Dreams

I had the most vivid dream this morning. I think it came after I woke up at 3am to pee.

It felt so real. It first started off as a conversation with a visitor friend from Singapore. He was asking me to take him to the airport or something.

I think my mind was trying to work out the angst of dealing with this visitor who in real life stayed at my place til past 3am for three nights.

The 2nd phase of the dream was for me much more intriguing.

I was on a high top of a building. And I saw this naked woman running towards me. She had auburn hair and very nice breasts. It was Fiona from Maldives 2010 dive. This might have been a way of my mind to process a bizarre scene I saw at Chelsea Beach - there was this sunbather who was spread eagle topless. She wasn't pretty or anything but she and her friend were fairly brazen.

Anyhow my friend Fiona in the dream was hawt. Apparently she had been conned and the thieves had taken her clothes after drugging her. I bought some clothes for her but at the back of my mind I was worried in the dream that she had been raped and may have contracted HIV.

Strange dream but a good one.

Ranunculus Flowers

My order from Garden Express arrived today. I purchased 1250 ranunculi  corms (bulbs) for $193.

 http://www.gardenexpress.com.au/ranunculi-mixed-planting-stock/

I love raunculus flowers. Absolutely love them. They come in a rainbow spectrum of colors and shades and because they are relatively cheap- you can plant them en masse.

The effect is stunning to behold.

The problem is that if I plant them straight into the ground now (in January to March) here in my Melbourne garden, most of them will only spring up after Winter - in September, October and flower in November- which in effect means that they will only get one month before they start wilting in our hot Spring sun.

The raunculies need a cold start - 4 to 8 weeks of cold weather - to shake them out of their slumber. That's why they will only spring up after  June.

But there is way to trick them.

What you have to do is to place them in the fridge (not freezer) for 4 to 8 weeks before planting them in mid-February. The NZ website advises 4 weeks. The US site recommends 6 - 8 weeks.

If I can recall correctly, we left our batch in the fridge for one month
The plants will be fooled into thinking that winter has come and gone and that Spring is now in season. They will start growing and in 10 - 12 weeks-  flower in May, June.

The ranunculus being a Mediterranean spring flowering plants will tolerate our Winters easily - so long as they don't get frost. They tend to die back in our warm Spring when the weather gets hot and will not tolerate temperatures of 26C+.

I'm going to try and jump the gun and start planting them in mid-Feb so that I can have a longer flowering period. I have done this before successfully - but iirc I planted them in March.

Place them in an area which receives full sun and has good drainage - like a slope or a raised garden bed. Like most bulbs, they do not tolerate soggy ground.

They require to be planted about 4cm into the ground about a thumb length size down.

Fertilized them to help them flower. Add all purpose fertilizer when you plant and supplement it with half strength fertilizer every two weeks thereafter. I like to use a spray on liquid seaweed fertilizer. Its easier.

The reward is that while everyone else's garden is gloomy and grey, my garden will be bursting with color. How fantastic would that be???!!!

You should also cut the flowers for display indoors. Apparently they seem to like it and will produce more flowers.


If you don't wish to place them in the fridge you can still plant them in March to May - the problem is that the plants will start flowering in late Spring, early Summer October/Nov. And the plant will start wilting in November when the Australian weather starts warming up (if not earlier).


This is a photo taken back in 2002. The ranunculus flowers make an exceptional mass display.

If you intend to keep the ranunculus bulbs, stop watering them in mid-Summer. For best results, pull them out of the ground and store them in a dry and cool place.

They can be delicate to grow outside: a wet, windy spring will damage flowers badly, while hot, dry conditions will cause foliage to yellow prematurely and restrict flowering.


You might like to read through some of the literature regarding ranunculi but you have to remember that their tips are more applicable for people in America and England.

http://www.easytogrowbulbs.com/g-21-ranunculus.aspx

http://www.aorangi.co.nz/FactSheets/FactSheet6.htm

 http://www.ehow.com/how_6381824_plant-ranunculus-spring.html


http://www.buzzle.com/articles/ranunculus-flowers-season.html


You can also save the seeds of the ranunculus for planting. I did that once but unfortunately I made the mistake of covering them with a top layer of topsoil. Apparently its best to place them on top of the sawdust mulch and water them in.

http://www.ehow.com/how_5114455_grow-ranunculus-seeds.html

Abalone Diving

Every Summer when the weather gets a warmer in Victoria we go diving for abalone. And spear fishing too. Our favorite spot is Back Beach 16 in Rye. Its near the entrance in the Port Philip Bay area - plenty of rock pools, mini bays, and kelp forests - and the water is pretty clean here. This part of the coast faces the Bass Strait. Swim out and if you don't bump into Tasmania you'll end up in the South Pole not long after. The water temp is still pretty chilly 13C - 18C because of this.

 

We found this beach - Dimmicks Beach - off Pearse Road, not far from our usual hangout. Its got sandstone reef flats that extend 50m out to the open sea like a big submerged tabletop. As the tide is receding you can see the sandstone reef flats being exposed by the riptide. The conjunction of tidal surf in the dropoff causes whirlpools and massive swells.

But Rye Beach 16 is still a very nice beach.

The Park Rangers and Marine Park Inspectors are very enthusiastic about their job. Each time that we go, morning, noon and night, we've been checked out by the inspectors each time we come back to the carpark. I suspect that a neighborhood coastal watchdog service monitors all the Asian men divers who go to the area. The fine for illegal catches is $10,000 and confiscation of your means of transportation.

Descent 2

Alone in a sea of strangers
Trawling through the babel of voices
I feel confusion
I feel dread
A rising tide of madness confronts me

Then I descend to the depths
And the black beast does not follow
I hear my breath
In the stillness of the ocean womb
I feel my senses align
Alone in the depths

Down in the deep depths
I find the solace I seek
In this silent world
So alien to humanity
I am at peace.

Gardening early Summer November - December 2011

So far the garden has had a good start to Summer. Plenty of Rain (for Melbourne) and plenty of sunshine.

Unfortunately plenty of weeds - but 100 hours of weeding and spraying work + 2 cubic metres of mulch will help cure that. Did I tell you I generally loathe weeding? But its a bit like doing your tax. You hate it but you still have to do it, unless you're like me - which reminds me to send a card to my accountant who has practically given up hope on me.

Anyway, screw all the bad vibes. I'll show you some of the gardening photos I've taken this month-  the roses, agapanthus are doing very well this season. The rose flowers are getting mildew, blackspot, and a possible botyeris infection. I blame the hot humid wet conditions.

I've only got one rosemary bush in my garden. I decided to propagate it. Stick the cuttings in a glass bottle with water and wait til the roots appear before transplanting it. Its that easy! I did the same for my Lavender except they all went into the potting mix pot instead of the glass bottle and now I have about 20+ plants. I did not use any root chemicals. Although they say that dipping the end bits into honey is suppose to help produce roots faster.

I make no apologies for liking beautiful things. Even the humble box art cover of a box of sea salt. I like it!
We're surrounded by so many vile things - so to compensate, you should have beautiful objects and things.

 I collect Noritake porcelain. Its beautiful, inexpensive and very good quality.

Spare time reading

For kicks I like to read academic articles. Now, I don't claim to have read them fully, sometimes skimming through them or cherry-picking parts I like. One of the subjects that interests me is the interpretations and re-interpretations of the absolutely appalling history of Kampuchea (Cambodia) and how other readers see the whole affair too.

I was very bemused when Noam Chomsky, who was a great defender of Pol Pot's regime, was awarded the Sydney Peace Prize of 2011. I mean, what has he done to deserve it? And can someone who is living in a free liberal democratic nation be called "courageous" for criticizing the government? Its ridiculous. They should have given the prize to someone whose very life was endangered by speaking out against corruption and crimes against humanity.

When I look at lefties, they seem stuck in a protest mindset at the height of the Vietnam War. ie. US Govt evil. Lefty Govt good. But that's just me, because I'm a liberal conservative.

And so Noam comes up with this line- written in 1977 when the world, even the Reader's Digest, was well aware of the atrocities going on in Cambodia.

The "slaughter" by the Khmer Rouge is a Moss-New York Times creation. Noam Chomsky
http://www.chomsky.info/articles/19770625.htm

He says this because - the evidence is coming from Western Media and the US Govt - so by default, such claims are "a completely worthless source".

The whole thing becomes rather infantile. Instead of meaningful dialogue - it becomes a case of us and them. A sort of "(insert Country name) bomb" game.

"India bomb, India bomb, India bomb to Pakistan bomb"
"Pakistan bomb, Pakistan bomb, Pakistan bomb to England bomb"
"England bomb, England bomb, England bomb to..."

What I find perplexing... and paradoxically enlightening in my understanding of how humans behave, is the way Noam Chomsky chooses to deny he ever supported Pol Pot's evil regime and instead chooses to do some serious mental yoga moves to rewrite history. It would have gained him the respect of many people if he had simply come out, admitted he made an error in judgement instead of trying to rewrite or re-interpret his earlier stance on Pol Pot's regime.

I guess the moral of the whole story is that very smart people can be incredibly petty, proud, and incapable of seeing their own flaw even if it bit them in their ass. And sometimes, when you hate something long enough, you end up becoming like it. You become what you hate.

Anyway, here are some articles which I've been reading on the whole subject.

I see it as an education in rhectoric - ways of arguing etc.. and you get gems like this by Bruce Sharp:

Bruce Sharp, "Curiously, he never gets around to explaining precisely what he thinks is "dishonest." (Generally, I believe it is customary to cite something that is actually false when you accuse someone of lying.)"

Bruce Sharp: "I find myself rather underwhelmed by the accuracy of Professor Chomsky, a man who is surely one of the world's most renowned scholars. There is something vaguely amusing about being called "dishonest" by a man of the Professor's stature... particularly when he admits that he didn't actually read what I wrote, and neglects to explain exactly what I said that he finds dishonest."

http://www.chomsky.info/articles/19770625.htm

http://www.travelbrochuregraphics.com/extra/hypocrisy_of_noam_chomsky.htm

http://www.abc.net.au/unleashed/2779086.html

http://www.mekong.net/cambodia/chomsky.htm

http://slackbastard.anarchobase.com/?p=12441

http://www.chomsky.info/onchomsky/1985----.htm

http://shirazsocialist.wordpress.com/2010/01/18/noam-chomsky-and-pol-pot-my-enemys-enemy/

http://www.mekong.net/cambodia/reply_to_chomsky.htm

http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2010/jan/10/malcolm-caldwell-pol-pot-murder

http://www.city-journal.org/html/12_3_urbanities-americas_dumbe.html

Weeding

Just spent a good  hours weeding away in my garden - I'm totally buggered. I got have 2 cubic metres of mulch I need to pour onto the flower beds to prevent the weeds from coming up.

Of course it won't prevent ALL of them from coming up. Some will still manage to break through. But the impact of the mulch will kill a lot of the weeds and also make it easier for me to pull the shoots when they poke their heads out of the ground.

To do it right you also need to place wet soggy newspaper underneath the mulch - on top of the weeds, top soil. But I don't buy newspapers and the local library is being run by an old bitch who refuses to pass me any of the old newspapers - which is all placed into their secured paper waste bin. Argh, I'm not going to sell the  papers you stupid woman. I'd make more money pulling the tyres off your car and flogging them off. Geez.

Anyway, I buy my mulch from Col Smith. 1 cubic metre cost about $65. I buy a mix of two types. Eucy and something called Finebark - so 2 cubic metres, roughly one truck load. Its a good combo. The birds have a problem trying to dig at it. Total cost is $140 including delivery. Its a do-able amount for me.

What's a cubic metre? Well, pile it up and its roughly the size or volume of an office desk.

Placing it on the garden bed gives me a bit of respite. The weeds will eventually poke through in 3 weeks time or so and generally they are easier to remove due to their need to push through the mulch to get to the sun.

Reading about gardening is much more easier. I find a few good links on gardening I'd thought I'd share you you.

A good way to turn your compost pile without resorting to back breaking shovelling. As you know, we're suppose to turn over the compost pile to help it disintegrate. But its tough trying to turn the bloody pile over. This guy has come up with an easier way to do that.


http://www.finegardening.com/how-to/articles/more-compost-less-work.aspx

Compost tea
 http://www.finegardening.com/how-to/articles/jury-still-out-on-compost-tea.aspx
 http://www.finegardening.com/how-to/articles/brewing-compost-tea.aspx

In my next post, I'll share more thoughts on making compost tea.