Category: Certainties

Virginia Creeper

I better get this down. You know, before I forget. Sounds scary. The creeper from Virginia. Creeps around. Creeps me out. Not exactly. It’s just a plant, a climbing vine that swallows buildings. Nothing to worry about here.

It’s amazing the things you learn from people who know more than you.  I mean about Virginia Creeper and a whole lot of other stuff.  Like how Viginia Creeper is what grows on the Sylvia Hotel.  Oh yeah.  That stuff.

DSCN0253Ouch.  The Sylvia.  Ran up some horrendous bar tabs in that place.  All in the past.  All in the past….

So now, of course, September’s here and the creeper’s turning red.  It’s the chlorophyll, guys.  The chlorophyll.  It’s over.  Finished.

These leaves have fuzzy backsides.  That just sounds wrong, but it’s true.  Feel the back of one of these leaves and it feels fuzzy or velvety.  Anyway, ladies, it’s got texture.  And texture is something to be coveted.

I don’t expect anybody to understand that this blog is not about plants.  I get that way myself sometimes.  What this blog is not about is dogs.  Those dogs.  What this blog is about is art and creativity by the last person who would know.  And sometimes plants.  I just want to make sure I stay on the same page here.

DSCN0255Parthenocissus inserta.  What this plant is, is reliable.  Reliably green in spring and summer turning reliably red and orange in the fall.  That’s from the Sunset Western Garden Book.  I know.  It isn’t officially fall yet.  It’s okay.

Virginia Creeper courtesy CS Nicol

 

 

Snapdragon Pink

Who invents this stuff?  You look up and here it is, growing in a pot suspended on a hook.  Impossibly pink flowers.  I mean you played with snapdragons when you were a kid, right?  You grasp the flower by your thumb and forefinger and squeeze a little and there’s the dragon’s mouth.  Open wide.  I didn’t.  But I could have.

IMAG1378

But not pink.  Not this impossibly perfect pink.  It’s a medium pink, almost creamy.  It’s not a dusky pink or a hot pink.  It’s not “Pink”.  It goes pink.  Antirrhinum majus.  “By pinching sides of flower lightly, you can make jaws snap open.”  I never.  It might have jaws but it’s got no teeth.  Nor does it go “snap”.  It’s dead quiet, ladies.  So what is it?  Where do these names come from?  Snapdragon snapdragon.

IMAG1388These are modified snapdragons.  They’re so modified they’re not even snapdragons.  You know.  These people again.  Ipomoea carnea.  They’re pink, but of a vastly different hue than the snapdragons.  It’s true.  These images were taken within seconds of each other in what you might call “flat” lighting conditions.  It’s a whole different pink.  Come on now.

I wouldn’t know anything about that.  And then, just before we decide we’re winding this thing up, some Azalea starts producing it’s own brand of pink flowers.  It’s hard.  Azaleas. We didn’t know.

 

 

 

Belhaven Black Scottish Stout Draught

Lousy Beer Can Image
Lousy Beer Can Image

It’s amazing the things you can unearth on the most miniscule of research budgets.  What you have to do is show initiative.  Together we can kick heck out of this thing.

Social Media was on fire last week with our beer commercial.  Crazy on fire.  Pretty gratifying when you think about it.

This is certainly an inky black stout if e’re there was.  And from some place called Scotland.  Has anybody checked that Scotland actually exists?  It’s up there somewhere east of here.  I’m kidding, right?  I’ve been to Midlothian, which is just west of East Lothian, from whence this beer hails.  Some place called Dunbar.

Not that Dunbar.  I think it should be “Lousy Image Beer Can”.

I’ve even read “Heart of Midlothian” by Sir Walter Scott and you won’t find anyone else on this blog making that claim.  I read part of it while flying into Midlothian.  Scott didn’t write one called “Heart of East Lothian” which pretty much puts an end to that idea.

Hail yeah, it’s smoky and furnacy.  It’s like six shifts in a coal mine.Belhaven Black

It’s black all right.  Black as night.  Black as Edward, the Black Prince.  Black as a black cat cross my path.  This stuff is dark.  It’s tasty.  It’s different and you like things that are different.

It’s a lighter, draughtier version of Belhaven’s Black Scottish Stout which tips the scales at a healthy 7% ABV.  This stuff’s 4.2.  They added some lightness.

IMAG1326That’s it for experiments in beer.  Please have a safe and prosperous dog days of summer.  I’ve never actually understood the meaning of that expression.  I guess we’re all lying around like hot dogs waiting for some rain.  Is that it?  No.