Mendocino County is fucked. A good girlfriend of mine lives up there and has yet to be evacuated. Folk in her area have been cautioned to stay indoors whenever possible.
I caught a snippet on public radio detailing the efforts of a group of Australian firefighters who were recently sent to Idaho for training before being deployed to California and Oregon to fight blazes. Thank goodness for them.
Last weekend, I volunteered at the Conservatory. During my pre-shift perusal, I discovered these interesting-smelling orchids. The one above smelled sweetly of baby powder. A guest described it as smelling like 'grandma's perfume'.
The yellow-orange blossom (--->) smelled sort of like cheese that had gone off. -very pungent & sort of a wee nose assault. One visitor said it smelled of cat pee. As you can imagine, it wasn't very nice. To visitors who seemed up for it, I would ask if they wanted to sniff an orchid that STINKS & then usher them over. It was fun to watch their reactions.
It amazes me how many people will sniff something when you tell them it stinks. I guess they don't believe you?
ReplyDeleteThe fires are awful. Again. It seems like these things have become an annual occurance. Not good.
Yeah, and, of course, it's not just here up north. It's down in your area & in other states. The new normal sux.
DeleteSome visitors missed seeing/smelling the corpse flower that just bloomed, so one kid really, really wanted to smell something on the continuum of super stinky. :)
Sadly our firefighters are practised. We have horrendous fires each and every year, too many of them deliberately lit.
ReplyDeleteCat pee? I get more than enough of that at home.
Love those blooms though. And when my cymbidium blooms in a few months I will assuredly be sticking my snout in it. I will let you know if I regret it.
We are lucky to have your firefighters over here! Interestingly, the training consisted mainly of understanding terminology. We share words, but often they have divergent meanings. A misunderstanding in meaning could, of course, be deadly.
DeleteI await your bloom report in a few months' time.
The fires are shocking - Firefighters from here in New Zealand are now helping.
ReplyDeleteOh, how wonderful, Susan. We are lucky to have your firefighters as well!
DeleteI consider myself lucky that we don't have these enormous fires in our country. They are horrible and seem like to be getting worse every year, don't they? The same in the South of Europe, especially in the holiday-areas. Many of them lit or by ignorance of the public. How awful and sad.
ReplyDeleteAbout the flowers: no matter how nice the flower, if it stinks I dislike it. For me no lilies in our living room, their smell is so penetrating! Besides that I think they are funeral flowers.
ignorance must be negligence of course
DeleteLilies can certainly have a pungent aroma!
DeleteWhen I was a kid, wildfires in No. California were a rarity. They are now the norm. I'm glad you don't have them in the Netherlands as well. Of course, you probably have to contend with more floods than we do...?
Strange how stinking cheese can taste so good. Maybe it's the same with whatever insect that visits that orchid.
ReplyDeleteI love a good, stinky cheese. Your Stinking Bishop is divine. This aroma, however, put even me off.
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