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House for a Goldsmith, Lanke, Germany - Christoph Wagner Architekten

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This is grown hard, December/January no water at all, full sun most of the year and only gets a drink when it rains. I believe it to be Cymbidium finlaysonianum which is native here in Thai and down the peninsula to Singapore. Pasir Ris Park [SG] has naturalised specimens growing on trees there including a variant 'cinnamomi.' These are part of a sub-branch which populates across to Australia where a similar species Cym canaliculatum is native. C canaliculatum includes a variant "Sparksii" which variety's foliage texture is nothing like a cymbid and its flowers, also small, prolific and mostly pendulous are as dark as purple can be before it is called black. I've seen Sparksii growing wild on dead wattle trees, its roots extending metres down through the soft heartwood in Central Queensland [Aus] subtropical climate. I believe the plants' saving grace is that, during the dry, when it doesn't rain, the night-time humidity gets up around 90%.

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Thai Kway Teow ,,, (bip.)

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There is an enormous number of hiking trails around Australia ranging from one day to a month or more. Wild, wild country ,, and "No risk, No story." This one is Tasmania, the track took millions of $$$ to create, and be warned, once you get the bug ,,, you cant wait for the next adventure. Check the vision. 🙏

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I watched a doco about global warming, the lead participant was a scientist engaged in taking ice core samples from the polar ice cap and analysing them for historical temperature fluctuations. Long story short, yes we are experiencing global warming but the temperature increase we are experiencing atm is coming off a significant historically low base. Check the link.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Younger_Dryas

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A commission from almost 50 years ago; a hand-tooled Gamekeeper's Shoulder Bag.

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Generated by Matitectura

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Some days are diamonds ,,,

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Finally caught in full bloom: swanflower (Aristolochia erecta). The dry winter and spring seem to have impacted pipevine swallowtail populations as well, because I haven't seen anywhere near as many caterpillars as I did last year, but that has allowed these plants to open some flowers before getting chomped. I have some seed-grown plants growing in my garden as well, so hopefully we'll see them bloom within the next few months.

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Los Angeles Historic Cultural Monument #839,

2006 El Moran St, Los Angeles CA, 90039,

This Cabin was home to Paul Landacre, a celebrated modernist artist whose work was shaped by the surrounding landscape and is held in the collections of LACMA, MoMA, and the Whitney.

The cabin was built in 1909 as a small mountain cabin and was later purchased by Paul Landacre and his wife, Margaret, in 1932. 

Renovation by Oller & Pejic Architecture

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The scent is alluring, soothing, but who ever really takes a close look at a Lavender flower. [Click the image, then right mouse click the new image and select 'view image in new tab' from the drop-down menu. Click the new tab above the address bar. Mouse over the new tab image and notice the plus on the cursor. With that plus, click anywhere on the new tab image.]

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Gingers ,,, in all their glorious names, tastes & beauty. And a run-down of who's who in the zoo.

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#history#greece#art#ancient#athens#museum

A little over two centuries ago, a man without a nose hacked many of the sculptures off the Parthenon and shipped them off to Great Britain.

At the time, the Parthenon was not as well-known as it is today -- it was a moldering ruin in the shrinking backwater of Athens.

So Lord Elgin (the aforementioned noseless man) took it upon himself to strip the Parthenon of its treasures:

Why did he do it? And should the British government undo what Elgin did back at the turn of the 19th century? All that and more in this week's post...

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Egon Schiele

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The soup is called Tom Sep, the venue is way south of the Old City (Chiang Mai) Thailand. The soup is cauterising spicy hot. It was done in a hurry. I'd had better at Muu Yaang Don Chan last year, the buffalo meat in that one was slow cooked for 7 hours, flavour drivers in that were herby [hoo rap pha] more than chilli.