My husband never fails to mention the fact that shrimp and other seafood are nothing but bottom feeders, eating things we don't want to think about! He always lets me know that if the shrimp isn't deveined, I'm eating its poop. As long as it's cooked, I enjoy most fish and seafood... although, mercury levels keep me from eating too much these days. The fish oil caplets I take are purified to remove mercury and other chemicals. Every once in a while, I get an odd craving for liver and onions... liver and bacon is good, too... I believe it's my body letting me know that I need more iron. Most food cravings can be traced to the body's need for whatever vitamin or mineral that food contains. That's exactly how my husband describes liver... it filters the blood and is not unlike a car's filter system... but we wouldn't eat that! Brains, I've never tried... tripe, I don't like... tongue, it's ok but I've never had a decently cooked piece! And, I'm not sure I could eat worms or some of the other things considered regular fare or delicacies in other countries. When I lived on the dairy farm as a youth, we bought around 6 feeder pigs every year. Those pigs would eat up all the leftover and spoiled grains, the leftover milk from the pipeline, the pitched produce from the local grocery... we fed them out and had them butchered for Christmas gifts each year. We had a neighbor that would come by and beg for the heads of those pigs... to make head cheese with! I found that to be most disturbing at the time, and still find the thought of head cheese to be rather disgusting! Seeing and learning first hand where some of our foods come from is rather eye-opening... but eating it fresh is so much better than buying it and eating it after it has been processed and preserved and pumped full of water and chemicals and dyes! It's interesting to find out what others prefer or dislike in the "strange foods" department! I'll try almost anything once... but if it's not cooked well, it sort of turns me off to eating it a second time.

I like these postings, gives me a chance to see what should be blooming in my collection or what I can add to it for blooms now. I have the smallest number of plants blooming in Aug., many nobile den. in my collection. I'm suprised that Brasavola nudosa is booming now, I have a huge plant, 40"+ across plant that blooms profusely in once a year Dec/Jan. Is this a second bloom for yours or just a different cycle? All of my Brassias except Edvah Loo have bloomed this summer , when should it bloom? I have a large plant that has never bloomed. It is now outside in a flower or fry sun spot. In bloom: DEN. BRACTEOSUM (white) two flower clusters, 11, 13 flowers MTSSA KALEAPAA 5 spikes,1flower open, 4.8" tall (big!) BL. RICHARD MEULLER 2 spikes, 5 flowers, 1st bloom for me COL.WILDCAT'CARMELA'1spike 40"tall, 43 flowers, 2.3" each BRS. SUNRISE GOLD "ALOHA GOLD"2 spikes, 13 flowers, 14" each DEN.ALEXANDER XANDREA MILLER has been in bloom all of 07, 35 flowers now PHAL. PICOTEE bought in bloom 1/07, still blooming. In spike: ONC. TSIKU MARGURITE (twinkle type) 8 spikes ODCDM. TIGER NIGHT 'GOLDEN GATE' 1 yard tall spike, 19+ buds ONC. ROSE TWINKLE 2 spikes. Just finished last bloom1mo.ago PHAL.NOID

It is the easiest orchid to grow, considering it grows in soil. You dont HAVE to pull off the babies, you can leave them on the main plant and you end up with a much bigger plant and more flower spikes in one place. They will also bloom faster if not separated from the mother plant,it can draw nutrients from it. They are not fert. pigs. I splash some plain ol' 20-20-20 Miracle Grow on mine when I think of it, a few times a year, and I have an array of colors in my yard from mine. sun,a bit of food, and let them climb up something, and your set:).

Still waiting for fruit from my tree. I've had it in the ground for about five or six years now, but it is quite tall:Right now it is functioning mainly to help hold up branches of an epidendrum (photos taken last April). I'm lucky to have a tree grow in this spot of my back yard, as it has poor drainage and a lot of plants will drown. It does drop leaves, but only very slowly, and it's hard to tell when it is going dormant, as it has new leaves while the old ones are dropping. It is susceptible to insect pests, which look like black dirt on the undersides of leaves in the fall, but new leaves do not get pests so easily and stay clean until fall. I am wondering if the nursery sold me a bogus tree. I got it as the San Gabriel nursery, and the Cherimoya tree I bought there has done quite well, but I've kept that tree in a whiskey barrel planter, although eventually I plant to put that in the ground, once I think it has enough roots. I do not think the sapote would do well in a pot, considering its size.