December 1. is here and with that we start a new thread! Please all join in!
Let me start with my Vanda Ratchaburi Beauty, I like the bright yellow blooms.
And Cattleya Bob Betts 'White Lightning' opened a very crowded spike with three big blooms. The scent is lovely.
Thanks for starting the new thread with these beauties, Ursula. I like them both.
We leave this cold and rainy place this afternoon and should be back home in toasty Florida this evening. I have had all of this weather I need for a while and besides, my skin is dry.
Jim
"Advertising may be described as the science of arresting the human intelligence long enough to get money from it." -- Steven Leacock
Nice to be in warm sunshine!
Dreary drizzle here for a couple of days and then back to glorious sunny 50 degr F weather. Heh, it could be worse, we had already snow last year at this time.
Beautiful Ursula! Your Bob Betts 'White Lightning ' is just glorious!
I have 2 Vanda that I bought in spike and am eagerly waiting for the flowers I will be happy if they look half as
nice as yours do!
I have been baby sitting this NOID Cat. for Jim ( I was his personal shopper while he was out of town)
One of the buds opened this morning..
a new spike on Pot. Love Spirit 'NN #1' just glows...almost like a daffodil!
and I can't get enough of this one...just love it! The flowers seem to last forever!
Pot. Little Fortune '#5'
Name: Elaine Sarasota, Fl The one constant in life is change
Sympathies, Melissa and we sure are missing your voice and your pictures.
Beautiful Vanda and the white catt is amazing, Ursula. I'm with you on the pale yellow noid Catt - Lindsey, didn't you get one of those for yourself too?
We're still in the Caymans and yesterday had an adventurous dive with a very friendly 5ft. nurse shark. Very fun, and the video is great. The reefs here (and all through the Caribbean and the Gulf) are infested with non-native lionfish which the dive masters are allowed to shoot with a small pronged spear. This shark has learned that divers are a source for free lionfish lunch! It arrived from behind me just as I was descending, swam past about a foot under me and scared the pants off me. Then it hung around for the whole dive following us like a dog. They're beautiful and graceful, and thankfully also have very small teeth.
Elaine
"Success is stumbling from failure to failure with no loss of enthusiasm." –Winston Churchill
Elaine, is there a way around the venom in those Lionfish, so they can be consumed by humans? .....remembering an old James Bond movie, The spy that loved me, with that underwater scene and the villain talking about the so rare (not) Pterois volitans....
Name: Elaine Sarasota, Fl The one constant in life is change
Yes, the dive masters 'hunt' lionfish when they're not booked for diving. Restaurants here buy the fish for $5/lb. with the spines cut off. The venom is in the spines of the dorsal fin so not in the flesh. It's quite good, we make a point of eating it at least once when we're here so they will keep on serving it.
People rarely are stung by the fish, because there are strict rules about touching anything while you are diving here. The dive sites are relatively free of lionfish now, and the ones we saw were very small but they tell us that deeper on the reef they are large and plentiful.
We were hoping to go to the botanical garden today but so far it's raining too much. Little squalls lined up to go over, so I hope for a break later and will post pictures.
Elaine
"Success is stumbling from failure to failure with no loss of enthusiasm." –Winston Churchill
Lion fish were aggressively hunted all throughout the Caribbean... I don't eat fish myself..but my friends say it tastes like chicken!
Elaine, I bought Jims plants in bud..so exercised some restraint ...
This little one opened up late in the day today..
Wow, Jim, those are amazing! I love Volcano Trick, but they're all spectacular. I'm always surprised when even one of my orchids blooms! I couldn't imagine so many blooms at one time