Gone to See Florida 2017/2018 Road Trip. Day 5: Urban Garden in St. Petersburg.
This was the first time I have seen a Black & White Warbler. It never stayed in one place very long, so was hard to get an image. Many House Sparrows and an orange butterfly (Gulf Fritillary?). Then some fruit — Bananas still on the tree, a Carambola, Figs, and a green lemon.
In addition to the wildflowers, I also planted some seeds for Water Bottle gourds (also known as Calabash, Opo, or Burma Boo Thee). It took nearly a month for the seeds to germinate inside. As such they didn’t get transplanted outdoors as soon as I would have liked. The plants started slow, but the electric fence kept the deer away. Finally, the vines started growing much faster and trying to climb as high as possible. At this point they produced some very big leaves. The first white flowers didn’t produce any fruit. The flowers opened at night, and closed once it got hot the next day. Finally, some of the flowers did develop some green gourds. When they got to be about the size of zucchini, the fruit turned brown and rotted. Finally, I did get a few that didn’t rot. They are not as long as the 40 inch long ones that my parents grew in Florida last year. The vines are still producing white flowers every night, but it is much too late in the season to expect anything larger. Once I turned off the electric fence, the deer came in and started eating the vines. Next year, I will try to germinate the seeds at least a month earlier, and make sure they get transplanted to a warm spot with lots of sunlight.
Gone to See Europe 2014. Day 57: Semester at Sea, Summer 2014 Semester Voyage. Saint Petersburg, Russia.
Liquid Nitrogen Dessert Creation – Pop Up Dinner at “Taste and Eat” in St Petersburg, Russia. Image taken with a Leica X2 camera (ISO 400, 24 mm, f/3.5, 1/30 sec). Raw image processed with Capture One Pro and Photoshop CC.
Some said it looked like vomit. Very light weight, and it tasted good with some popping as remaining liquid nitrogen evaporated.