La versión en español está después de la versión en inglés.
THE GARDENERS HAVE BEEN PLANTING vertical gardens around the city. Although I find them to be beautiful to begin with, they do require a lot of maintenance and I had no confidence they would last. I’m happy to admit, the City is doing a great job caring for these great additions to the urban landscape.
The first one I noticed a while back (click here) was added to one side of the overpass separating our neighborhood from Los Pacos. Well, not only has it been beautifully maintained but it keeps growing in scope and there are new vertical gardens on both sides as well as under the overpass.
I’m not usually one to be taken in by cute, unless it involves kids or animals, but I walked by one of our nearby flower kiosks the other day to find Christmas plants that were cute and clever enough to tempt me to buy one. I did not, but you can see the snowmen in flowering groundcover immediately below.
I add almonds to my morning breakfast bowl; I also have a handful as a snack during the day. Our supermarket had the usual Spanish almonds I always buy, but I also found California almonds. I wouldn’t have bought them (I like to buy local), but the Spanish almonds were almost €8, while the California almonds were less than €5. I decided to be unusually frugal. The verdict? I should have bought local.
Fibber’s Irish Bar (click here) has moved to its new location. They did quite a nice job I think.
The plants are happy. Our African spear (click here) is sending up flower stalks filled with buds. I hope the hibiscus are also happy — to have been put out of their misery. Damned aphids.
I spoke with The Kid Brother last night and confirmed he had received my latest care package from Wegman’s supermarket. I had planned to have it delivered Monday but had trouble with the Instacart website, so I didn’t get it done until Tuesday. He said. “I got it! It was supposed to be here Monday!” I replied. “Thank You would be fine, Chief.” He laughed and said, “Don’t call me Chief!” (Perry White from the old Superman television show). I’ll count that as a “thank you.”
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LOS JARDINEROS HAN ESTADO PLANTANDO jardines verticales alrededor de la ciudad. Aunque los encuentro hermosos para empezar, requieren mucho mantenimiento y no tenía confianza en que durarían. Me complace admitir que la Ciudad está haciendo un gran trabajo al cuidar estas grandes adiciones al paisaje urbano.
El primero que noté hace un tiemp (haz clic aquí) fue agregado a un lado del paso elevado que separa nuestro vecindario de Los Pacos. Bueno, no solo se ha mantenido maravillosamente, sino que sigue creciendo en alcance y hay nuevos jardines verticales en ambos lados, así como debajo del paso elevado.
Por lo general, no soy de los que se dejan engañar por lo adorable, a menos que se trate de niños o animales, pero el otro día pasé por uno de nuestros quioscos de flores cercanos para encontrar plantas navideñas que eran lo suficientemente lindas e inteligentes como para tentarme a comprar una. No lo hice, pero puedes ver los muñecos de nieve en la cubierta vegetal en flor inmediatamente debajo.
Añado almendras a mi tazón de desayuno matutino; También tomo un puñado como refrigerio durante el día. Nuestro supermercado tenía las habituales almendras españolas que siempre compro, pero también encontré almendras de California. Yo no las hubiera comprado (me gusta comprarlas locales), pero las almendras españolas costaban casi 8 €, mientras que las almendras de California costaban menos de 5 €. Decidí ser inusualmente frugal. ¿El veredicto? Debería haber comprado local.
Fibber’s Irish Bar (haz clic aquí) se ha trasladado a su nueva ubicación. Creo que hicieron un buen trabajo.
Nuestra lanza africana (haz clic aquí) está levantando tallos de flores llenos de capullos. Las plantas están felices. Espero que los hibiscos también estén felices, de haber salido de su miseria. Malditos pulgones.
Hablé con El Hermanito anoche y confirmé que había recibido mi último paquete de atención del supermercado Wegman. Había planeado recibirlo el lunes, pero tuve problemas con el sitio web de Instacart, por lo que no lo hice hasta el martes. Él dijo. “¡Lo tengo! ¡Se suponía que estaría aquí el lunes!” Respondí. “Gracias, estaría bien, Jefe”. Él se rió y dijo: “¡No me llames jefe!” (Perry White de Superman, el antiguo programa de televisión). Lo contaré como un “gracias”.
• También se están plantando nuevos jardines a la derecha del paso elevado.
Really like those vertical garden displays…….trying to get my head around planting this time of year. lol
Almond butter is a staple in our house as well as almond ‘milk’.
Dido soaking up the sun…….oh to be a cat.
Jim:
I like almond milk in my morning oatmeal. I love watching Dudo work his way around the apartment and terrace finding each new sunny spot.
The overpass looks great. What a natural and genius way to introduce the looks of “art” into the area.
Meanwhile at the shop, we can’t get enough Christmas Catus and cyclamen and the usual fare poinsettias. Soon as they arrive, they are out the doors, and the chain supply and shiping isn’t helping things either…
I thought of Chuck and sent him off a Christmas greeting when doing my cards.
Mistress Borghese:
Thanks so much for your kindness to Chuck. I promise to get pictures of your cards when I’m there in April. Poinsettias are planted, almost like hedges, all over the City this time of year. I love that considering we can’t have them in the house with these two cats.
Beautiful plants and flowers in December — nice.
Debra:
Yeah, winter on the Mediterranean Sea isn’t half bad.
I love the vertical gardens; one of our favorite local restaurants has one and it’s beautiful.
The Christmas cutes? I am such a Scrooge that I am not taken in by such thins.
That last photo, though, melts my cold cold heart!
Bob:
Plaza Mayor has several and they’re beautiful. But there are now several others around town. So nice. And, yeah, Dudo melts my heart, too.
How much nicer it is to see vertical gardens instead of slabs of concrete. Brava to the city for trying and evidently mostly succeeding in visual improvements.
Mary:
I’m proud of and surprised by the City’s efforts in this case.
What a gorgeous addition to the landscape. Absolutely beautiful!
Carole:
We’re at the start of another several days of wind storms. Hope the vertical gardens survive.
Love your photo of Dudo — it took me a few seconds to realize he was laying on a chair seat, LOL! He looks as unimpressed with 2021 as the rest of us…
Tundra Bunny:
Yeah, 2021… 2022… makes no difference to Dudo. At least as he’s spoiled and can always find a place in the sun.
A nice surprise that the vertical gardens are doing so well. I can live without the santas in the snow. Hard to believe that Christmas is almost upon us! I don’t get into Christmas very much, although I do love a beautifully decorated tree and the yummy food.
Wilma:
We’ll be with friends again for Christmas Eve this year, which will make it nice. Other than that, just another day (12 days).
Chief is better than Shirley, eh?
Sassybear:
Chief is always better. The Kid Brother wouldn’t get the Shirley joke. Anyway, we grew up pronouncing the name as Shorely (in most cases “with a silent R,” as my mother used to say).
Fried almonds? Most of the almonds we see here in the supermarkets come from California. A quick and dirty internet search showed me that CA produces the most almonds in the world. Ten times more than Spain, which is the second largest producer. After that, Middle Eastern and North African countries round out the top ten. Blog reading is informative!
Walt the Fourth:
I often look things up after reading someone’s blog. It can be so fascinating. And sometimes I even remember what I’ve read.
The plantings look wonderful, a nice addition.
David:
It used to be, as you can imagine, a plain old concrete overpass. What a transformation.
Ohhhh, it all looks so very nice!
Judy C:
That used to be a very dull part of the week. I just had to got through the drear. Now, it’s a highlight.
I’m not sure why exactly, but those snowmen do look comfy.
Kirk:
Like I said, I’m not usually one for cute kitsch. But these charmed me.
Those vertical gardens DO look great. Maintenance is the key. We have some on a building near our flat (admittedly a more adverse climate!) and they’re all dead. Yours may hold out because you get so much more light and warmth.
Steve:
They DO get a lot of attention and replanting. It surprises me that the City has kept up on the new plantings around town for more than a year now.