Tag: plants

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in azores

green patterns

our hiking boots are still wet and the weather isn’t helping them dry… so today we put on our other shoes and went for a stroll on the local botanical gardens here in horta, which were amazing! there are so many species of plants that are endemic to the azores, but they’re threatened by other exotic or invasive species introduced over time. so a part of the job of the local scientific community is to study these native plants, collect their seeds and participate in projects that ensure they can thrive again, all the while educating people.

in contrast with the dry, muted landscapes of the south of portugal, the oceanic subtropical climate here makes everything radioactive green, and i find myself looking around in awe at how luscious this green is, especially in contrast with the volcanic soil. the leaves make pretty patterns too, and i couldn’t resist photographing them:

i wish i could bring these all home in my suitcase! :D

Categories
just life

orbea variegata

spotted these pretty flowers in a neighbour garden, and aren’t they a thing of beauty?

they’re orbea variegata, also known as star flowers. it’s a succulent with cactus-like “leaves”, but the flowers were what drew me to them — they grow around the edges of the plant in the winter rainfall season, and are just striking.

i’ve recently gotten my hands on a few specimens to plant in the garden, for further investigation… :P

Categories
just life

tomatoes!

it started a few months ago, when our neighbor gifted us some tiny cherry tomato plants he had seeded in a tray, since he had too many of them already. given our general lack of a green thumb (for anything that is not a succulent), we didn’t expect much of it… but still, this seemed to be the year to try things out, so i decided to give it a go and plant a few many of these along a wall in the garden.

lo and behold, they seem to have liked it and grew a lot over time! :D soon enough, small tomatoes started to appear in little bunches…

…and a few weeks later, achievement unlocked — we have perfect tiny tomatoes! since the boy doesn’t even like them, they’re aaaaall for me — they make the perfect snack food for a quick break, and i’ve been enjoying a few everyday.

in the mix came some gorgeous pear-shaped ones as well, but none of them has matured yet. i don’t think i’ve ever tried these before, so i wonder what they’ll taste like!

Categories
in portugal just life

the plant thief

i’ve mentioned a few times how much i want to bring home all the plants, and how i admire “collection gardens“… so perhaps it was sort of inevitable that i would become one of those people too, grabbing a cutting here and there to bring home. :)

a few years ago on a hike with friends, i noticed the sides of the path we were walking were covered in tiny succulent plants, growing on slates of schist. they looked like little pinecones, thriving despite the harsh conditions. i was in love…

… so i did something not-so-good and brought a small rock home with me. i ended up hiking the rest of the path with a 2kg or so rock in my hands or in my head, portuguese grandma style, to the amusement of the boy and our friend a., who took these pictures.

but look! three years later, this rock is still thriving in a shady corner of the garden, its little “pinecones” now having other species of succulents as neighbors!

i’m really happy about this! every time i see them i can’t help but smile and remember the story that brought them here. may your gardens and plants be filled with interesting stories too!

Categories
foooood in thailand

the cooking class

turns out, thai cooking is a lot of prep work, followed by a very quick cooking process. everything needs to be minced, peeled, squeezed, measured and mashed beforehand — mise en place is everything here.

afterwards, it’s a matter of heating up a wok and throwing stuff there in a specific order. voilá!

under the close supervision of our host/chef, we prepared soups, curries, stir fries and even mango sticky rice, all deliciously filling but way more stuff than we could eat…

… so we ended up bringing pad thai and some other noodle dishes home for dinner. :)

we were also treated to a tour of their beautiful gardens, where the host grows a lot of the ingredients for the lesions like chillies, mushrooms and ginger. he had all kinds of plants there, and it was pretty cool to see a coffee tree or taste stevia leafs for the first time.

near the end of the tour, we were introduced to this funky plant that turns its leaves when they’re touched:

they’re so cool!! aptly named “touch-me-not”, they’re a common weed in thailand. after this encounter, we started touching lots of plants on the side of the road, just to see if we could make that trick again! :D