Passiflora Caerulea - Pandora or Earth native?
: flora-fauna, September 07 2020 ▶
A couple of months ago I, the two-left-handed person when it comes to gardening, fell in love with this beautiful plant. I saw it on the street, just hanging from a high fence and ... I simply could not believe my eyes. It looked as if straight from the Avatar movie. Also - non-native to the place where I live, so it was quite the sight. The overall position and size of the plant suggested it was sitting outside the whole year, surviving the negative temperatures, which is also amazing, considering the fact it loves the sun and comes from South America. The leaves are a bit strange, but nothing spectacular, compared to the flowers, which look absolute alien with its antnenae-shape and incredible colors. Its flowers are white, sometimes pink-flushed, with a ring of blue, white and purple filaments. They are mostly closed and open just for a day. Then they fade and die-out, but one stem can produce numerous flowers, so every day you will be surprised to see another one, peeking from the ever-green foliage. Here you can see the only fruit it made (so cool!).
After some digging, I found some being sold at local gardening shop and got one. First it was outside, twining on the balcony's rails, but I feared that it will settle in and during the winter I will not be able to remove it safely, thus I put it on a plant rack inside (after one hour unwinding). Reading about it proved to be useful - it requires a lot of sunshine and water, and should be kept away from other plants, as it gets invasive. The plant should not be mistaken with Passiflora edulis (Maracuya), which is the edible version (though some say Caerulea is also edible).
Pink Floyd - Have a Cigar - or how things never change
: music, September 03 2020 ▶
It has been exactly 45 years since Roger Waters wrote "Have a Cigar", released in Pink Floyd's "Wish you were here"-mega-super-ultra-undying album. And it hits blunt. Even today. No, you are not going to find the music here - you are smart people - google it! As I am writing this, and for the past few days, I cannot stop thinking how contemporary the text is. Clearly, Waters is satirising the big music industry businessmen. But the feeling is more for a WallStreet-predators.
To me, this song is still the most striking one, shoulder-to-shoulder with "Welcome to the Machine". The whole album has only 5 songs and the cover continues the narrative with "the greed" and people, obsessed with money due to the lack of any other talent.