ATTENDING MARVELS A PATAGONIAN JOURNAL

I MET Pedro Werber Carlton aka Huevos de Carton, of the Hebrew persuasion, from Argentina, in Northampton, MA, in the eighties. Perhaps the best conversationalist
ever. Tall, ugly, swam like a fish, often in a great mood with stories about Peron, Evita,
Maradona, Piazzola but not Gardel, the humor of his compatriots Hebrews and gentiles. Also certain scorn for
other Hebrews, particularly those from USA, they are different, a little more stiff and certainly clannish...I know because I was popular among Hebrew ladies and got to
know the culture, eating habits, growing attached to them during the season.

At any rate. The tittle? It is a book written by George Gaylord Simpson, about paleontology, yep, believe it or not... As the tittle goes, a marvel of writing in my opinion. And Pedro? It was a present, since we often talked about Patagonia. I
have mentioned my strange attraction for any south, USA, South Africa, Australia and New Zealand. When you look at Patagonia it has some weird, out of this world, beauty, landscapes and scenery hard to explain....but often reminds me of the moon...

If I could write well, this style would be one of my influences. I have chosen this passage arbitrarily, that some may find refreshing after reading my rough on the edges sentences and paragraphs... The subject it not really pertinent. Even if you do not care about dinosaurs and such, it is a fun book that I have read
more than five times in twenty years..

The first day out of Comodoro, we saw that the land rises from the sea
in a series of steep and very irregular terraces to the high, barren, windswept Pampa de Castillo. We went down the far side of this into
the broad Valle Hermoso, a more sheltered tableland little over half as
high. Across the Valle Hermoso the land raises again, much more gently,
then drops abruptly to the basin of Lake Colhue-Huapi, part of the great
depression known as the Sarmiento Basin, Cuenca de Sarmiento. This scarp south of Colhue-Huapi forms a belt of badlands, about six or seven
miles long in its principal part and continued eastward and westward by
somewhat similar carps. This is the great "barranca south of the Colhue-
Huapi," nameless but famous.

The shore of the lake itself is forward in part by broad white dusty flats flooded at high water, in part by low, steep banks of clay and soil, and in part by higher vertical cliffs of rock brilliantly streaked red and white. Beyond these shores lies a strip of gently rolling land covered by sand and gravel dotted with barren knolls of somber shale. Above this rises the irregular line of the forecliff, vividly banded and spotted in crimson, orange, yellow, and white. It is clearly stratified, in some places horizontally, and in others at steep angles. Beyond this bright and rugged
forecliff is the main barranca, rising to over four hundred feet from its immediate base and nearly eight hundred feet above the take at its culminating point. It is formed by a great series of beds of volcanic ash, white or delicately tinted yellowish or pink except for a few outstanding strata that have weathered or an orange color.

This reminds me of the cliche, a picture is better that a thousand words. I have my doubts. It depends on the subject. This is one of those books, like a good movie
can be reviewed a lifetime, in my intercontinental humble opinion...Time to go.

TRANSGENETIC SEEDS UPDATE

AlcantarillaAlquimica.blogspot.com/

War of the Seeds
Monsanto Vs Farmers
by BEATO


An excellent article with references, on the subject for the
serious, curious on horticulture/agriculture/gardening
theme. Do not miss it!

GARDENING UPDATES GUERRILA GARDENING

WHEN you visit the guerrillagardening.com site, you realize that it is not
in the tropics...Actually, I am one in a small group in the blogosphere, virtual or real, practicing it regularly, at least with the adequate reports and systematic observation.

Today it rained rhinos and orcas down in Puercorico, USA. I decided to spread some Cosmos sulpherous, Merremias, Clitorias and to take advantage of the trip, the New England like light cloudy day conditions to
observe and plant a maguey, to share with lazy chair readers and gardeners alike.

The original guerrilla act with Tamarindus indica, Thevetia peruviana, Maguey and Cosmos by the train station, has survived. Only the
Thevetia looks like manure.. However, it is amazing the amount
of Cosmos that have tolerated the 15/20 days without water. I counted 65.
That means that at least 50% will bloom and self seed, before the next
municipal executioner trimmer squad make their appearance.

For this reason I decided to move the operations to the San Carlos abandoned building. There will be no trimmers. In my previous post,
I mentioned what was planted, only Cavalinna maritima, is new, planted yesterday. That is that in the guerrilla department...Imagine what you could do with two or three people with similar vision in your own country.

Good news edible/juiceable wise...The oranges in pictures, to the right of the blog were collected today...The quality of the juice has not been determined, yet. The lemons are coming along...The papayas will be ready pretty soon....But not the sweet Capsicum, apparently attacked by some virus...One of the interesting vines, a DK, with intense fragrance virtues, has departed.

As mentioned a week ago, the white flies kept coming no matter what I did. Even after I spread the secret insecticide among the Ixoras and Tecomas next door, left and right. I got sick of it. I have mentioned that
gardening should be a pleasurable activity, particularly on our free time.

I pulled out the trunk of this vine and put it in a pot, but I have not much
hope due to the woodiness of it...If it survives fine...This vine is one of those that I find in my collecting trips...Probably from Guanica, my favorite place to run away from noise, cellular in hand chatting foolishly natives and imported Dominicans, in the island of concrete/asphalt: Puercorico USA. Time to go.

GARDENING GUERRILLA VERSUS SHITTY GRAFFITI

PERHAPS a month ago, down by my new guerrilla theater, the former San Carlos Hospital at the end of Bouret St. and Ponce de Leon Avenue, one graffiti high school drop out 'artist' uprooted a Tabebuia. Some species are beautiful, not one of my favorites since they self seed all over the place in any crack. My anger was intense since I could not figure out, why would any one do such a thing.

I kept wondering. The next day I went to check how the Pithelobium, Cosmos, Pumpkin, Merremia, Clitorias seeds, planted the week before were doing and voila, looking at the wall I discovered it... The drop out pulled
out the one year old because it got in the way of his GRAFFITI.

That ancient way of leaving one's trace has always been something silly,
adequate for adolescent minds refusing to become adults with all the virtues and defects it takes. In my critical eyes.

Have you dear reader developed any criteria about this subject? IN every imaginable ghetto in any part of the world New York, LA, Paris, London
the fonts are similar, the tags marking territory as animals do with urine.
When I see graffiti in Puerco Rico, what I see behind, what I imagine behind those often immigrant/illegals minds is revenge at the rejection
they certainly receive, perceive. The bigger the font/lettering the greater
the frustration.

Screw them. Only when I see on television ART, with graffiti, you know
composition, focus, perspective I appreciate the ART within..TAGS are
the work of the feeble minded and drop outs. By the way, those spray cans cost $10.00, they deface any wall in abandoned buildings or those
with their usual residents. Some really illiterate use sixteen inch wide
paint rollers to tag their nicks in TWO colors... And some fools think,
write, talk about graffiti as ART. As if art is anything that any retarded
outcast paints on the wall of his arbitrary predilection.

The jerks into graffiti should convert into Guerrilla Gardening. It is less
expensive. Last longer, you may get real beauty with plants, trees, vines and or edibles. This eliminates that feeling of hostility and anger, frustration, that shitty graffiti from underdeveloped minds in Puerco Rico create.

It is pathetic that government agencies allow graffiti as the ones described
here to become visible on its properties. It provides an anything goes vision on these sick minds. If they can do it, anyone can....on any surface...

Moons ago, during the sixties, a graffiti/mural fever covered the whole island with TAINO motives. Some people here think/believe that WE are TAINOS, Ricardo Alegria and company, the Cultural Institute of Puerto Rico, even though they
disappeared shortly after the arrival of Spain, the Mother Country. Even if I think that was also shitty, a fad...That was art, even if did/do not like it. Done by recognized artists. There was theme, perspective, focus, composition, no ghetto territory marks tags. Screw them again!

Graffiti is visual pollution, repetitious and hostile. It is my perception. Gardening guerrilla is useful in many ways, even
when most people do not really see/perceive/care about vegetation, it
creates, instead of destroying. Time to go...

THE WORLD IS A GHETTO

THAT IS THE tittle of a song by WAR, a group with a short life span from CA, moons ago. Nice music to smoke a joint or to have a scotch with/without a chaser.
The term has a few definitions. You pick. I mean a state of mind fossil like, always the same, blindfolded. Evidence that history, the study of it, is a waste of time since every
mistake I can think of, has been repeated all over the world regarding any possible issue, problem, difficulty. It goes beyond air, water, soil.. for now I will stick to insects.
However, the simplicity of understanding the WHOLE, does not require a rocket science education. That is what irritates me. It keeps yours truly in a constant cranky philosophical attitude, seldom mitigated. Stupidity rules!

FROM
Bugs Of The World
by George C. McGavin
Cassell plc, London
pages 180-181

PLANT FEEDERS

The world's human food production is based on a mere handful of plant species.
Many are grasses, grown in vast uniform stands, (monocultures) and, in developed
countries, largely sustained through the use of huge quantities of fertilizers and pesticides. The domestication and improvement of these species has in many cases
led to their becoming a better nutritional resource (for both human and insects), but
with fewer chemical and physical defences against herbivores. Monocultures contain far fewer beneficial insect species, which might control the number of pests, than are present in more complex habitat.

Phytophagous insects in general and many bug species in particular are superbly suited to using these crops as food plants Many bug species only became pests when
their preferred food plant suddenly became abundant, and many others have switched from wild plant species to cultivated ones. On account of their phenomenal
reproductive powers, pest like aphids and scale insects can adapt very quickly to take advantage of new opportunities and develop resistance to man-made insecticides. It is therefore not surprising that nearly one fifth of the world's crop production is eaten by insects.

In the Hemiptera, all the sterrnorrhynchan superfamilies, the Psylloidea, Aleyrodoidea, Adelgoidea, Aphidoidea and Coccoidea, contain notable plant
damaging species. While the worldwide economic damage and losses that plant
feeding bugs can cause is immense, the vast majority of species are not pests. Of the several hundred of aphid, probably no more than 150 are notorious crop pests. Similarly, of the 2,500 known species of armoured scale insects (Diaspididae) in
the world, fewer than 150 are of economic significance and of these perhaps fewer
than 50 could be called serious pests.

That being written you may take a look at your garden/indoor plants and see if the insect families causing most of the problems in your installation are mentioned above. That proves
my contention about gardens with common place nursery offerings, palms and hedges. YOU
will have to deal with similar problems.

This will bring your humble servant to the following issue. Trans genetics....They were created by the friendly people of Monsanto and five/six other kind scientists, thinking not on PROFITS, but our well being.

The story was to implant resistant genes to specific diseases from lets say, peppers,
to tomatoes. But the real intention is to destroy the seed banks that generations of
farmers around the world had kept within their families, to impose/sell/license seeds
of whatever one can think of. Destroying in the process the independence these
traditional farmers had, with their own seeds, resistant to their particular soil/climate/temperature conditions.

Think of corn, rice, wheat whatever, the intention is the same. To destroy the farmer ways to SELL, theirs. One should present, discuss this stupidity, scam, rip off at all times.

Now if you are the kind of UH-AH gardener, digging the whole, placing something in it to admire a flower later, do not worry.... It does not concern you.

However, if you really want to kick some ass in any spot with words/example, plants,
or practice, put in place wise gardening habits. Not being a fool,when your environment is saturated with that type of people, learning to differentiate the minds behind it, will offer occasional relief, satisfaction.

When you make a little effort, you take little baby steps in that direction. Jaha bilingual laugh. Time to go....

STRICTLY GARDENING

YESTERDAY was turning the compost pile day. If I did not mention it, lets do it now. I keep mine in one of those ugly common big orange plastic pots that hold a hundred/two hundred pounds, and most people use to plant big creatures. The pile is composed of shredded newspapers, dry/green leaves from the garden, some dog poop, hair, coffee grounds,
onion/garlic skins, recycled soil from other pots and sandy soil from the garden.

I noticed the color is turning dark brown, enough earth worms, and some minuscule insects that move pretty quick. The smell is not sour, meaning
a good balance of the parts. If your pile is too wet it will smell of sulphur or mangrove like. If it is to dry/hot, most living creatures will pass away.

For the last week or so I have noticed dreaded white flies on the Calliandra, Murraya and a DK vine. I had killed most with my secret concoction (antigonum's hot sauce and uncolored dish soup), yet every
morning I kept watching them flying away from my water spray.

I was getting irritated. Decided to monitor around the abandoned house to our right, and the house where the vampires live in our left. There they
were, the culprits, tens of them hanging in beautiful Tecoma stans. I gave them the bitter/hot medicine and moved up the street...What did I find
on the hated Ixoras? Hundreds of the same....I gave them what they deserved using the whole bottle between the two raids.

Moral of the story. Tecomas and Ixoras are prone to have this pest. If you have either one planted in the wrong situation, be ready to spend the rest
of your life in that silly activity, killing the enemy.

Most of the problems in the garden, with over 120 species, are always the same, the one mentioned, snails, brown beetles and two odd looking and
rare specimens mentioned in the past. Damage by biting, chewing is never, in my view, as bad as the sticky infestations of sap sucking ones.

If you do not catch the criminal in the act, the chewing/biting kind will
be invisible..The damage is not aesthetically nice, but still it does not bother me as much. It is no accident that in a wider scheme of things that could go wrong, mine are really a few and never chronic.

It is simple. When the gardener keeps different species around, it is difficult that insects/pests will jump to vegetation relatives. Example
there are some roses that keep some insects during a part of their life
cycle at home, when the time is right the insects move to the orchard,
to the apple trees and there goes, your apple pie, if you do not stop
them in a timely manner...The problem is solved planting resistant roses/apples.

Finally, I made some compost tea. Will not get into it. If you go
to the web and research, you will see why. At any rate, I gave of that nectar to roots, and foliage. Everybody happy as a clam. If that is possible. Later, I planted six seeds of Mirabilis siciliana, a nice small
plant with bright fragrant flowers.

The garden requires stamina and planning. Some activities can be postponed, insects....never...and that is that...Time to go.

THAT'S ALL FOLKS

JUST finished watching on rtv.es, El Escarabajo Verde, 'Cabo Polonio, El Ultimo Refugio', down there in the south of America. Sea wolves, whales, and such, not much
else, except some fishing, little water, some tourism, nice/picturesque scenes you know, the ocean/sand kind, no electricity/water, sewage treatment or septic tanks, as always not mentioned.

THAT, explains the tittle. For some time I have shared my views, often odd, even, contradictory, abrasive, irrational, angry, blunt about many different issues, things affecting my life, the virtual/the real. This documentary presents as most of the time,
with most environment documentaries from SPAIN, the sad pathetic reality, reproduced in any confinement of the world one can think of.

PEOPLE without understanding the forces, principles that rule NATURE. I can not see why any reasonable person, without any schooling or with lots, would insist on living in such a precarious environment where there is NOTHING, to survive except for the tourist season.

The fishermen blame the sea wolves for their little fishing. Having to go further in the ocean to catch whatever. It is the 'enemy' according to the stupid looking fellow interviewed. In the past they used to kill the sea wolves, hacking them on the head for their skin/oil, something done until recently, up in the north.

People building illegal houses, made out of wood in just eight hours at night, are spreading like spores, to have a place to enjoy the summer time....

Meanwhile the GALAPAGOS are going the exact or worse way, since they have more
tourists and ten times that population. In brief, all the words said written or spoken
to save the earth, particularly the GLOBAL WARMING CULT, is a LOT of HOGWASH.

People are destroying everything in sight. In the water, fishing all they can no matter what. On the ground, burning destroying forests to cultivate for 3 years, moving to the
next plot..Polluting/destroying both. People procreating as rabbits. This madness is on an individual, group or multinational mode, everywhere you can think of...

IN consequence all discussion to save the EARTH, is a bunch of crap. I do not see any
hope, real, reasonable, plausible hope...All is left is the silly, irritating one: FAITH.
Time to go....

WHAT THE WORLD NEEDS NOW IS LOVE

COULD you think, remember anything more stupid to say, or write? Tina Turner would reply: "What's love got to do with it"? When I herd on BBC, that Dubai will pay 60 cents to the dollar, I thought that is that for speculators, bankers, securities, insurance and such. Well deserved...

On the other hand, Jakarta twenty years ago comes back to mind, and closer to home,
Puercorico, USA. When I walk (something less and less fun) as the graffiti, abandoned buildings, posted bills on every possible wall with the next concert, commercial and private residences, foreclosured ones, garbage, highway/roads, streets moonscapes full of filled up uneven craters spreading as kudzu dominate the URBAN scenery, it is hard to be focused. UGLINESS RULES!

However when you read the everyday, getting worse shitty newspapers, it seems that only CRIME, worries the editors and staff. What is the big deal if less than a thousand islanders kill each other annually? After all, in South Africa the murder rate per 100,000 is 31.7, Central America 29.3,
West/Central Africa 25.9 and the Caribbean 18.1. According to Wikipedia. Therefore is a world trend, we are not special, that no ONE, is going to stop, JERKS.

So, I would suggest to stop taking the numbers out of context, publishing it in the first pages as they were from the Football Champions League in Europe. People kill themselves or the other for passion, madness, or drug trafficking. Why would anyone think that it is possible to reduce such statistics with more police or National Guards in the streets...If one is going to kill without possibility of remorse, one just waits.. If the geniuses in TV and Printed Media want
to do something original, place a ranking as it is done in sports...I believe Jamaica got the gold
medal.

Changing the subject, I declare some irritability at some blogs with the easy way out tendency
to publish photos of snow in the prairie, roof, on branches, icicles as if it is really something beautiful ALWAYS. For your humble servant there is no point..What would be the difference if living in the dessert, one would shoot SAND? With photos of sand in shoes, sandals, rug, by the windows, yard.... What is the difference? Even worst, why so many
people in cold places go and post about the same thing? Cold and SNOW. I am sick of it.

THEN what? Then is spring, the beauty and blooms.... Wonders the reader from FAR away lands..Which reminds me...all those new countries in the former Soviet Paper Tiger Empire, with the AKINOSTAN, ALLINOSTAN, ACANOSTAN, similar names are thinking? Just saw a documentary on the ancient SILK trade routes and saw for the first time, those immense, flat, devoid of trees lands without much beauty...It seems that some are Muslims and others are not...Enough reason to kill each other for worth less lands, moving the frontier line here or there..Why not get together to raise the cows/sheep, plant somethings to eat. COOPERATE,
have they heard of the European Community? How much stupidity is unbearable.

If anyone thinks what is wrong with our islander hero? Is he taking acid? NO my fellow intercontinental friends/foes, I am just sick of world stupidity and the insular, closer to home...
What about Venezuela, with all that oil, with electricity cuts, no water, no milk, nothing and getting worse..At least they elected their own Attila.. Following that train of thought, what is the big deal if Cuba has a Fidel Castro not elected, Mugabe is still down there, Chavez not far from here? The results are exactly, or almost the same, for the population in general.

Moving to the garden after this rant. The Pithelobium dulce was taken out of the pot
to reduce in one fifth the bottom root system. It is in a 18" by 20" plastic pot, measuring 6'. About two years old, planted from seed. Did not show much
stress after the radical surgery.

The Cyperus went into a deeper pot, a ten gallon. The Pandanus went the oppossite,
into a five. Some weeding activity was performed to allow the Cosmos more sun,
hidden from the Chinese violets..Two dwarfs Sanseverias and Rhoeo spathacea
are now keeping company to the Bouganvillea shown in some pictures to the right.
Now is time to go..