Tigridia Pavonia

Common Name: Tiger flower
Genus: Tigridia
Species: pavonia
Skill Level: Experienced
Exposure: Full sun
Hardiness: Tender
Soil type: Well-drained/light, Moist
Height: 100cm
Spread: 15cm
Time to divide plants: Autumn
Flowering period: Summer

This exotic Mexican bulb is sometimes called peacock flower, an appropriate name in view of its quite startling colour combinations- all the shades of scarlet, orange, pink, yellow, mauve and white, usually with contrasting markings. It is barely hardy, and normally grown as a tender summer annual, planted in spring and dug up again in autumn for storing in a dry frost-free place. It needs all the sun available, as this not only encourages flowering but also ripens the bulb to ensure a similar display the following year.


This is the photo of mine taken this morning on my little Canon Ixus - growing in a small pot and terribly neglected  - until it flowers! What a beauty.

Tigridia ( /taɪˈɡrɪdiə/),^[1] the tiger-flowers or shell flowers, is a genus of bulbous or cormous plants, belonging to the family Iridaceae. They have large showy flowers and one species, Tigridia pavonia, is often cultivated for this. The approximately thirty five species in this family grow in the Western Hemisphere, from Mexico to Chile. The tigridia flower is short lived, each often blooming for only one day, but often several flowers will bloom from the same stalk. Usually they are dormant during the winter dry-season. Its roots are edible and was eaten by the Aztecs of Mexico who called it cacomitl and its flower ocēlōxōchitl "Jaguar flower". The genus name means "tiger-like" and alludes to the coloration and spotting of the flowers of the type species Tigridia pavonia.^[2]

Sticky pudding and custard

Thank you to all of you who reminded me that I had not added the link to my email. I had done the Christmas post - hence the pudding and custard reference  - and then set about sorting the email list, when the whirling pizza of death appeared on my computer. When I rebooted, it sent the email immediately without the link.
Sorry!

....and, this may disappoint some, but, contrary to the thoughts of at least one dear reader, neither myself nor Roy, nor DM for that matter, were smothered in custard !

Happy New Year

I hope 2012 brings you everything you wish for  - and a few extra good things that you may not have even thought about.

A long time between drinks

I really must get my act together and post more often! There seems to have been too many distractions lately.

One major distraction, of course, has just happened - Christmas - a time of joy and lots of cooking. Usually our house looks like Santa lives here, but things happen and this year it is the minimalist look. I still had the obligatory sherry, or four, whilst arranging the poinsettias and reindeer. You can't let everything slip.

Our dear friends Jonathan and Felicity were with us for an "en famille' day. We have been friends since 1975, so how could we not have a great day. Relaxed and peaceful with good food and wine.


A lovely shot of Jono's tiny bride

I cooked the whole catastrophe - a Nichols free range turkey from Peter Thompson in Elizabeth St, with three stuffings - seasoned pork, chestnut stuffing & sage and onion as the third; chipolatas; a hill of vegetables and hasselback potatoes. Following that, Grandmother Marks Christmas Pudding - a well guarded recipe from DM's side of the family. Always a winner, along with my mother's recipe for mince pies.

However I thought I should show you the star of Boxing Day

Not me.......the more attractive one on the left, just in case you were confused. A beautiful, freshly caught 3kg salmon from Strahan on the west coast of Tassie. I cut it in half and  blitzed it in my "super wok" and the rest was filleted and made into Gravlax/Gravadlax (depending on where you come from) -  prepped this at sparrows on Saturday before we went to have breakfast at Tricycle Cafe in Salamanca

Perfect food for watching the Aussies thrash India at the MCG in Melbourne. A traditional Boxing day in OZ

My brekkie

French toast with fresh raspberries and great coffee

Temperature for Hobart for Christmas was Min 15ºC  Max 21ºC

Any advance on zero in Europe? Sorry  - had to get that in. Mind you I like a bit of weather and really enjoyed our Christmas there last year.

More food soon.......and boy did we thrash those chappies from the subcontinent

The Piano at Detached

Lately I have been talking with friends and thinking about the installation of the piano that was part of Detached art space in Hobart at the beginning of this year. Thought that it deserved a photo. It was installed by Japanese artist Chiharu Shiota and she set fire to a grand piano in a Hobart street as part of an art installation for MONA FOMA 2011.
Click on:

http://www.detached.com.au/about.html

Chiharu Shiota spent 10 days spinning a vast cocoon of black thread around what remains of the piano. The work, 'In Silence', is one of four pieces that form the artist's first major Australian exhibition. The blackened carcass of the grand piano and accompanist's chair was trapped in a labyrinth of black wool. Shiota says the work is a meditation on sound and its absence.

The piece responds to an incident that occurred when Shiota was nine-years old. She woke in the night to sound of burning timber and ran to wake her parents. The family then watched helplessly as a neighbour's home burned. Later, Shiota saw the remains of a piano charred and silent in the ashes.

Some wonderful things to come at Detached so keep an eye on it.

It's been a while - a few health problems that are about to be resolved in the not too distant future.
So I thought it appropriate that we should have a cheery photo of our mate "D", as he calls himself.

An artist living 'life akimbo' as DM puts it. What a great character down at the Salamanca Markets.
We have quite a collection of his art - mostly small paintings, but also he makes amazing small robots from found objects. We have a collection of those too, as you might imagine.

He can brighten anyone's day.

Truffle lunch

In the spirit of Spring we had the most exotic truffle lunch at Chado tea house, down the road from us, a wonderful establishment owned and run by our friend Varuni. Co-owner, her husband Brian Ritchie (of Violent Femmes  fame)  enhanced the day with serene live music, playing his amazing selection of bespoke instruments.
What lovely food. Eight courses with five French wines. So elegant and full of flavour with generous portions of Tasmanian truffle.

We had a wonderful time.

The "Summer Garden "plate

Spring has sprung

Well perhaps it has. The forecast is not looking all that good, but the magnolia down the road thinks it's here.

 

 

Two cakes made by Richard

Yes,  he has been slaving away in the kitchen again.

This one against a backdrop of one of Geoffrey Dyer's Mt Wellington paintings.
Went a bit  mad with the icing on this one I think

Frost

Today we had the first frost in our garden for this year. So Roy and I went down to the kitchen garden to rescue the lettuce just after dawn.

A quick light spray of cold water and all's well. Has to be done before the sun hits them. I told Roy not to walk on the lawn, but he ignored me.






In the middle of winter our Banana Passionfruit is still cropping

The daffies are out and so are the wild iris
For those of you in nether regions, this time of the year is the equivalent of the middle of January in the UK and northern hemisphere

The bush hens must have cold feet

....and of course we have the clear blue skies with snow on our near neighbour, Mount Wellington

Wind sculpted ice on the mountain

 

To put the mountain in perspective - here it is from Battery Point, where we used to live when we first  came down here. We can see this mountain from our front garden and from the bedroom verandah

The biggest thing to hit Hobart

In January this year, Hobart was treated to the ultimate luxury - an outstanding art gallery of world class standard. All thanks to multimillionaire David Walsh, a local boy wot did good.
Unfortunately we missed the opening night, due to being in France. I believe it was, as they say, "a good bash".
 
The Museum of New Art (MONA) is privately owned by David and it is a credit to his foresight, architectural taste and generosity. We are indeed lucky to have it in sleepy old Hobart.

It has been open for 6 months and, as promised, the gallery is changing some of its exhibits, so if you haven't seen it all yet, then get along there before they disappear. Some artworks are permanent but his huge collection will rotate gradually through the gallery for a long time to come.

With the theme of sex and death it may not all be to your taste, but trust me, there are treasures not to be missed.

Here is a sample of what will probably be a recurring post on this blog......  Artwork from MONA

First a wide shot of the exterior - an amazing building with huge sandstone and rusty metal walls down to the waterline.

One of the exhibits - beetle wings and a dead bird

Our friend Geoffrey Dyer - eminent Tassie artist, entered this portrait of David Walsh in to the Archibald Prize in Sydney this year. He was favourite to win but was scuttled by Margaret Olly. In my humble opinion the prize went to the sitter not the painter.

Anyway - here's David

 

For the first month or so there was a large display of gradually rotting meat hung in the large hall of the gallery.  Geoffrey was very taken with this and put David in with it for the portrait