The Cthulhu Orchid

[janestarz]

Today would have been the day I would have bought horseback riding supplies. Alas. The shop was closed due to vacation. NoKey and I enjoyed the beautiful weather and cycled onwards. Through Capelle we went, to the IJssel. We sat there, enjoying the sun for a while and then cycled past the edge of the town and the Hitland on the other side (square synthetic artificial recreational ""forest"" area it is). We arrived in the shady area between Capelle and Nieuwerkerk, where we found an obscure little road near the old dike. There, we stumbled upon "Orchid Breeding the Willow". A hobby gone wild. The man must be in his sixties, and had an overwhelming hobby: to breed and crossbreed and grow Orchids. His daughter hobbied on Bonsai trees. The humid greenhouses were literally filled with orchids and other plants. Bits of turf and cork were hanging from walls, sprouting short shoots of plants, sometimes with flowery tresses and flowers of less than 3mm in size.

The place was wonderful. It felt loved. And we stumbled upon a very nice variety, a blackish purple and yellow orchid, for € 12,- We carefully wrapped it and brought it home, where it now graces our table.

It's strange in what forms the beautiful plant comes.
These pictures are all really beautiful, and illustrate the many varieties of orchid there are. These names are in no way correct. Except the dracula vampira. It's actually called that. Anyway, you have the....

• Monk Orchid (Pratchett's Auditors actually popped in my head first, but soit);
  
• the Oh My God That Looks Like A Face Orchid;
  
• the Flying Faery Orchid;
  
• the Butterfly On Fire Orchid;
  
• the Er... Sandworm? Orchid;
  
• the Sneeuwklokje Orchid;
  
• the That's Just Scary Orchid;
  
• the Edelweiss Orchid;
  
• the Red-Pantsed Faery Orchid;
  
• the Dracula Vampira Orchid;
  
  Our orchid was not in the huge collection of orchid pictures on the site, but most looks like the Brassavola Nodosa, though still very different from that. We called it Cthulhu.
  
  Tonight we picked up some stuff in Puttersgat, with Ragar, and then drove to Barendrecht, to NoKey's grandmother. Now that we had the car available I reprimanded him for not seeing his grandmother, with her being quite old but still with us. So we got the car and went to visit her. It was fun to meet her, the not quite fragile yet lady of 93 years old (bouwjaar 1912). Her short-term memory was iffy, and I got to explain three times what I did (seamstress), twice where I lived (with NoKey), and where that was exactly (Rotterdam). We drank tea and I finally saw a picture of NoKey as a youngling of about 5 years old (cute!) and of an adolescent of about 18 (V. CUTE!).
  
  With the finding of the Cthulhu Orchid, Lorian coming over for yummy pancakes yesterday, and the visit to NoKey's grandma, this weekend is becoming quite a success already.
  Now it's time for Quality Time!! *wink*
  
  EDIT: Found it! Googled the name of the place where we bought it and it came up with an Orchid Society in 't Gooi...with pictures and names of the hybrids sent in. It's an Encyclia cochleata! With about 20.000 species of orchid, and 100.000 artificial hybrids...I'm lucky to find a pic even in the right colours.

Comments

[silverseabear.livejournal.com]

Those are gorgeous. I'm a big suckerhead for orchids. I wish my cat didn't eat plants. I think my faves from the ones you posted are butterflies on fire and red pants orchids. And yours is most likely the variety I would have brought home.

Can you give me a basic pannekoeken recipe? I'm not sure how much or what to put in, and I want pancakes. Thanks ahead of time.

[janestarz.livejournal.com]

I'm starting to feel a new hobby coming on, with all these lovely orchid hybrids just waiting to be adopted. One day we will have a house with a garden...

Pancakes, recipe one.
This is the recipe my mother taught me.
Take 2 eggs per person you're baking for. If you're a small eater, use 1 egg per person.
Add a bit of salt, and some cinnamon and sugar to taste. Then stir standard flour or special pankacemix until you have a big ball of dough.
Then add milk (start slowly with small amounts to avoid lumps), until you have a nice bake-able substance. Add a droplet of (olive or sunflower) oil, and bake in oil (or butter) on a high fire.

Pancakes recipe two.
This is a new recipe we've only just discovered. The pancakehouse in the Kralingse Bos here has wonderful pancakes. My mom remarked that they use buckwheat in there. And I found buckwheat flour in the supermarket, so we tried it out.
This is what I remember from the box itself.
For eight pancakes, mix 150 grammes of buckwheat flour and 150 grammes of "zelfrijzend bakmeel" (a flour that can be used in cakes. It rises by itself, no yeast needed) and an egg. Then add 500 ml of milk, and some salt. Stir or mix until lumps disappear. Bake on a high fire with butter.

This recipe will make really yummy pancakes that fill really well. I always use cinnamon in my pancakes, and we use a lot of eggs. The pro of the first recipe is that you can easily bake pancakes for a lot of people, and you don't need very special ingredients to bake them. I can imagine it can be hard getting your hand on buckwheat flour in Poland.

Enjoy your pancakes!

[muizenstaartje.livejournal.com]

After seeing the picture, I think Cthulhu is the right name for the orchid. I like to look at orchids. They look beautiful and are never boring. Would love to have one, but plants usually die when I have to take care of them. :P

[elektron.livejournal.com]

The auditors are Scary. Really, they are...

*hides from eeeeeevil flowers*

[m1ss-ann-thropy.livejournal.com]

http://www.bellaonline.com/articles/art33604.asp

Nice article about orchids. I used to have orchids, when I still had a large window on the right side of the sun.