the largest island. Sheep grazed steep slopes all around. Modest crops of barley, oats,

and potatoes were grown in raised beds, where thin soil carefully augmented with applications of mineral-rich seaweed.

Winter storms, rolling unchecked across thousands of miles of open ocean, struck the islands with almost unimaginable ferocity.

In 1852, 36 islanders--roughly a third of the population at that time--chose a long and arduous journey to Australia over remaining on St.Kilda. Many perished at sea."

Now the question, why/how people forget this kind of knowledge, thousands of years old. Improving the soil? The answer could be found with a little meditation. What do the Khmer in Angkor Wat, Incas and Mayas have in common after developing impressive civilizations and disappearing, but the impossibility of feeding their always increasing population?

that is that

SUMMER OF 1959

2012-02-16T13:06:00.000-08:00

IN 1959 I was fortunate to spend a whole week away from home at my aunt Marta's* and her dad, living relatively far from each other. Isabel, her husband, a short, pasty, blue eyes with a huge bold head fellow took me there.

Our wooden house had a zinc roof, 3 bedrooms, plumbing, electricity and plenty of termites chewing it away, with a toilet/shower where the outhouse had been many years earlier.

Marta's had a green tar/card board roof, palm tree floors and walls made out of Roystonea regia. One bedroom the size of our tv room, a smaller area with a dirt kitchen or fogon**. Water from a stream four hundred meters away and outhouse.

That means nothing except the numbers...We were a family of four, they were ten, in half the space. At night, the sole room became a bedroom with the portable cots.

After that sociological description, lets get to the previous post: sugar, tobbacco and coffee

My earliest experiences with nature and plants took place then and there. Saw the first bushes of Coffea arabica with flowers and fruit and got to share some chores with Tobbaco nicotiana.

After the leaves were collected they were tied through the stems with a flat needle and string, to be hang to air dry in the 3 stories high structures, made out with straw walls. This activity was shared by all members of the family.

The conditions of people living in the country had been described as miserable, poor, dirty and humble then and now. Not having in plumbing, sewage and electricity, a sign of backwardness.

Yet my relatives had a couple of horses to travel, chickens, pigs, and cultivated food stuffs, besides the cash crops. Lacking money for this or that forced people to be creative, to solve problems on their own, not having a hardware or grocery store to buy.

Some diseases were consequence of not wearing shoes, hard work being exposed to weather conditions. Others result of a poor diet
or any kind of hospital facilities near by or far away.

Many people give an exaggerated importance to education, as if every one could only be useful for him/herself with a high school diploma then. Now is a college degree.

I can not say the were unhappy, or depressed/ They lived differently in contact with the environment...what it offered. There was no credit, or credit cards, one had to be creative with little resources. Never saw a morbid obese in those days, BK, KFC came much later.

Any one could make a list of everything that was wrong about poor people living in the country side. What went awfully wrong were the mindless alternatives provided by politicians,
engineers, architects and every one else involved in the destruction of
an agricultural economy with all the imaginable things that were wrong vs the dysfunctional industry/manufacture/housing/highway fever that went on for maybe, forty years.

We had little, but it was ours. Crime, fraud was not rampant. If you wanted to eat, you had to do something in return. Honesty meant something.

In Puerto Rico, after the financial trap government, bankers and speculators sunk us, the ones that will have to pay, some fools here are talking about resuscitating agriculture.

My views on landscaping maintenance, agriculture, edible gardens, ecology and environment are not taken from the monitor, over here
it seems to be the rule.

During this 'vale of tears' I am convinced that talk is cheap. Good will is useless without a foundation, vision, focus and commitment.

When I look around, the scene that many ignore, is that population growth will neutralize any effort to improve living conditions of many people, here and there. It is a trap, without escape. It is similar to the silly attempt to build enough roads, highways or parking lots, to keep up with spore like spread of all kinds of vehicles.

From a backward, agricultural and mostly illiterate, poor isle we became a concrete/asphalt/noisy hell, with a Greek like national public debt, almost 4 million people with 2 million vehicles, 30% unemployment and growing, during my six decades of age...

Puerto Rico a living hell of the Caribbean.

No wonder I am rarely in

a grouchy mood.

* Marta was a nice

person, so was Isabel,

both were dead two years later.

The town was Aguas Buenas City,

Barrios Mulitas and Juan Ascencio

**Fogon is just a table with

a dirt top. Between 10/12''

thick. 3 or 5 stones to place

pans and such with fire wood as

needed.

NICOTIANA TABACUM COFFEA ARABIGA SACCARUM OFFICINARUM

2012-02-15T04:57:00.001-08:00

overture

There are many blogs, perhaps too many, about this and that. Some are a pass time, others pretend to leave a trace, become a reference. Mine is in the last league. Not that it will/would make any difference since knowing history, has never stopped people, the silent majority, from making the same mistakes over and over, back and forth.

I just read an article from a 2001 TIME, a blind fellow claim to fame: climbing/reaching the Everest. Others sail the world by themselves, with or without some GPS. The silliest, swim, run and go in a bicycle 300 miles. My claim is somewhat modest: collected over a hundred, coined/defined a few terms, practiced guerrilla without irrigation maintenance, collaborated with urban nature, the garden on a roof, insulted and denounced quite a few bastards/bastardettes, (not enough), destroying our environment with stupid landscape practices and or polluting, but perhaps most important; I have witnessed the destruction of agriculture and scaffolding of our society in Puerto Rico, for the last half a century.

I remember with the same anger, sadness and nostalgia of that clear afternoon, around 3 PM, when the sun starts fading, s l o w l y, away in the tropics..when the bright becomes opaque, watching the trucks moving east on Georgetti street, opposite corner of Farmacia San Rafael, in the Caguas Country, with cattle like, mostly black fellow men in raggedy clothes, their hands grasping the wooden handle bars on top, holding with the other, their machetes in homemade paper/newspaper/string holders , carrying their human cargo home, swaying sideways, back and forth with the truck, returning from their brutal under heat/sun sugar cane cutting activities. It was 1959. I was in third grade.

There were plenty of trucks, some like those in India, Colombia or Mexico with folk art or signs, carrying, overflowing mounts of cut canes to the refining mills or centrales. Adults and children often picked the falling from the streets to consume as a treat later.

How can anyjuan forget the tiny ashes of the burned sugar cane fields, to ease the cutting, black, fluffy, melting in your hand, snowflakes, flowing with the wind, landing in every imaginable space, in or out...

I will have to finish this tender story here with a not so tender truth.

The cut cane was bought at lets say, 14 a pound, by the USA sugar mills companies and sold for 3 or 4 times that, in paper bags. I imagine tons, probably two thirds of the molasses, were used to make the so called Puerto Rican Rums.

So called? Inquires the inquisitive, looking a little redundant?
Well if whisky, whiskey is made with this or that in the country
of origin, such like, vodka, or wine or whatever distilled alcohol for consumption is manufactured, with locally grown ingredients...then, there is not such a thing as PUERTO RICAN RUM, just like there is not a puerto rican scotch or vodka since molasses are imported from Dominican Republic. If I am mistaken, in the future we could also distill bourbon, champagne and else...if it is just a matter of labeling...or an aluminum steel distillery. Caveat emptor.

Mimus polyglottos

2012-02-12T09:16:00.000-08:00

PINEAPPLES PALESTINIANS POST

2012-02-10T06:22:00.000-08:00

PEPITA keeps magazines for years, until they have been read or not, throws or donates them. Here, an excerpt about them suffering Palestinians from TIME'S perspective from 2001.

TORN APART

by Matt Rees.

WEST BANK AGAINST GAZA

A 19-year-old Beethlehem man hitched a ride home from a local wedding party one night this past March.

Three off-duty policemen who spoke with Gaza accents picked him up. Soon after, they pulled the car over on a lonely road. Palestinian legal sources tell TIME that the policemen then sexually assaulted the youth. In the close knit West Bank town, the attack was an unheard-of act that scandalized the territory in the same way a murder in America suburbia would shock the community.

But the fact that Palestinians have begun attacking one another like this highlights the growing tension between the Gaza Strip and the West Bank. Gazans

particularly those in the police force, are unpopular in the West Bank. West Bankers say Gazans take all the low paid jobs; that they steal and run whorehouses; and that Arafat gave them all the top jobs in the security forces because they are more loyal to him than West Bankers. Of the 40 commanders on Arafat's Supreme Security Council, none are from the West Bank.

FAST forward...The recent Fatah-Hamas conflict is a probable consequence of the arbitrary ruling of deceased
Yaseer Arafat...who planted the seeds...If you think this is interesting, go and search..Meanwhile, remember Kosovo, Chechens, Darfur, Shiites vs Sunnites, Hutus vsTutsis...they all look alike. With similar results...thousands of innocent people killed, maimed, exiled...

Now its time to discuss pineapples, the forgotten fruit. For the last five years I have checked tens if not hundred of blogs from all over. I saw plenty, too many If I may, tomatoes, pumpkins, lettuce and cucumbers, but pineapples?

Not once, here me go...

Fifty Plants that

Changed the Course

of History

Bill Laws

Firefly Books

2010

pages 14-15

"Discovered" by the Spanish when they landed in the Americas, the pineapple proved such a delight to the invaders as it had done to the indigenous people.
Since the fruit is a conglomeration of a hundred or so individual flowers that coalesce into a giant sugary fruit, it is packed with flavor as it is with
vitamins A and C.
Propagated by planting its sprightly green crown, or striking its side shoots, or slips, in compost, the pineapple grows easily in a tropical climate.
The Spanish, who brought it home to Europe could just about find sufficient heat to grow it.
It was going to flourish in pineapple plantations
in Northern Africa and South Africa, and eventually Malaysia and Australia; and one of the world's most productive pineapple regions turned
out to be Hawaii. However, in the dour, cold northern European countries, the pineapple
was a problem. Presented with the challenge of domesticating the "pine", Europe's gardeners eventually set to producing single fruits in wooden tabernacles warmed by stoves on hot beds of the best horse manure.

This post was brought to you by the letter
P.

It turned out without much thought...Originally,
I was reading this article on pineapples thinking of sharing it, because everyjuan seems to like bananas and even write about it. The banana monopoly as a favorite tropical fruit, is consequence of their constant production of fruit, pineapples on the other hand are seasonal. But if you live in a template climate, let me tell you, the taste of those not ripened in the plant taste pretty dull if you ask me...It is another experience.
The Palestinians?
Only the first letter was considered, where else
in the bloggosphere would anyjuan post on both unrelated themes at once?
Finally, the pink Phalaenopsis and Plumeria followed the same premise.

that is that..

SQUATTERS ON THE ROAD

2012-02-08T05:53:00.000-08:00

THE previous post generated fruitful comments in many ways. Squatters, on this neck of the concrete/asphalt/noise woods, signifying the same as in an apartment building abandoned o as in Spain. When the owners go on vacation, Rumanians or any other move in...

Or in brief, plants, not weeds, growing in undesirable, unexpected or unwanted places.

Pepita Jimenez, reporter, photographer, collector with criteria, shared this squatters on the road, growing in/on metal. They do not need identification since one is a common place and the ones by the rear windshield, unknown to yours truly.

What is pertinent is that with the fern there is no soil or humus available. It grows just with rain water and available dust provided by wind.

The ones by the windshield does have dry leaves, branches, dust and water, becoming humus with time.

The first grows by spores, second by seeds.

That is that.

In retrospection

Isabel Sanchez

Cristina Sanchez

Reavel

and

Pepita Jimenez

have collaborated

to make this blog,

probably

the most documented

in the Caribbean

and beyond,

with classical humility,

unless you or anyjuan else

can prove otherwise.

I hope this will be the first

collaboration from many to come.

THANKS!

EDITORS NOTE

It seems that car has been left to his luck,

getting rot...since my estimate for the repairs

cost as much as the vehicle.

THEM SQUATTERS MOCK INTERVIEW

2012-02-05T05:24:00.000-08:00

ONE of the great pleasures with this space through the years, is the occasional interview that no one dares to do
or even imagine.

MOCK INTERVIEWER

It has been a long while since you were interviewed, could you share your thoughts, words of wisdom, with your mostly fans and one foe?

ANTIGONUM CAJAN

Let the record show, (signature pet phrase) that some friends went away

after that post on comments.

The meaning these have for a jerk blogger islander in the west of PR.

Them comments feed him, (the god) and his blog, always with some photo op of himself, alone or with the celebrity of the moment.

So what?

I think people reading this blog understand me garden is not like your garden next door,

the environmental situation, the concrete/asphalt

context, the noise, I deal 24/7 with the apparent

abrasiveness, bluntness, harshness, directness, no prisoners taken attitude inherent in the discourse..

Moving along. Do you have any fresh news besides

your grouchy, grimace, difficult to come by smile?

YEP. Somewhat positive. It seems some lady in England (Bella Darcy), will publish that review of my garden shared recently from Spain with the public, in one hand. On the other, I got in touch with some architect whose profile appeared recently on a local newspaper. There is a possibility of doing something together.

That is strange, considering your target practice trajectory with architects and landscape architects without exceptions in Puerto Rico and some foreigners included.

Anything, on the surface may appear strange to anyjuan. But no juan can write/say, your humble servant is blind,

or has no vision. This architect in particular, works with the community, goes against the current that alone is fine

to me eyes. Time will tell if something materializes in both positive instances mentioned or become water and salt, the rule, custom and use here, from my acidic perspective.

Do you continue the old habit of visiting gardening

and related blogs to find cracks in their theoretical

frames, views and such?

Not as I used to. To get information and learn something

I visit one here in Bayamon, and USA, Albuquerque, Tucson, Australia and Mexico. I also visit some meaningless ones here, to stay in touch with our mass news fed reality.

I get worn out easily. Let me share this experience.

Even when I take photos, I do not consider myself a photographer, or movie director when doing video clips.

The objective, in a photo, is not what matters, but

how cool the effect, the photo itself comes along. I

do not give a flying fart, for pretty photos. I am writing about a garden, any garden or vegetation.

My garden, I have noticed, looks crisper, better in a sense, in photos

than when I stroll, monitor for insects, sweep, trim, or irrigate. It has better resolution, it looks artificial, unreal. To my eyes.

Is that why you are reluctant to

just show photos of flowers out

of context as in a vase?

Exactly, please show me your garden, not just

silly, bit and pieces.

That is easy for you to say/write, after all

you garden in 350 square meters of sand surrounded mostly by concrete. What about big gardens?

I am getting tired. If you have a big garden, take some

segments of it, take them photos a let us know what is going on. That will suffice.

Could you ask one or two final questions. I am getting tired, the third time mentioned, you are not getting the hint.

What the hell, is your blog...Tell us about the tittle and that lady in England...

During this time I have been interested in gardening concepts and definitions, lately more. I have not much to add about weeds, but here is a new concept:

'squatters'
I will not demand copy rights to the definition, but these
are self seeding plants from our collection or not,
in our property, pavement or wall cracks/crevices or any other possibility not expected to have plants growing. Squatters 11, 111 grow in the concrete pavement of our east garden. 1 Grows next door in our fence frontier, exactly in the corner. Goes without saying, these squatters exist because they do not bother me at all, at least now. But that is weed behavior in any league, to most people.

The British lady, Bella Darcy is dangerously running out
of time to deliver...the water and salt, closer.

Bonus

In the British blog mentioned, there is an interview
to some lady photographer about light
and shade, hour of the day and such.
You be the judge...I imagine having
a pro camera will make any difference
between 8, 12 and 4 PM when mine were taken,
more evident/clear than my results.

SEX DRUGS AND GLOBAL WARMING

2012-02-02T03:18:00.000-08:00

THE global warming covers the horticultural essence of this blog, the other two are related as you will see.

First let the record show and wonder, it seems that monotheist religions are guilty, responsible for the overpopulation in too many countries. No abortion, no birth control, no adultery and so on.

Six decades ago days sex was not promoted, or used to promote every imaginable merchandise bluntly as in those music videos now, in which every female vocalist no matter how old,
must look like a prostitute or dance like a strip joint worker, with scant clothing. Forty years ago, when I was in college, what pass as entertainment now, would have been porno or obscene at least.

Lets not confuse sex over here and over there, the not the first world. In those necks of the woods, it seems the family, following the herd, religion, peer pressure force people to do things that may not be the only option in other cultures. Like having the baby or getting married or both. That on the other hand may also be the rule over here, (Puerto Rico is not in the first world, by the way).

In brief, marriage, morals, fidelity do not seem to be the best or only option. After all what better example to follow than Nature. Some species are faithful to each other for life, others are not. No one tells either one what is morally right. However, that sex is for procreation only.

Capitalism, property and marriage seem to be interconnected historically. Women as property. Merchandise. One type of merchandise is for the exclusive use of the husband, while prostitutes are for the willing customer. Tiger Woods, the village idiot, spent thousands of dollars on call girls.

That example will do, ( remember is my way or the highway), for argument sake. Its seems that having sex with just one partner only becomes as fun as eggs without salt. Adultery, clandestine sex being the answer. Historically, the damn bible has plenty of it.

The only way to stop the destruction of the earth is to stop the children madness, to either, have no sex or abstinence...Carnal exchanges for exercise, fun, relaxation with protection for men/women or the self gratifying kind.

Those countries with famine, result of droughts, what is their density of population? Where are they? Who is going to feed them?

It seems that by 2050, 2 more billion of creatures will be around. I hope to be dead, before, believe me.

Zero growth population must become a goal...no other way josei....

What about the drugs in the tittle?

Thanks for reminding moi....Drugs just like sex are totally over rated. When I was younger, smoking a spliff, some alcohol, was part of the scene..Then it was amphetamines, acid, coke/heroine (snort only in me case), hash and downers, mostly while a freedom fighter in Deutshland.

There was plenty of sex, during the ladies man period/era.
Many women of different backgrounds, color, size, pedigree and education...Looking in retrospection...it was some how fun, because it was clandestine. But one gets tire of telling one selfish fool she is the only one on Friday, while spending the night next day with another and repeating the move on Sunday. Not to get into the intense emptiness the day after.

The salvation is HORTICULTURE. Or like Kasketron, a a follower of Woody Allen wise words: 'Masturbation is the best sex, because is sex with the one I love'.

I suggest that if any juan out there is going to talk/write about self sustainable agriculture, environmental protection or ecology, pretty please with sugar on top, do not bring the bullshit argument, always out of context, about producing what one consumes. Or the inequality of the distribution of wealth....without a quick glimpse to that.

It looks more and more that the globe is shrinking, while the non stop fornicators propagating expand by the minute, destroying the environment as collateral.

If you feel a certain deja vu...yep you are right. But as Gide said: Everything has been said/written, but since people do not pay attention, it has to be repeated.

that is that

BONUS

the biggest jerks I have known about

these issues

are

Igor

Elvis

Bizcochito

these fools have in total about

18 children,

most out of wedlock

in Puerto Rico, USA

LOVE THY TRICEPS

2012-01-25T03:36:00.000-08:00

Yesterday, feeling somewhat overwhelmed by the constant noise with impunity from Universdiad Sagrado Corazon, I took a 3 mile round trip to the police precint in Barrio Obrero, to present a formal complaint.

Couple of officers in charge, taking care of some customer. I waited and waited. When my chance came up, requesting to see Carlos Diaz, in charge of Community Relations, even though it was ten thirty am, he was not at his office. But hold your horses, it gets better...There is no telephone in his office, believe it or not, this is Puerto Rico, after all. If he has no phone, he has no computer either..

To resolve the conumdrum. Miss Santiago called the office next door to find out. That was that regarding my mission, but I, not too friendly in general, can display unusual charming small talk skills, at least with ladies ugly or not.

Since a policeman without his life vest was recently executed, and I always looking for the news, had some questions...This is the beef. Her vest, just like the one from the mentioned victim, was expired. To keep the vest on is more or less optional, the individual decides.

When I investigated further there is nothing in police regulations demanding the use of the vest at all times.

But the case in question is interesting. Depending on the angle, the bullet trajectory, the deceased would have passed away anyhow since the vest does not cover all upper body parts.

Moving along the post...in the middle of the real events, (and sort of a punch line in the middle of the post), I visited a relative. I had some unfair differences, apologized, got down his phone number and left.

What seems unreal, much more a day after, is me cousin reaction when told that I was walking. He, five years younger, has the attractive figure of Larry the Cable Guy, in brief a blimp anatomy.. He wonders if I knew how to use public transportation.

Moving along towards the end...this the only possible explanation as to why LIVfitness Club, Condado, Puerto Rico keep the shitty music at a 150/200 decibels.

They most have a secret merging with hearing aid manufacturing companies, stocks wise a perfect deal!

Hearing loss is a progressive disease. LIVfitness make their mostly young and older customers without ear plugs protection to become deaf slowly but surely, while they train to be fit, healthy and handsome. Including their staff, those with office duties and trainers alike.

By the way, I have never seen people worst dressed in my life with those cheap ill fitted jackets, including one Morticia Adams with thick black glasses. The black jacket is about four inches too short in the back...No i do not wear Dolce/Gabana suits at all, it is the critic in me...

What the hell? And the tittle? Well my fellow americans from the continent and the other five...If you want to look handsome, even if you are somewhat round in the waist, get this...

Two thirds of your biceps, are essentially triceps. No Harvard degree necessary. If you want to have, to show off
nice arms, do more repetitions and sets for triceps than the opposite.

Which reminds me...All the trainers, the dwarf, the naomi campbell look alike, the one swaggering while he walks Bronx or Spanish Harlem like and ALL, the rest, are into cables, a red ball, mostly tension exercises.

When I watch their victims instead of my natural tendency to mock, I feel some pity, noticing their grimaces at the difficulty. I do not see the point. No muscle tone, no stamina, no weight loss can be achieved with those silly exercise routines, devoid of aerobics, from my view.

The bonus? Going deaf, unaware of it and paying monthly.

THAT FIRST GARDEN....THE BIBLICAL ONE

2012-01-12T17:38:00.000-08:00

I have an intense dislike for religions, particularly those tree originating in the same geographical spot, not to get into my opinion on bible freaks and people with fear of god.

However, there is something many people practicing gardening or the uninitiated do not give much thought. The worn out Eden.

Here some thoughts about it.

Knotgrass

Weeds as parable

WEEDS

RICHARD MABEY

pages 39-40-41

There are two extreme views of the authors of Genesis - that they were amanuenses for God or politically motivated propagandists. What is inescapable is that, whatever their inspiration, they were preoccupied by plants and their metaphors. They see the world through vegetable allegory and myth. They place 'Grass and herb yielding seed after his kind' in their proper evolutionary position in the Creation story before the fish and birds and mammals. They stage the great drama of the Fall in a garden. The plot is elaborated largely through botanical symbols - fruit and herbs, contrasting styles of cultivation, a magical and forbidden tree. And the denouement is exile from the carefree life of foraging to the toil of farming and the eternal course of 'thorns and thistles'. Genesis helped form a moral context for weeds, to stigmatise them as more than a physical nuisance. The text itself may even have been partially prompted by the proliferation of weeds in the Middle-Eastern 'cradle of civilization'.

The first written versions of the Genesis Creation myth (the stories in it are much older) date from about 600 to 500 BCE, and appeared in the region known as Canaan, (modern Mesopotamia), part of the 'Fertile
Crescent' where agriculture was first developed. There are two versions of the
myth. In the first, God creates humans immediately after the animals, and establishes them in their role as agriculturalists, rulers of the rest of the Creation. 'Let us make man in our image, after our likeness' says God rather, telling slipping into the royal 'we'; 'and let them have dominion over the fish of the seas, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every thing that creepeth upon the earth'. Despite this abundance of subservient and lightly edible creatures, God seems to insist on a strictly vegetarian lifestyle: "I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat'.

The second version(Genesis 2 and 3) which introduces the Garden of Eden, is more complex. It takes off at the point when the creation of heaven and earth are complete, and has God creating man in advance of other creatures. He forms him from 'the dust of the ground' and places him in 'a garden eastward in Eden'. It contains 'every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food; the tree of life... and the tree of knowledge of good and evil'. Adam's responsibilities are to 'dress it and keep it', to eat what he likes but to stay away from the tree of knowledge. Only then are the animals created and brought before Adam to be named - though his mate, fashioned from one of his ribs, is at this stage called simply 'Woman'.

Then they eat the fruit of a tree of knowledge, and hell breaks loose. God's punishment is severe and unambigous. Life will become a vale of tears, ending in death.
Women will bear children in pain and sorrow, and become their husband's serfs.
And the unbidden harvests of the Garden will now have to be won by hard toil, agricultural toil: 'cursed is the ground for thy sake' God rages, in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life; thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to there; and thou shall eat the herb of the field; In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground'. Then he expels Adam (no mention of Eve) 'from the Garden of Eden, no till the ground from whence he was taken'. It was a stark change from those gardener's duties of 'dressing and keeping'.

If you ask my opinion on the crime and punishment, being first offenders it was exaggerated, cruel and in terms of jurisprudence with plenty of flaws, like no due process, to appeal in Boston or the Supreme Court.

to be continued
that is that

PUERTO RICO'S HO-HUM LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTS HEADQUARTERS

2012-01-11T08:34:00.000-08:00

WORDS are unnecessary. Some readers may find some of this, just another case of beating the dead horse you know where, or throwing pearls to the hogs.

However, I have the feeling that some people appreciate in 100/35, but mostly out there in the five continents, the opportunity to share these critical views, to be all one can be, what I am committed to do.

Those who went to college getting a degree in this or that should demonstrate skills, creativity, originality beyond the vulgar, ugly, predictable, common places they have imposed upon the masses and perform accordingly. These last two posts leave no doubts.

I reiterate, every garden installation in Puerto Rico stinks.

LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTS MECCA.

that is that

CLASSICAL PENDEJISMO PAISAJISTA INSTALLATIONS

2012-01-08T07:09:00.000-08:00

FIRST IN A SERIES

During the last five years, I have taken the time to observe every imaginable landscape installation in the north east and south of Puerto Rico with a critical focus.

These installations in residential, commercial, huge, big and small spaces have essentially the same monumental ills. It does not matter if a cemetery, hotel, motel, hospital, funeral home, office building, school or mall is always the same crap.

Narrow plant selection, total absence of composition, lack of meaningful contrast in height, shape, texture, color and else. One terrible characteristic of this pendejismo paisajista school, is the dwarfing of many structures by disproportion of trees and palms chosen in many situations, once they reach their adult size.

Everything is crowded, creating a negative visual impact since one wonders what the hell is the intention. The crowded mass creates tension, eliminating the possibility to feel relaxed, unable to enjoy and wonder around the garden with curiosity.

The consequences are expensive, frequent noisy and polluting maintenance requirements, since the architect/gardener for hire, nor client take a little time
to ponder about the long run about the whole or its parts.

On this post, the victim in question is Fundacion Comunitaria de Puerto Rico on Ponce de Leon Ave.
I do not understand who/why planted the unnecessary palms 12'' from the walls in front of the structure, the fronds now hanging on the roof and electric power lines. Why place those planters almost 5' in diameter in both sides of the entrance.
Disproportion is part of the scheme in many instances, the more the merrier.

No one else seems to notice. But stupidity requires some defense as one by the obscure classroom architect, Daniel Velez Climent who disagrees. However, there is no web evidence that he has built/designed a sidewalk or gutter for that matter lately, as you could check on land8lounge, a site I used to visit. To honor him, and the classical pendejismo paisajista installation, architects headquarters, I will post on the next time.

Let the record show that not all landscape architects are guilty of lacking knowledge of botany and composition here, gardeners for hire, landscape mercenary corporations are in the same bag. But them architects, should have set an example in the opposite direction. Their landscape installation shows I am in the right side of the tracks.

The photos will be the evidence. After all, words are just water and salt, if you have no credentials, trajectory, evidence to sustain any argument.

The links below deal with the subject.

that is that

http://endemismotrasnochado.blogspot.com/2008/02/evite-el-pendejismo-paisajista.html
http://endemismotrasnochado.blogspot.com/2008/02/definicion-del-pendejismo-paisajista.html

I think it look better before....the improvements!

TROPICAL ALTERNATIVE GREEN ROOF POSSIBILITIES

2012-01-05T10:01:00.000-08:00

AFTER my reading of stevemartino.blogspot.com, WEEDS AND WALLS, post on his green roof installation in Arizona, I had to take out the back burner this post. It started on 11/29/2011, Aerial Garden Moss and Agave post on this channel.

It began after watching from our yard, an Alocasia I had thrown in the abandoned garage roof next door, growing fast and healthy.
With the 15' ladder, I climbed to observe why closely.

Leaves from a couple of old big trees on top, fall and accumulate. While they clog the drain, sun/heat/wind/water decompose them slowly, creating a layer of rich humus and earth worms.

I decided to plant Pandanus, Chrysotemis pulchella, Rhoeo, and Cosmos, Rhoeo, Merremia aegyptia/quinquefolia seeds and others dormant in discarded soil from my pots used as top dressing.

I took some of the humus for my plants, leaving the rest in the roof. To reduce the erosion, green organic matter was placed on the edges, with cut branches on top.

Even when these spots do not receive direct light all the time, I have noticed many, many roofs/walls with all sorts of weeds, ferns, Ficus, Mahogany, Pithelobium, Tecoma, Turnera, in the urban concrete/asphalt context of San Juan and other towns and cities.

Plants/weeds of all kinds seem pretty happy growing in the most unusual places. Considering most theoreticians, installers, and writers about green roofs do not live in the tropics, these two examples may open the eyes of those unaware or nor interested of the species provided by nature, or to enhance the aesthetics of many abandoned buildings of Puerto Rico in the urban context.

All the above, with little expense since nature provides the essentials...the gardener just need to do a little editing.

that is that

thanks to

David Cristiani,
landscape architect, Albuquerque, thedesertedge.blogspot.com

for sharing

and Steve Martino, for his kind response.

IN OLD SAN JUAN

2012-01-04T06:35:00.000-08:00

THE older I get, less tolerant I become to sit in a vehicle more than 45 minutes. To old San Juan, I could walk in 90 minutes from our residence in Santurce.

The best time I have spent in this centuries old space, was during the last day of 2011, it was deserted. What an impressive site! Without vehicles and better yet without hordes of people, natives, tourists, mumbling, chit chatting fools!

At any rate, photography is something I am slowly getting into, but not with the bullshit typical of travel guides and those shitty photographers who never see
focus on anything that would kill a sale, screw them.

There is some beauty in some of the pictures, i dare say/write. Others are featured in recent posts in other blogs, but the best deal, if you believe I am becoming some sort of a tropical Ansel Adams or Avedon...go to flickr.

That is that..

PUERTO RICO USA THE NOISIER THE MERRIER

2012-01-02T08:03:00.000-08:00

I have been out a lot lately. 2012 started promising. On the first day, Miguel Yamin, the biggest fan and your humble servant went to collect Cosmos sulphureous seeds in the former abandoned hospital, featured previously.

Later we had some adequate coffee in the new pastry/bred store not too far from me residence. Fortunately, the staff is not imported, they are all natives.

I have been working in a couple of projects that will be ready in a few days. This video clip is part of the whole.

that is that.

FLOWER POWER REDUX

2011-12-27T04:15:00.000-08:00

I do not about you, but I remember some photos from the past that captured a specific or historical moment, relevant or not for me life then or now.

It is the one of some anti war Vietnam protest, one guy is placing flowers in the barrels of the national guards in formation.

A college student and a probable hippie. In retrospective, this photo is significant when one considers the amount of current wars against dictators, for 'freedom' or the drug multinational exporters.

Now a days it would very difficult to protest as in the past, since you will probably blow up in pieces if in the desert of Islam dominated regions.

Hippies were also great fans of sex and promiscuity, loud rock/blues/country music, opened to new trends in religion, music and everything else. Lesbians, hostile and not so, came out, in addition to gays. Both are somewhat tolerated in some circles 5 decades later, but not everywhere or all the time, same as the other significant group from those days, negros...

Drugs of all types were also part of the scene, allowing the 'flow of consciousness' to be free from the stress and responsibilities that society, family and state had imposed upon individuals in the USA, but also in the rest of the world.

In my view, hippies made possible a critical change in our eating habits, diet, food production, packing and canning, and intrinsically related environmental issues as fertilizers, pesticides and herbicides.

Which brings me to television. There is an obscene weekly show, MAN VS FOOD. Our hero, travels around USA to find food joints of dubious quality where the fun and challenge is to eat obscene amounts of food disgusting concoctions averaging 5 pounds in an hour.

Forget the amount of fat, calories and such. What could make you vomit is the amount of morbid fat watching the happening with families and plenty of children, clapping, encouraging this retarded, disgusting glorifying tribute to gluttony.

What would people say if instead, some stigmatized anorexics/bulimics are shown emaciated to see who gets the concentration camp, Biafra looks faster, while the white trailer trash clap with those stupid imbecilic smiles?

It seems that TV people in USA are incapable of creating television with some purpose other than cheap, tacky, trailer trash fun. There are not many gardening shows, however there are plenty about people buying junk in storage facilities, traveling antique pickers, bickering white and black bitches from FL or CA, chefs and pastry chefs, swamp people, gold mines, lumberjacks, driving in dangerous roads over ice or third world roads.

If you depend on television to kill spare time, good luck..I will stick to horticulture. Flower power, clean and useful fun for flora/fauna/people. And some occasional butt kicking....to stay in shape...

GUERRILA ATTACK ON CHRISTMAS EVENING 2011

2011-12-25T12:51:00.000-08:00

CHARACTERS like your humble servant, " hiding with a nome de plume to criticize" as I have been told, accused twenty times, never rest. I had to close 2011 with a big bang.

The volunteer, a Coccoloba uvifera, one of two, belong to a special group in the collection. I feel a particular attachment to some more than others, for this or that reason, in this case, aesthetics evidently not one of them.

This 5 year old tree was relocated thanks to the constant chewing of leaves by brown beetles. Phyllophaga portorricensis. It has been going on for years. These beetles are also fond of Hibiscus, but the damage is not as evident.

The pictures at left are pretty straightforward as to procedures, digging, pruning, and irrigation since the soil was dry.

Let the record show that I made one trip to find the best spot, dug the hole and returned home to do what I had to, on the the pictures at left.

Total time from start to end 45 minutes. Chances of survival 50-50. If it rains in the next 48 hours, 70-30.

that is that

EPIHANIES OF A SENIOR NONCONFORMIST GARDENER

2011-12-21T17:24:00.000-08:00

APPRECIATION OF

GARDENING AND NATURE

THROUGH LANDSCAPING

PAINTING PRINCIPLES

Yesterday, I refused to listen to Leo the retard next door, thinking of himself as a musician or able to play drums. Has been featured in youtube more than once (http://youtu.be/0mEMMiQej44).

I hit the road to visit the library of Sagrado Corazon University, enemy of the community, also featured 3/4 times here or elsewhere (http://puertorikenhadasinmostaza.blogspot.com/2011/12/universidad-sagrado-corazon.html). Looking for books worthy of merit on horticulture, landscaping design, without any luck, I found instead a few on landscaping painters/painting.

There is a vacuum about horticulture, landscape design, set trends, for the tropics, particularly in this side of the continent. I have to figure out or imagine what happened in Puerto Rico one hundred years ago, considering the crap created by landscape architects without our subject, aesthetics.

There are a few books with pertinent information for those with an interest, even a job in the field. ONE in particular, is out of orbit, if you are gardening beyond the hole, digging, pruning and the beauty of flowers out of context.

THE ARTISTIC ANATOMY OF TREES

Rex Vicat Cole

London

Seely, Service & Co. LTD

1915

pages 18-19

Since an artist appeals to the intelligence and to the emotions, his work can only give real pleasure to those in whom it arouses a consciousness of beauty similar to his own perception. For this reason a picture may give intense pleasure to some, while others are unable to receive the meaning, and want of understanding, are kept to dub it a worthless performance. The feeling for beauty in its best sense is conveyed in so many ways--by colour , by light and shade, by line, by pattern, and by technique; and any or all of these become the painter.

One or a combination of these cannot atract everyone equally, but only those whose perceptions are most keenly excited by the particular means selected. Even to those means to which we are sensitive we can give credit, if not love, if they are well employed.

OOf the various means at the disposal of a painter, colour seems to have the greatest power of attraction. As children we are interested by colours rather than by forms, and we retain this impulse through out life--only we temper it by a new desire for a pleasing arrangement of colours.

Our instinct for colour becomes acuter, even though we have learned to see the dignity in masses of light and shade, or to appreciate the rendering or suggestion of forms by lines. I fancy our minds are interested in form, but our nature is excited by colour.

How few people, however, really appreciate good colour! The majority are content with any colour, so long as a picture resembles the obvious in nature or tells a tale; and for this they can even tolerate colours that are lifeless or discordant. Colour seems so much more elusive than form.

Fine colour can only be felt, though fine shape can be described. Artists are conscious of very definite laws that govern good colouring, and yet colour is so subtle that the introduction of a new element upsets any scheme, and nearly every picture pressents a new colour problem.

editors note

If you change some words such as artist for gardener,

the message above still applies and is pertinent.

The book with impressive black and white illustrations, covers about 200 years of landscape painting in Europe. It is available in your favorite web site...

Finally, reading a few pages, has allowed me to accept with resignation and understanding the total indifference of most people to nature, and even more, flora and fauna. The way I see it, perception determines the existence of whatever for society or the individual.

that is that

DOMINANT DORKS AT THE GYM

2011-12-20T05:33:00.000-08:00

I have been surprised by the response to one of my recent posts. One dealing with the brutal noise, and related issues. Now is time to share my observations about the many customers between the ages of 20 and 45.

Many gays go together to work out with free weights, cables, but rarely use the different aerobic machines to increase stamina and weight loss. Non gay customers are also guilty, as if a good sweat was some kind of a sin.

Same goes for the dorks, classical macho men doing every exercise with excess weight, unable to control it, and constantly checking themselves on the mirrors. To compensate, they swing the torso to get momentum, increasing the possibility of getting hurt. Dropping the the 40/50 pounds dum bells on the floor shaking the whole gym.

The concept of set, repetition, group muscle is absent, judging from my observations.

Quite a few men and women are unable to leave their phones in the locker. It is a real trip, for yours truly to watch these fools interrupting the work out to engage in silly conversations, evidently not emergencies, particularly while in the stationary bicycle or treadmill. There is one character into text messaging between repetitions.

There another wimp that spend most of his time chatting with those who actually work out. The problem is that thanks to the music volume, hollering is mandatory and one have to listen to his conversation five/ten feet away. A pain in the ass if you ask me. He is not the only one. Some trainers are also in the same bag, unaware of the irritation it causes to people trying to concentrate in what they do.

Perhaps the greatest oddity are those who bring their Ipods and similar gadgets to 'listen' to their musical preferences. However, the loudspeakers in the gym are so intense that they have to turn theirs so high, that innocent victims near by can hear the treble from their earphones on the treadmill/bike, another pain in the butt.

The trainers? It does not matter if they are men or woman, black or white, they seem infatuated with the red ball, exercises requiring extreme effort, too often with tension wires. What the hell they try to accomplish with this, is a mystery to your humble servant. When you observe carefully it seems therapeutic treatment instead of exercising to be healthy and handsome.

One would imagine that people out of shape, who never practiced sports, or played with crap in the cradle, need to develop stamina, tone, some muscle, not resistance to this or that. At any case one thing should come before the other, but it is not the case at the gym.

My routine and philosophy?

It started in adolescence. Weight lifting to develop my skinny, muscle less frame. Favorite muscles to work out: deltoids, biceps, triceps, forearms, trapezius and chest in that order.

The need to move correctly to develop the group muscles avoiding any chance to get hurt with adequate weight. Most everything one needs to know, I learned by 16, from Muscle Builder Magazine.

In those days there were no steroids. You had to drink lousy tasting proteins with milk and banana shakes.

Addominals were part of the routine, but not any longer. Squats and leg exercises are a waste of time if you ask me.

The use of treadmill and stationary bike will develop those muscles if you work out with discipline.

I usually burn between 500 and 800 calories not counting those in addition to my weight lifting routine.

Something these gym dorks/freaks and else never
mention is eating less. If you eat like a pig, burning calories in the gym is a waste of time, if looking young, handsome and fit is the goal.

Finally, when I watch the curves from my triceps, the ribs without the 25 pounds lost, the 2 inches in me waist gone, while brushing me teeth, I feel some joy...

that is that

PINK POT POST

2011-12-18T13:58:00.000-08:00

from the editor

Due to a silly error or technical difficulties If I may, in this post, photos and story do not match exactly. Organize the material, or inquire.

A pot could make or break a plant or your installation. Those orangy cheap plastic ones, change colors with the UV rays, cracking when moved and what the hell, I hate them.

Today I will present examples of some plant location changes. I prefer rectangular to round pots. There are plastic, concrete, clay and fiberglass at home. I chose based on aesthetics, irrigation and durability issues. Shape, size and volume of the selected plant is also considered. Some plants do not look their best in one or the other. That is why, once in a while location changes are imperative.

The pink clay pot was recycled a week ago..Me wife saw it in the same yard where I found the concrete disk with the Agave in the west garden. Both were part of a typical corny water fountain from Home Depot. Now they are doing much better in my humble one.

The beige pot in the stupid useless dolly is fiberglass. The plant is a Zamia, an endemic one. A gift from
Rengui. When I found the clay pot in the tittle, I thought that it will look better in pink. Another reason is that I will not have to change it again since this pot has twice the space for the root system.

The Crinum amabile was a present from Mercedes who passed away some time ago. It was in a concrete round pot Don Miguel gave me soon after we moved.
It is one of two, with legs, forty years old easily.

The oriental looking pot, is a fake lacquered fiberglass with a Proiphys amboinensis a gift from Suncha. These plants remind me of a favorite, Hostas. Their flowers are fragrant, similar to Eucharis amazonica in size.

This water fountain disk is between 30/40 pounds.
It does not get flooded thanks to rags for capillary water extraction.

that is that

THE DOUBLE TREE by HILTON PARKING LOT MYSTERY ROBBERY

2011-12-16T07:52:00.000-08:00

24 hours ago I reported the disappearance of our 2005, Mitsubishi Outlander rear view covers, by email. The next day I had to make a phone call, since Angel Gomez, the Facilities Manager, has computer phobia.

He tells me that he needs more information about the vehicle and minutes later I sent the information. Again, he refuses to answer the 2nd email, (both at the bottom).

I made an appointment to watch the blurry security video clip taken at the entrance of the parking lot, today. It shows someone (impossible to say if man or woman) driving a similar vehicle one hour ago. The vehicle arrives at 6:48 PM.   However me wife and I arrived at 7:15 for a work out at LIVfitnessclub.*

Moral of the story, if your vehicle is damaged or vandalized in such parking lots they will always find some loophole to screw you.

This Sherlock, yours truly, never rests...The suspicious mind wonders...If there was only ONE white Outlander on the premises with 8 cameras and one lonely employee on the day of the robbery...what is the point, feeble minded?

AFTER I watched the shitty video, machine gun like multiple inquiring questions were asked...This is the FIRST 'alleged robbery' since 2008, according to the young handsome, well dressed, clean cut modersoker.
Why do they have 8 cameras and only show the victims one shitty video clip? The ONLY one, while a white Outlander enters and exits...SON OF BEACHES!

MR. Angel Gomez argument? The covers had been stolen, before we got to their Double Tree by Hilton parking lot.

The question arises by necessity....Why/how in the fucking world one will open the door of his/her vehicle without noticing the damned mirror to the left of the door handle? How can anyjuan miss the white cover missing?

The logical response from this Rhodes Scholar? We have 8 or 10 parking and that happens a lot..Me cago en la madre que les pario.

HERE the NEVER

answered, emails for the record. No one gets away with murder on me necks of the wood.

First message

Saludos Angel Gomez,

Ayer miercoles los covertores de los retrovisores de nuestro auto, fueron robados en su estacionamiento entre las 7:15 PM y 8:30 PM, mientras visitamos el gimnasio.

Agradecere alguna respuesta sobre el asunto.

Cordialmente,\

2nd unanswered email

to agomez

Saludos,Vehiculo Mitsubishi Outlander blanco, cuatro puertas 2005. Estacionado no lejos de la entrada de los elevadores.

Espero que ahora pueda investigar, y si no es mucho trabajo contestar el correo electronico. Tengo la impresion que si no le llamo, no hubiese contestado, considerando que leyo el mensaje anoche.

En mi opinion, contrario a la tendencia insular, es que el correo electronico, no solo es mas eficiente que lo telefonico, sino que deja constancia de los hechos y los actos..

Crdialmente,

Evidently our hero and his employers believe that people who can afford the gym, are into scams using parking lots on the premises to report fake robberies to get the 100/200 bucks to buy spare covers after some lengthy, pain in the ass insurance/police station procedures.

that is that