spring blue
13 Tuesday Nov 2012
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in13 Tuesday Nov 2012
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in12 Saturday May 2012
The Palo Borracho’s (drunken sticks) are all blooming now. This Ceiba Speciosa is a tropical tree native to South America and often seen in the streets of Buenos Aires. Just like the Jacarandas announce the beginning of spring, the Silk Floss tree, as it is also called, announces autumn. It is said that when the last pink flower drops, winter starts. Now we are evidently still in mid-autumn.
The trunk is bottle shaped and has conical prickles which store water for dry times. The flowers are about 10-15 cm in diameter and are whitish-pink.
Just like the national tree, the Ceibo, there is a legend to this one, which originated in the north around the rio Pilcomayo. There they call this tree the ‘woman’ or ‘mother who sticks to the earth’.
Once upon a time, in an antique tribe that lived in the forest, there was a very beautiful girl whom all the men were in love with and wanted her as their wife, but she was in love with a man who was a great warrior. When he had to go to war, he made her promise she would be faithful to him and wait for his return. She waited for many months, and when it looked like he was not to return, she went deep into the forest to die of grief.
Hunters found her there and wanted to bring her to the village, but when they lifted her, they noticed that out of her arms grew branches, her head was becoming a trunk and out of her fingers grew white flowers. The hunters ran to the village where they told the story, and when they went back a couple of days later to see her again, the girl was gone and she had completely changed into a tree. The white flowers had changed into pink. The legend says the white stand for her tears for her lost love, and they turned pink because of the blood of her lost warrior.
18 Friday Nov 2011
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inI cannot help it but once again I must write about the most beautiful trees in the world, the Jacarandas. They are able to change the look of a city completely. This year their bloom seems to be endless, and a lot more abundant than the previous years. Three times a week I drive to Nuñez to play tennis, and every time for the last few weeks it feels like I am driving through a cloud of purple. And every time when I think that now they are at the top of their bloom, the next day I realize I was wrong. Or maybe it is that every time I drive through Libertador, I have forgotten how beautiful it is in this season?
This is definitely my favorite season; although it is still officially spring, summer is in the air. Their are more days of nice warm sultry weather in a row, and less days of rain or thunderstorms to cool the city off. Yes!! Buenos Aires is finally heating up. We are slowly getting ready for summer. And it is predicted to be a really hot one.
This is also the season of my favorite fruits. I buy strawberries by the kilos, blackberries, cherries, peaches… although prices have gone up a lot since last year, they are still scandalously cheap compared to European prices.
This is the time of year that I am so happy, happier then ever, to live in this fabulous city. Mi Buenos Aires Querida.