|
 |
| THE BAMBOO GROVE |
| This stunningly elegant aviary is located in St. Louis, Missouri. Its owner specializes in breeding Red-fronted and Eclectus parrots. Presently, the occupants are residing indoors for the winter.
The owner of the Bamboo Grove is Garr Brown and these birds have been a passion of his for many years. He has successfully bred pairs of his birds and offers selected pairs and individuals for purchase by qualified buyers. I'm sure you have seen Red-fronteds and Eclectus featured in various pages of Bitts and Bytes from time to time. If you would like to visit Garr's website, just click here on The Bamboo Grove. Garr's telephone number is 314-578-9328 and he welcomes your interest and inquiries. By the way, Garr is my son. |
 |
| MEXICAN BREADFRUIT (Monstera deliciosa) is a creeping vine native to tropical rainforests of southern Mexico south to Colombia.
Common names include Ceriman, Swiss Cheese Plant (or just Cheese Plant), Fruit Salad Plant, Monster fruit, Monsterio Delicio, Monstereo, Mexican Breadfruit, Monstera, split-leaf philodendron, Locust and Wild Honey, Windowleaf, Delicious Monster, Balazo and Penglai Banana. This member of the Arum family is an epiphyte with aerial roots, able to grow up to 20 m high with large, leathery, glossy, heart-shaped leaves 25–90 cm long by 25–75 cm broad. Young plants have leaves that are smaller and entire with no lobes or holes, but soon produce lobed and holed leaves. Wild seedlings grow towards the darkest area they can find until they find a tree trunk, then start to grow up towards the light, creeping up the tree. It has a thick stem growing up to 20 m height and large, leathery, glossy, heart-shaped leaves 25-90 cm long by 25-75 cm broad. On young plants the leaves start out smaller and entire with no lobes or holes, but older plants soon produce lobed and holed leaves. The seedlings grow towards the darkest area they can find until they find a tree to latch onto, at which point they start to grow up towards the light, creeping up the tree. |
 |
| The fruit is up to 25 cm long and 3-4 cm diameter, looking like a green ear of maize lined with hexagonal scales. When it first flowers, the fruit contains so much oxalic acid that it is poisonous, causing immediate and painful blistering and irritation, swelling, itching, and loss of voice. It takes a year for the fruit to ripen, at which point it is safe to eat. |
 | The fruit looks like a large, long, pine cone, whose scales dry out and separate as the fruit ripens. Unripe fruit is an irritant to both the mouth and throat due to oxalic acid - they also taste terrible at this point (the fruit takes a year or so to mature and ripen).
When ripe the fruit has aromatic white pulp with a banana/custard texture and a flavor like pineapple, mango and banana.  |
 ONE HUNDRED FAMOUS VIEWS OF EDO (TOKYO) NUMBER EIGHTY-ONE |
 |
| Ushimachi, Takanawa (Takanawa Ushimachi) |
| Here we are literally on the road, peering from well below eye level across the edge of the Tokaido highway. This is the fringe of Edo, ragged and unkempt, just outside the Takanawa Gate, which marked the formal southern entrance to the city.
Cast-off objects litter the road while adding a poetic touch--if more in the spirit of a comic senryu than a refined haiku. The watermelon rinds provide a sense of the season, while the discarded straw sandal evokes a long journey that has finally ended here, at the gateway to Edo. In the distance the delicate rainbow arching through the sky over Edo Bay gives a sense of brightness and elegance that offers a pleasing contrast with the gray earthiness of the display at ground level. |
 |
 |
|
Here is the recipe, can you name this dish?
Brown roux mixed with bouillon, vinegar, mustard, and catsup, simmered until thick, then add parsley, pickles, and chopped walnuts. PASS YOUR MOUSE OVER THE QUESTION MARKS FOR THE ANSWER! |
 |
 | |||
| Huguenot-Walloon Tercentenary Issue - 1924 -- 1924 was the three hundredth anniversary of the embarkation of the ship "Nieu Nederland" from Leyden, Netherlands, carrying thirty-two families of French-speaking Protestant Walloon refugees fleeing religious persecution in Flanders, now a part of Belgium. Their landing in May is considered the founding of New Netherland, the original Dutch settlement in the New World, on Manhattan Island. This stamp was issued in conjunction with the tercentenary celebration. | |||
   | |||
  |
 |
 |
| It has been one month and three days since my little girl died. |
 |  |
 | It's one of the best-selling books ever bound between covers, but that's not what makes Margaret Mitchell's magnificent mint julep of a novel great. The ultimate, original sweeping historical romance, it follows high-spirited Scarlett O'Hara, roguish Rhett Butler and romantic, infinitely good-looking Ashley Wilkes as the world that nurtured them is swept away in the cataclysm of the Civil War. As quintessentially American as Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings is English, Gone with the Wind is a colossally readable romance novel--love stories do not come more triangular--but it's also the definitive telling of one of the basic American mythologies: the passing away, in blood and ashes, of the grand old South. |
 |
 |
 |
| Medetai (Red Sea-Bream) Ando Hiroshige |
| The more I investigate Hiroshige's life, the more I respect his personality. Amidst the degradation of character prevalent among the Ukiyoye painters of the day, he alone lived a pure and spotless life. He was quite contented with a modest and simple mode of living, maintaining an attitude akin to that observable among master artists belonging to the Nanso school.
It appears that like a true artist, he drew pictures not for the sake of pecuniary gain but solely for the sake of art. Little did he care about his scanty means of living. He was never tired of paying visits to various places far and near in all sorts of weather especially in rain or snow, day and night, not so much for the purpose of making sketches as for the enjoyment of Nature. Thus he represented in pictures without the least exaggeration or extenuation the very impressions he received from those scenes. Hiroshige may therefore well be called a poet. On the other hand he was above the common level of learning among the painters of his day. Almost all titles of his pictures were written with his own hands. He was a good composer of comic poems. Above all he was full of common sense. Some people observe that among his productions are not a few bad ones. In my opinion, however, all the first prints are each interesting in their own way. Not only that, they leave nothing to be desired in the variety of expression and in the representation of the spirit of the author. Small wonder that they are the objects of unbounded admiration by foreigners. It is patent to all that the western impressionists are in a large measure under the influence of Hiroshige. ... Minoru Uchida |
 |
| MAINE COON CAT |
 | |
 | |
| ILLINOIS The Illinois flag is a simple representation of the Great Seal of Illinois against a white background. In 1969, the General Assembly voted to add the word "ILLINOIS" under the Great Seal of the flag. The State's name was added to the flag to ensure that people not familiar with the Great Seal of Illinois would still recognize the banner. | |
 |
 |
 |
| Pencil sketching is an interesting and powerful element of design. To put it correctly, pencil sketching can be termed as "the mother of graphic arts."
The general perception about drawing pencil sketches is that it is either a part of initial training given to Fine Arts students or it's a good hobby for anyone who can draw well. What most of us don't know is that making pencil sketches is almost an inevitable part of design and a unique branch of art in itself. |
 |
 |
