South African "Geraniums"

Fits over at "Shooting the Messenger" posted this pic last week and it reminded me that I have not yet profiled South Africa's most popular flower export, the "geranium."






















Everyone's familiar with the common "geranium" - that good old stand-by, the pink or red "geranium" in a pot or window box. This is what is known as a "zonal geranium" because the furry leaves with rounded lobes often have a zone of dark purple. The flowers can be single or double and range from scarlet through orange to pink.






































































The second type of "geranium" is the "ivy-leaved geranium" which is a trailing plant and usually planted in hanging baskets. It's leaves are smooth and shiny and the flowers can be white, pink or red. Here is an unusual one with dark burgundy double blossoms tipped with white.

















Horticulturists first began to hybridize the third kind of "geranium," the "regal geranium," in the late 1800s and one of the most popular hybrids was named after the first First Lady so they are often called "Martha Washington geraniums." It's flowers can be white, pink, red and purple. The upper petals often have darker blotches like pansies. Many have ruffled petals.

These "geraniums" require cool (50 to 60°F) night temperatures in order to bloom. Because of this requirement, "Martha Washington geraniums" often fail to bloom when grown outdoors except along the West Coast north of San Francisco where the summer nights are usually below 60°F. Everywhere else they are usually grown indoors or as spring and fall-flowering annuals.

























































































































The fourth type of "geranium" is the "scented geranium" usually not grown for its inconspicuous white, pale lilac or pink flowers but for it's beautiful finely-lobed and ruffled scented foliage which can have perfumes that smell like chocolate, citrus, roses, mint or lavender and are often used as medicinal herbs.







































I have put the word "geranium" in quotes because none of these plants are really geraniums. They are South African pelargoniums. There are more than 200 pelargonium species within these four main groups. Most true geraniums come from the Mediterranean and are often called "cranesbills."

There is only one true geranium from South Africa, geranium incanum, which has the true geranium leaves - finely-lobed and feathery. It is a ground creeper and can become invasive on the West Coast but is almost worth it because of its beautiful lilac or pale purple flowers.

We have a true geranium that is native to Oregon which looks almost exactly like the South African version but has much smaller lilac flowers and is regarded as a weed.

Twilight of the Gods

Last night I was sitting on the front veranda after dinner watching the twilight settling over the forest. The fog had pulled back out to sea but was still too thick over the horizon for me to see the setting sun. The sky overhead was pale blue with a few almost translucent silver wisps of fog still touching the black silhouettes of the tallest trees.

Slowly the sky darkened to grey and a solitary night-thrush began to sing its high-pitched, piercing, mournful song from across the little valley through which the north creek flows. It was 55F but a cold 30mph wind was blowing off the Pacific and that made it feel chilly and damp. I shivered and sipped my after-dinner brandy as dusk settled in.

Andy was in the living-room watching TV. Judging from the creepy sound effects, I guessed that he was watching something on the Scifi Channel like "The Twighlight Zone." I sat on my rocking chair waiting for Chas to get back from the neighbors' farm where he was tucking in their livestock for the night. (We had to take care of the neighbors' farm for the past week as they are away at their church's Bible camp.)

Gotterdammerung - which was the title of the last of Wagner's four operas in his series "The Ring of the Nibelung" - is usually translated as "The Twilight of the Gods" but should more accurately be translated as "The Doom of the Gods" or even "The Damnation of the Gods."

(Lest anyone think I am a Wagner fan, let me quickly add that I really enjoy his symphonic music but detest his music for the human voice. The vocal parts of his operas are unbearably ugly. He wrote "music" for that most perfect musical instrument, the human voice, as if he were composing for a symphony orchestra at best or a barnyard full of howling beasts at worst. The voice is not a machine but a living expression of the human breath and soul. Wagner did not understand that. Well, what can you expect from a Judopohobic communist?)

Twenty years ago I watched "The Twilight of the Gods" settle over South Africa as the European settlers there realized that they were outnumbered ten to one by Africans. I feel as if I am now watching as the white American Gods realize that they are outnumbered - in a shrinking world - by non-white and non-Christian people. This is the twilight of a certain kind of god, the twilight of the enlightened individual such as Michelangelo, Shakespeare, Bach and the inspired Founders of this Republic.

Anyway, I don't want to come off sounding pessimistic. I just feel that those of us who treasure the values of the age of enlightened individualism need to change our tactics. We are outnumbered by collectivists who value groups, tribes, pushing crowds and other assorted collectivist colonies of clones, drones, communists and the Borg.

Now's the time to be serious, pull back, regroup and co-operate as much as individualists can co-operate to preserve civilization. Individualists did co-operate at least once before - to fight for independence from unearned and unmerited authority and then to create a blue-print for a society dedicated to mankind's natural rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

This makes me feel a bit melancholy (not hopeless - just realistic) and reminds me of Gray's "Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard."

The curfew tolls the knell of parting day,
The lowing herd winds slowly o'er the lea,
The ploughman homeward plods his weary way,
And leaves the world to darkness and to me.

Now fades the glimmering landscape on the sight,
And all the air a solemn stillness holds,
Save where the beetle wheels his droning flight,
And drowsy tinklings lull the distant folds...

"Color consciousness"

In an earlier post I said: Of course my dream candidate is Condi but, although I know that conservatives are ready for a black woman President, I don't think the liberals are. They would have a fit that a black and/or female candidate was not one of their hand-picked tame plantation "tokens."

As a kid growing up in South Africa in the Fifties, the word "racist" had not yet entered popular usage. I did not really become aware of that word until I moved to England in the Sixties. In South Africa we used the phrase "color conscious" instead. If we described someone as being "color conscious," we meant that that person judged people according to their color and related to them accordingly. It could mean that the person was negrophobic (which we now incorrectly label "racist" - there is only one race of homo sapiens - a more correct term would be ethnicist) but it could also mean that the person bent over backwards patronizingly to cater to black people.

The negrophobes were obviously haters but the other kind of "color conscious" person was not. The latter did not want to hate black people but at the same time they were not completely comfortable around them so they tried too hard to be "nice." There was always something a bit awkward and phony about them. These patronizing types were nearly always British. The Afrikaners, having lived with black Africans for 300 years, were not uncomfortable with blacks. Sure there were rabidly negrophobic Afrikaners (there were also plenty of negrophobic Brits in Africa) but most Afrikaners were fairly matter of fact about black people and judged them not so much on color but on character.

When I lived In the UK, I saw that the Brits were the same as their cousins in Africa. They were patronizing to blacks - and to Jews and to "colonials" like me. In fact the Brits are generally a supercilious bunch of patronizing phonies. Yes, I'm "racist" about Brits and most snobby Europeans.

When I came to the USA, I noticed a similar thing here. I arrived in Florida and, when I travelled through the South on my way west, I expected to see plenty of "racism" but found that the Southerners were a lot like the Afrikaners - pretty matter of fact about black people. Of course there were some "racist" Southerners but I did not see many of the phony patronizing types until I got to San Francisco.

When I got to San Francisco at the end of 1978, it was already a one party town. The Democrats controlled everything and talked a good talk but the city was still racially divided and heavily ghettoized. Even the gays were "racist" and blacks were not welcome in the Castro district.

I met Chas in 1981 when he was 20, new to San Francisco and still working his first job as a security guard in one of the many financial district buildings owned by a certain family (who shall remain nameless) who owned 20% of all the real estate in SF. This family was also the main donor to the Democrat party. One of their rules was that no blacks could work as security guards in their buildings. One of their main political proteges was Diane Feinstein who lived in a gated community whose by-laws disallowed blacks from living there.

That all changed in the 80s as the "anti-racist" thought-police began to write the rules in San Fran, but, no matter how much the liberals enforced their "anti-racism," there was no getting away from the fact that they were "color conscious." They judged people by their color and bent over backwards to accommodate blacks just because they were black regardless of their worth as ordinary human beings.

You know what I'm talking about. This catering to blacks just because they are black has created a society in which we not only tolerate but venerate scum such as rapist rappers, blackmailing con-artist reverends such as Sharpton and Jackson and idiot politicians such as Cynthia McKinney. Liberals are "color conscious" or, to use their own misnomer - racist. Most of the conservatives I have know are not. They don't judge someone by color but by character.

That's why black people who are accepted by conservatives are by and large decent and admirable people but blacks who are patronized and mollycoddled by liberals (such as the creeps I named above) are often the scum of the earth. That's why I believe the first black President will be a Republican. I also think the first female President will be Republican. That's why I would campaign for Condi if she decided to run. That's why the liberals hate her so much.

PS When I looked for pictures of Condi on Google now to post here, 9 out of 10 of them were nasty caricatures of her. Try it - you will be amazed at how much the left hates her.

"No one's perfect"

National Review (to which I started subscribing over 25 years ago) just published their August 7th issue featuring Rudy Giuliani on the cover in drag. Not being a New Yorker, I don't know exactly when or why Rudi did drag other than he did it for fun and as a fundraiser for some NY event. The NR cover says, "But will it play in Peoria? - The Drag on Rudy Giuliani's Presidential Prospects."

Inside is an article by Kate O'Beirne who writes, "Giuliani’s 9/11 image may not last in a heated primary battle." And the folks over at National Review Online's "The Corner" have got their tits in a tangle. Kathryn Lopez says about Giuliani to John Podhoretz, "Come on, JPod, whatever one thinks of him or his prospects, it's a great image to get to the heart of conservative misgivings about him."

Gimme a break, will ya? Rudy did this for a laugh! Has KLo no sense of fun? What with William Buckley beginning to sound like the neo-nazi nutjob, Pat Buchanan, and the folks over at "The Corner" on NRO sounding increasingly like nannies, I'm beginning to wonder if the writers at National Review have lost their sense of humor - and their sense of proportionality.

Now, whatever you may think about Giuliani, he has the potential to capture the swing vote just like McCain but, unlike McCain, he is not two-faced. I've said it before and I'm saying it again: "I'll vote for ANY Republican over a Democrat for the simple reason that a Republican candidate is beholden to the GOP just as a Dem is beholden to donkeys like Kennedy, Kerry, Pelosi and Dean."

I also think that the days of a REAL conservative getting into the WH are over. The country is too evenly divided between liberals and conservatives and only a moderate like Bush has a hope of getting in. (Ironically the left does not see Bush as a moderate - but he most definitely is. He sure isn't a REAL conservative.)

The swing vote is what elects presidents and the swing voters are not so impressed by ideology as they are impressed by character and common sense. That suits me fine. I'd rather get a little bit of something that I really want (like a seriousness about the war on the jihadists) than get plenty of something that I don't want - like more appeasement, more socialism, more statist nannyism, higher taxes, more PC BS etc etc etc. If push comes to shove, I'd even hold my nose and vote for McCain rather than see an appeaser in the WH.

Giuliani is not the ideal candidate. He is too soft on certain issues and he has got vulnerable spots in his personal life but he's not two-faced and he is no appeaser and I'd even campaign for him. (Of course my dream candidate is Condi but, although I know that conservatives are ready for a black woman President, I don't think the liberals are. They would have a fit that a black and/or female candidate was not one of their hand-picked tame plantation "tokens.")

This fuss reminds me of the movie, "Some Like it Hot," with Marilyn Monroe, Tony Curtis, Jack Lemmon and Joe E. Brown. Curtis and Lemmon have to do drag to escape being killed by the mob. Joe E. Brown falls for Lemmon thinking Lemmon is a girl. At the end of the movie Lemmon says to Brown, "But I'm not a girl. I'm a boy."

Joe E. Brown responds, "No one's perfect."

That's the way I feel about politicians. In fact it's the way I feel about life in general. The lesser of two evils suits me fine in this imperfect world.

Sunday poem and flowers

[I use Firefox to do the typesetting and layout. I just took a look at what it looks like in Explorer and see that there are huge gaps between the pics and text. Sorry about that but I prefer Firefox. What a shame as it takes some time to do the layout just the way I like it.]

Summertime

Lyrics by Renee Olstead, music by George Gershwin

Summertime and the livin' is easy.
Fish are jumpin', and the cotton is high.
Your Daddy's rich and your Mama is good lookin'.
So, hush, little baby don't you cry.

One of these mornings you're gonna rise up singin'.
You're gonna spread your wings and take to the sky,
take to the sky
But until that mornin' there's nothin' that can harm you
With Daddy and Mommy standin' by.

Summertime;
Yes, it's the time, I'm talking about summertime
And the livin', summer living, and the living is so fine.
Fish are jumpin', and the cotton is high.
Your Daddy's rich, he's rich, your Daddy's filthy rich
And your Mama, hot Mama, your Mama's so good lookin'.
So, hush, little baby don't you cry.

Summertime and the livin' is easy.
Fish are jumpin', and the cotton is high.
Your Daddy's rich and your Mama is good lookin'.
So, hush, little baby don't you cry.

Daisies

by Bliss Carman

Over the shoulders and slopes of the dune
I saw the white daisies go down to the sea,
A host in the sunshine, an army in June,
The people God sends us to set our hearts free.

The bobolinks rallied them up from the dell,
The orioles whistled them out of the wood;
And all of their singing was, "Earth, it is well!"
And all of their dancing was, "Life, thou art good!"

South Africa has provided a large number of flowers in the lily family which have become popular garden plants all over the world. Probably it's second most prolific flower exports are the members of the aster family - the daisies. Most of them can withstand drought but cannot survive heavy frost so they are usually grown as annuals nearly everywhere except the West Coast.

Here are some South African daisies:

Dimorphotheca is known as the Cape marigold and, like the Mexican marigold, comes in all shades of yellow and orange.











































Euryops is known as the Cape chrysanthemum or bush daisy because the plant can grown as high as four feet tall and is covered with yellow daisies from Spring through Fall.














Felicia is known as blue marguerite. It's one of the few truly blue flowers.














Gazania is known as the Painted Daisy because it usually has red markings on its yellow petals or vice versa.




















































Gerbera is known in South Africa as the Barberton daisy because it is prolific in the Barberton area but it is known as the Transvaal daisy in the UK. It ranges from white to yellow, pink, orange and red and is probably the most famous South African daisy.









































Osteospermum or Cape Daisy is known as Freeway Daisy in southern California because, being very drought tolerant, it has naturalized wherever there is an open patch of land. It has also been hybridized into some unusual "sports." It is always either white or shades of lavender and purple.








































































Senecio is the South African dandelion and has never been grown as a garden plant. It is famous mostly for having become a noxious weed in Australia.

Shame

Tonight Chas and Andy and I were talking at dinner about how liberals have no shame. In my post about the moonbats in San Fran I said: "These people [Muslim immigrants] are the scum of the earth and the Americans who protest along side them should be ashamed of themselves but of course liberals don't feel shame, do they?"

No they don't feel any shame. Andy reminded me of a conversation with a liberal who was asked: "Don't you have any shame?"

The liberal replied: "No, I don't. Thanks for noticing."

What arrogance!

In ancient Greek mythology, AIDOS was the female Daimon (Spirit) of modesty, reverence and respect. To the Greeks, Aidos, as a quality, was that feeling of reverence or shame which restrains men from thinking or doing wrong.

Aidos was sometimes spelled Aides or Aids. Strange that the goddess of shame was called Aids because it was the lack of shame that brought about AIDS.

Debauchees use drugs to lower inhibitions and rid themselves of a sense of shame. Liberals are drunk on the own arrogance and lack any sense of shame. Mind you, most liberals are debauchees.

Our kids are being taught that a sense of shame is wrong; that they should feel "empowered" and "entitled" and have "self-esteem." Excuse me, but why would you want to "esteem" yourself? Esteem is what you feel when you admire and look up to someone. Are we meant to look up to ourselves? I've never heard of anything more ridiculous.

All this nonsense comes from atheistic communism where man is greater than God; there is nothing to look up to and nothing to restrain your pride and arrogance.

The ancient Greeks had a word for this: hubris which originally meant to touch someone in a disrespectful way; to push or shove someone. It eventually came to mean arrogance and lack of respect.

"God Hates Fags!"

I've been called a fag before - plenty of times when I was younger and a bit of a "sensitive" sissy but not now that I'm a tough old curmudgeon. I may be a bit queer and eccentric and an incorrigible bachelor but I'm definitely not "gay." To me, "gay" means predatory promiscuity, drug-taking, alcoholism, narcissism and leftist, anti-American politics.

I don't criticise gays for the same reason that Christians do because I'm not a believer in Biblical infallibility. I lived in San Francisco for 25 years and met many gays and lesbians and disliked most of them but not all were despicable people. I don't care what consenting adults do in private but I did not like the crude and arrogant public manifestations of the gay life-style that I saw and I especially despised their politics - typical whiny "I'm a victim and need special rights" emotional blackmail.

Sorry, but I don't believe in special "group rights" whether its for women, blacks or gays. This republic was founded on the concept of individual rights. The whole "group rights" thing is an off-shoot of the Marxist "class warfare" crap and is pure commie nonsense. There are a few gay and lesbian conservatives (like Tammy Bruce and Jeff Gannon) but most gays are leftist moonbats.

Sadly and ironically, the gays who are so anti-Bush and always protesting against the War on Terror would be the first to be killed if the jihadis won. Equally ironic is that Muslim men are well-known for being sodomites and pedophiles. In Muslim culture it is fine to rape boys but it is a sin for one man to love another. Iran routinely hangs gays.

Last year I posted (on my old blog) the story of the two gay teenagers who were hanged in Iran a year ago today. When the West expressed outrage at this barbaric behavior, the Iranians falsely claimed that the boys had raped another boy when, in fact, they were hanged simply because they were too open in showing their affection for each other.

They were imprisoned and tortured for nearly two years before their execution. No doubt they were raped repeatedly by their filthy pedophile Islamic jailers.

Here are the pictures that I posted last year of Mahmoud Asgari, 16, and Ayaz Marhoni, 18, being hanged in public on the 19th July, 2005.
























































I must add that I also dislike the "god hates fags" fundamentalists in this country. Below is a video of an interview on Fox News with a member of Rev. Phelps' Westborough Baptist Church (Godhatesfags.com.) Phelps originally used to stage protests at the funerals of AIDS victims but he has graduated to protesting at the funerals of soldiers killed in Iraq. Given half a chance, this man and his cult followers would also hang gays.

Yes, this republic was founded on Christian ideals but our Founders also took great pains to make sure that no one religion (or interpretation of religion) dominated the political discourse. At the time of the Founding there were quite a few Doomsday sects and cults in the colonies. Our Founding Fathers knew that to allow religion to dominate poltical discourse would open up a can of worms. So, while we might be a nation "under God," we are not a nation under any one particular sect.

Anyone who thinks that we can legislate what people believe have not understood that the Founders already had that debate and very carefully made sure that no one sect would ever dominate the republic. The Rev Phelps however believes that the USA is doomed and damned because we don't all subscribe to his particuarly nasty and unenlightened version of "Christianity." If Phelps is a Christian, I'll gladly call myself a heathen.

PS I'm so glad that my dad made me learn boxing because no one called me fag twice. There's only one way to deal with bullies - smash 'em and, if they cry uncle, smash 'em again till they are crippled and cannot fight - just the way Israel is doing with the Hezbullies.

Now enjoy this crazy video - better that SNL.

Goldie Hawn's comb ripped from her head

(RW-CNN*)
Breaking news
07-16-06

Earlier today Goldie Hawn arrived at a popular crowded watering hole with blood running down her face into her eyes from a large gash in her head. Her beautiful blond shoulders were streaked with quickly drying blood. Her comb had been ripped from her head.

Word quickly spread among the merry men who were gathered at the watering hole.

One asked: "Who could have attacked her?"

Another said: "I think Zsa Zsa Gabor had a go at her."

And a third opined: "Maybe it was an accident and she stuck her nose into somebody else's business or into something too small for her big head and, when she pulled out, it ripped her comb off."

A peremptory investigation showed that there was dried blood splattered all over the walls of Ms Hawn's residence and that said residence was occupied by the three Gabor sisters - Zsa Zsa, Eva and Magda. It was obvious that Ms Hawn had been attacked by the Gabor sisters (who are not as blond as Ms Hawn and have visible black roots.) Further investigation showed that the Gabor sisters seemed to have stolen Ms Hawn's nest egg and were squabbling over the loot in their heavily-accented foreign-sounding voices.

The Gabor sisters were quickly evicted and the nest egg was recovered although they resisted arrest and put up a terrible fight. Zsa Zsa slapped one of the arresting officers when he suggested that she was a thief and a liar.

The officer had to apologize and retract his remark when it was discovered that the nest egg did actually belong to Ms ZZ Gabor who was retrieving it after Ms Hawn had stolen it.

The authorities released a statement that "Ms Hawn had unfortunately been injured in the course of a bitch fight."

In the picture below you can see Ms Hawn (in the forefront - her comb still intact) with the Gabor sisters in friendlier days when they enjoyed more cordial relations. You can also see that Goldie is a real blond but Zsa Zsa and Eva have black roots. Magda of course is quite grey.












*RW-CNN = Robin's Wood Chicken News Network

PS I know this isn't funny if you don't know that I give all my chickens the names of famous people.

Sunday poem and flowers

I had a hard time last night trying to find a poem that I like enough to share. I've used up all my favorites in the year that I've been blogging. The fact is that I can't stand most of what passes for poetry whether it's ancient and pompous or modern and pretentious.

I've posted a few of my favorite hymns instead of poems before so here's another of my favorites. I'm not a church-going Christian but I love hymns (and most sacred choral music.) I would go to church if I could find one locally that did lots of singing. Unfortunately I only have two choices in the nearest town: a mainstream church which is too liberal for my tastes; or the local community church which is too fundamentalist to tolerate my eccentricities.

Anyway, here goes. The words were written by Cecil Alexander, for his collection, "Hymns for Little Children, in 1848. He set the words to another song, "Royal Oak," a popular 17th Century English melody.

All Things Bright and Beautiful

Refrain:

All things bright and beautiful,
All creatures great and small,
All things wise and wonderful:
The Lord God made them all.

Each little flower that opens,
Each little bird that sings,
He made their glowing colors,
He made their tiny wings.

Refrain

[Most hymnals omit the following verse]

The rich man in his castle,
The poor man at his gate,
He made them, high or lowly,
And ordered their estate.

Refrain

The purple headed mountains,
The river running by,
The sunset and the morning
That brightens up the sky.

Refrain

The cold wind in the winter,
The pleasant summer sun,
The ripe fruits in the garden,
He made them every one.

Refrain

The tall trees in the greenwood,
The meadows where we play,
The rushes by the water,
To gather every day.

Refrain

He gave us eyes to see them,
And lips that we might tell
How great is God Almighty,
Who has made all things well.

Refrain

Now that's my kind of "poetry."

Today's flower is the disa. Disa is a genus in the Orchidaceae family found in South Africa. Some are deciduous; others are evergreen but they are all terrestrial orchids - that is they grow in soil not on trees like most tropical orchids. There are about 200 different species known but only a few are commonly grown.

I've never grown orchids. These are Andy's babies. One of the first things that we did when we bought the farm was build a greenhouse for Andy's huge orchid collection. He had grown disas outdoors in San Francisco but kept them in the greenhouse during the first winter that we moved to Oregon. The second winter kind of snuck up on us before we realized that the disas were still sitting outside. They survived fine and have lived outside ever since.

Their natural habitat in South Africa is on the windward side of Table Mountain which is nearly always fogged in and their most important growing requirement is that their roots must be kept cool and moist. Disas are known as the "Pride of Table Mountain." They thrive in our cool, foggy coastal climate and Andy is going to plant some down by the creek to see if we can naturalize them here in Oregon. Last winter's snow killed off a few but most survived.

Here are some pics of disas. The first pic is of a batch of baby disa unifloras that Andy grew from seed sitting outside the greenhouse. (Yes, he grows them as a business and sells each plant for $40.) The second pic is of the first disa uniflora that flowered outdoors after we came to Oregon. The third pic is a big close-up worth clicking to enlarge. The next four are pics of different colors of disa uniflora. There is also a yellow version which I don't have a pic of. The remaining four pics are of other different species of disa.