Single malt whisky, Falcon pipes & a self-pollinating Brighamia insignis

A little late, but I would like to wish you all a happy Yuletide! I'm not a fanatic Pagan or something, but these old ways make much more sense than those Abrahamistic relegions. Lots of boundaries for people who seem to need them and mostly can't even live them. I don't say that my way of living is better and I expect relegious people to also not say that about their. And that... is mostly a problem for them, because they're already instructed that their way is THE way to live and believe. If you are relegious, reading this and think I'm talking crap. If you don't believe that your way is the best and only way to live... I respect you for that.

Before feeling yourself insulted, you should ask yourself if you respect someone that doesn't believe what you believe. Mutual respect or no respect at all!

Now it's time to write about some new stuff I've bought/received! Like every year, I've bought myself a new pipe. I say every year, but actually I've started with this last year and I'm planning to continue and buy myself a new one each year in December.

It wasn't only a pipe that has entered Castle Wonnebald this year... Also a nice, pretty bottle!

Lagavulin 16yo,  Straight Falcon with rusticated Apple & Hunter Dover Bowl

As you probably can imagine, I'm a happy man at the moment and I'm enjoying my peated whisky right now. The strange thing is that I've always hated whisky and other strong drinks... But in 2010 on a PRF-pipe-smokers-meeting, there was a whisky nosing & tasting, organized by one of the members. He offered my a single malt whisky and I thought; why not! And that was attempt number ??? No idea.... But I hated it again. Then he asked me why and I explained him that I don't like the soft and nauseous taste of it. Then he gave me another glass of whisky, this time with some peat! I thought I could just give it one more try, but to be honest; I didn't expected much of it. Holy Pork! This stuff ROCKS! The taste reminded me of something smokey and I could taste something like leather also. A little bit salty.... Some weeks later I've bought myself a bottle of Talisker 10yo and I've enjoyed it a lot!

Today I've bought myself a bottle Lagavulin 16yo. Of course I've asked for advise on the Dutch Pipe Smokers Forum (PRF) and our whisky-specialist (who is also writing a book about single malt whisky's by the way) answered me the same day and gave me enough information for me to think a lot. And I've thought a lot! I don't buy a bottle every week (and also not every day!). I'm not a drunk, but I like to enjoy my drink. After thinking a lot, I almost decided to buy this pretty bottle, but I thought; let's first check the store and talk to the specialists there. And so I did. That place is amazingly cool and the experienced people there can tell you everything you would like to know! I like places like that... Nowadays there are too much stores without true knowledge about their products. It's sad, but it's also a little bit our fault, because we like to buy everything in one store and we prefer cheap products from China above expensive products made here. Not that China only produce crap... It's more that we only buy their crap! But okay... I'm also a bit guilty on this one...

About the Lagavulin 16yo; I won't write a huge review, because I'm still new to the world of single malt. I'll just tell you this; after being matured on bourbon casks, this whisky was further matured on sherry casks and this has given a much more complex taste to it. When I've opened the bottle, I could smell the peat and as you can imagine, this was kind of pleasant to me. From the glass I could smell it more concentrated and after my first nip, I thought; 'nice! Interesting!'. Then I added a drip of water to it and DAMN! An explosion of aroma and then the taste... Much more stronger and overwhelming , but very good! Very tasty! I can't describe it after only one glass... Maybe I'll write a little more about it later...

The other 'present'; a Straight Falcon pipe with rusticated Apple bowl and extra Hunter Dover bowl!

Straight Falcon with Hunter Dover bowl attached

  Most people don't call this pipe pretty... They often call it very ugly and... Ahh... Everyone has the right to have an opinion and to be honest; when I first saw a Falcon-pipe, I didn't like it at all.

On the Dutch Pipe Smokers Forum (PRF) was a topic about Falcon and I started to read it. More and more I realized  that this pipe was designed almost perfectly. Everything has a reason and a function! Starting with multiple bowls you can use one after the other (normally you have to give at least 1 day rest to a pipe after smoking, so that it can dry). The pan below the attached bowl is there to catch all the liquid from the tobacco while smoking. This gives you a very dry smoke, which means more pleasure. The stem is designed for not getting hot.

After reading all this, I started to like Falcon more and more. And after some months I even thought them pretty! Then I've decided to buy one! They smoke amazingly great! Very easy to clean also. As you can see, this pipe is very compact. I'll take it with me on travels and when I visit a festival or something. Maybe also on a zombi apocalypse... Very handy!

A blog without plants?! Nope!

My Brighamia insignis has flowered! This succulent was a present from my mom some years ago and it's actually kind of young for having flowers.

Brighamia insignis flowering

And here's something interesting; all over the internet they say this plant can't self-pollinate. In the wild this plant is almost extinct, because the special moth that causes the pollination isn't around anymore. Okay... Can Brighamia insignis self-pollinate? I say; YES! Check out the pics below!

Brighamia insignis with seed-pod after self-pollination

I've had to help the plant a little with a small brush, but I could accomplish it! I have only 1 plant (which is kind of a proof of its self-pollination). Weehhoooo! By the way; this is the first time I have a seed-pod on a plant and I'm kind of happy with it! 

Brighamia insignis seed-pod tea-bag method

 Some time later, the seed-pod started to crack a bit... Then I used the special-Tea-bag-method I've invented last weak... Uhuhm.... Empty a tea-bag, put it around the pod and close it up with the tiny rope. Tadaa! Done. Now I'm waiting for further instructions on the Cactiguide forum, because I really have no idea of what to do!

The cacti are all asleep right now.... It's winter and there's not much to do! Within some months I'll order the seeds for spring next year and then I'll probably feel the need of writing about it again.

Uhmm.. What more? Not much that I feel like sharing. My life still fascinates me and I'm a very happy man. My wife's getting prettier each day and I can't wait to have a little family here! Well... That's it. Nothing more to say.... Well.. I've won some competition in Boxmeer today! First place! Gold! Hmm...

Here are some links to stuff that I've written about in this article:

-My whisky-basement at Whiskybase.com;

-The Forum on Cactiguide.com;

-The place where I've bought my Falcon Pipes;

-The Dutch Pipe Smokers Forum (PRF).

Cheers my friends!

Last week on my favorite cacti-forum

Last week on my favorite cacti-forum - on Cactiguide - I've asked a question about cold-tolerant species that might survive the wet and cold winters we have here in Holland. Within a day some people replied to my question and named me some species that are worth it to try and also some some that already have survived here in Holland. There are a couple of species around that can stand extreme cold (up to -20) and are often covered with snow, but none of them can stand cold and wet together... So one person named me two species; Gymnocalicium bruchii and Maihueniopsis darwinii. I could find some Gymnocalicium bruchii seeds very quickly (on ADBLPS, where else?!), but Maihueniopsis darwini is one of those that are a little bit harder to find. Then someone from the forum offered to send me some Maihueniopsis darwinii cuttings...

Within a day the following package arrived and... Well.... It contained a little bit more than I was expecting!

Maihueniopsis darwinii

 This is one of the Maihueniopsis darwinii cuttings I was talking about. He has sent me another one, but that one I gave away to my friend and fellow cacti-collector Bob. As you can see, this little friend can cut you up with those huge and sharp spines! If you don't believe me, you should ask my friend Bob about it. ;-)

And... There was more... A lot more!

Cylindropuntia acanthocarpa, the Buckhorn Cholla

The following cacti are all in pots of the same size;

Echinopsis subdenudata

Notocactus sellowii

Eriosyce subgibbosa

Mammillaria nivosa

 I have never liked the Mammillaria family a lot, but this one has changed my mind about them! If you're wondering what I'm talking about, I suggest you to just google Mammillaria nivosa and if our taste is similar, you'll understand me.

Matucana aureiflora  (aureiflora means golden flowered)

Trichocereus pachanoi

Hey! That is just nice! Two San Pedro cacti! This, my friends, is another 'medicinal' species that is also used - just like Peyote - in shamanistic ceremonies. I already have one in my collection, which was a cutting that I've bought from the Azarius webshop, but these two are grown from the seed. It takes a little while for them to speed up their growth, but when they start, they do start and grow around 30 centimeters a year. (a little wiki-link for those who would like to read a little bit about this magical plant!)

Gymnocalycium berchtii

Gymnocalycium berchtii, my favorite of the package! A dark flattened species that seems to like dirt.

That's it for tonight. Only wine and Jazz is what's left for me to end this weekend. Ow! And of course my lovely wife that's making her homework in the living room right now! She's becoming better and better in Dutch grammar and sometimes when she asks me for a little help, I have to check fucking Google to be 100% sure that I give the right advise! Can you believe that?! Soon her vocabulary will become richer than mine! Ah well... It keeps me awake and in this way I can refresh my memory about my own language once in a while. ;-). Aahhh... Actually I'm very proud at her! Her Dutch is getting so pretty and... Aah! I'm lucky with her and I love her so fucking much! Back to wine now...

2011's seedlings and other stuff...

Whoo-ah! Welcome back on my blog. 

I'm having a little party over here... Everyone is sleeping except for me and the birds, which actually means that my wife went to bed early and I'm smoking Samuel Gawith Balkan flake (Latakia), drinking some beers and listening to the 'Bird' together with the birds! I guess this might look a little bit confusing to you, so I'll try to explain it a bit; I'm listening to Charlie 'Bird' Parker, one of my favorite Jazz musicians. Maybe I'm going crazy, but I really believe that the birds are liking it! Normally they hate it when I'm keeping them awake with music...

Hmm... Forget about it. Let's see what we have here... Last week I've taken some photos of the ones that I've sown April last year. I'm not going to write long explanations about each species this time. Most of you just scroll and only check out the pictures anyway. Don't worry! I'm alright with that... I mostly do the same. :-)

Echinopsis terschecki

Carnegiea gigantea

Carnegiea gigantea - Double-headed

Trichocereus Bridgesii

Browningia microsperma

 

Peyote 'news' !

Lophophora williamsii

Lophophora williamsii v Nuevo Yucatan

Lophophora williamsii v La Popa, Nuevo Leon

Next year I'll sow some more Peyote. I'm planning to order Lophophora williamsii v Cedral. I've been trying to find THE variety used by the Huichol Indians and I guess I can't get any closer to Wirikuta. Wirikuta is the place where they used to harvest their sacred plant. Cedral in San Luis Potosí might be that place and if not... At least it's very close!

End of Peyote news...

Astrophytum asterias

Aztekium ritteri

Ferocactus ???

Ferocactus ???

Echinocactus grusonii (?)

Cereus ???

Pilosocereus glaucochrous

 This last one is an off-set from a crest-cactus that I've given to my friend Bob a couple of years ago. It's doing well I guess...

 

Time for another beer, some metal and World of Warcraft. Have nice weekend!

New stuff!

Right now it's two o'clock in the night and I was just thinking; lets write a short Blog! I have just finished a fine bowl of tobacco using one of my favourite pipes, a handmade Winsløw, enjoying a cup of coffee with a small Irish liqueur next to it, followed by a bottle of beer. All very satisfying as you can imagine, but right now I am done. For today I mean. Time to clear my head a bit... Some calm music usually helps me doing that, so right now I am not listening to brutal death metal, but to Pink Floyd. Animals!

Let me see... Ah! Yesterday I have bought my wife some flowers and... Coincidentally I've also bought myself a cactus. Seriously, why do I always get fanatic with hobbies? I have always been like this! I just can't do something 50%, always exaggerating. But who cares! Owww.. My wife... Yeah.... Sometimes I see that pretty face thinking about throwing all my cacti and pipes out of the window. She even joked about it! Aajjjjj... But I know she likes to see me happy and I think that if I won't exaggerate too much, she'll let me keep my stuff. Structure and organization are the key-words here.

Gymnocalycium tilcarense (?), Gymnocalycium stenopleurum and Oreocereus trollii

Ow! True! Some weeks ago I have also bought two other cacti. Above here, I was talking about the larger one on the left side; Gymnocalycium tilcarense. The two smaller cacti I have bought a couple of weeks ago for € 2 each. The roots of all three had to be cleaned, undoing them of peat. Peat is just terrible! Arg... It would make us cacti-growers so much more easy if they would sell plants in the 'right' substrate. I guess that would make it too expensive for them or... Maybe they are just lazy.

I've changed my soil-mixture a bit again after reading this page on Kadasgarden.com.

This is what I use now:

• 40% Coir
• 20% Seramis (Turface)
• 20% Grit (2mm - 6mm)
• 20% Coarse sand 

Gymnocalycium tilcarense (?), Gymnocalycium stenopleurum, Oreocereus trollii, Selenicereus pteranthus (back) and Brighamia insignis.

That was it for tonight. Time to go to bed! Good night!

Saguaro seedlings (Carnegiea gigantea)

Yo! Back again with another Blog. This time about the most famous cactus in the world, the one that looks like a candle and appears in many western movies, THE cactus that people see in their imagination when they hear the word cactus; the Saguaro, which is actually the Native American name. Carnegiea gigantea is what botanists call this plant. Gigantea should ring your bell and tell you that this friend can get huge! Right... But it will take at least 100 years till it reaches its giant-like height.

Seriously, if you see those giants in their natural habitat, it's kind of impressive. The oldest plants are probably about 250 years old, but we can't be 100% sure. They can reach up to 18 metres in height and many people assume that this is the largest cactus in the world. And that's something I'm not quite sure about. Pachycereus pringlei also gets kind of big and many botanists can probably name you a couple of other giants that might win this match (Brasiliopuntia brasiliensis for example).

Anyway, C. gigantea flowers at the age of 30. Their white flowers open at night and it are mainly insects and bats that take care of the pollination part. You can find them in Arizona (the Saguaro blossom is the state's Wildflower) and California, but you'll also see a couple of them in Mexico. Their first branch may appear when they're around 75 years old.

I won't copy-paste images that I've found on Google, so I'll just post a link to Cactiguide.com where you can find enough cool pics. CLICK HERE

Ow... Another thing... Of course I'm growing this plant! It wasn't my meaning to just write something about this species. This Blog is actually about the progress from the seed till they've reached the age of 1 year and 3 months.

Saguaro seedling

From the start

The photo above is taken earlier this week, but I'll show you the progress from the start. On the right side-bar of this Blog already was an album showing all these photos, but this plant is Blog-worthy. So... Tadaaaa! Here they are:

6 days after they've been sown.

They didn't show any problem with germination at all. If I remember well, 17 popped up within 2 weeks. Nothing to complain about when you've sown 20!

I always use any type of plastic container or bucket I can find that has a lid, mostly ice-cream-buckets. Then I just make some holes in the bottom, so that the water can easily escape (we don't want a swimming pool).

The soil I use consists of 50% Cocopeat, 30% Perlite and 20% fine gravel. I'm planning to change my mixture in the future; instead of 30% perlite, I'll use 20% Turface and 10% Perlite. I've had some good experience with a random seed-mixture which I've sown at the same time and it went surprisingly well.

1,5 month old.

Between the age of 2 and 3 weeks their spines appeared and they started to look like cacti.

2 months old.

After 2 months it's time to give them some fresh air. I do this by opening the lids a bit and then after each week I open them a bit more. This way they can slowly get used to a dryer air. 3 weeks later I remove the lids completely.

2 months and 1 week old.

Just a close-up... Check out the 'leafs' on the sides that are slowly disappearing.

3 months old.

4 months old.

5 months old.

6 months old.

7 months old.

1 year old.

 1 year and 3 months old

And here are the photo's that I've taken this week, 1 year and 3 months after I've sown them:

1 year and 3 months.

Now this is what they look like right now. Of course I've chosen the biggest and prettiest one when I took the photos. =P What can I tell about them? I've re-potted them for the first time when they've reached the age of 1 year. Something that I won't do again, because they turned a little greyish within a week and it took them a couple of months to look healthy again. Right now they do look happy and they're all growing again. Check out these close-ups:

1 year and 3 months.

1 year and 3 months (the same plant, but taken from above)

Double-headed Saguaro

Saguaro double-headed, 1 year and 3 months old.

My double-headed Carnegiea gigantea. I guess this is something rare, because I can't find another one like this on the web. It's some sort of rare, mutant growing form that happens once in a while. And... It's growing healthy! I wonder what it'll look like in the future.

Saguaro double-headed, photo taken from above.

The cool thing about this double-headed cactus is that Saguaros, like I've written above, only get their first branches at the age of 75. This little fellow already has his 'branch'. I mean... Okay, it's a second head, but I don't complain. It'll be probably great to see this one grow up healthy.

Last year in the Rotterdam Zoo

Yup, that's me next to a 'small' cactus comparing it to what it will become one day. Can you imagine that there are giants around that are almost 10 times bigger than this one?

Well... You're at the end of this article now. I hope to write more about Carnegiea gigantea later, but it will probably take a while, because they're slow growers... Till next Blog!

Echinopsis subdenudata, flowering again

Hello again! Today's Blog is a short one and it's about one single plant; the Echinopsis subdenudata, a common plant which you can find in most stores that sell cacti (at least here in Holland). Why and why now?! Well... This night on of my plants has flowered for the second time this year and... Well... Judge for yourself, but I think it's pretty! This is one of the plants that I haven't bought because I thought it was extremely beautiful. This is actually my wife's choice when we've bought some cacti in Amsterdam. And right now I'm happy that I've bought it, because it's one of the more pretty plants I have! I've written a Blog about it before, last year, when it was also flowering. Check it out over HERE!

Echinopsis subdenudata, flowering

Now let's give you a short description of this one... Like all the other Echinopsis species, E. Subdenudata is also from South America. Their natural habitat is the Tarija Department in Bolivia, but you'll also find them elsewhere (also in Paraguay for example). Their short stems can reach a hight of 8 cm and up to 12 cm in width. They have woolly areoles that only contain spines at young plants, older plants are completely spineless. As you can see on the photo, the flower reaches a size, bigger than the entire cactus. E. subdenudata is a popular cactus, because it flowers easily (and at an early age).

I have my own theory about this 'easy' flowering thing... A lot of North American cacti never flower in our living rooms. They need a cold place during the winter, just like in their natural habitat. They need a winter-temperature of around 10 to 15 degrees Celsius and human beings prefer a warmer place in the winter to watch television...

There are many South American species, on the other hand, that aren't used to cold winters. They like a winter-temperature around 20 degrees Celsius, just like us! And.... This was my theory... Hey! I'm not a pro and I'm always open for critics.

 Echinopsis subdenudata

Another little thing of great importance is that some cacti need more sun than others, which is a serious thing to think about. With less sun than the plant actually needs, it'll grow, but it'll grow less well. It won't be 'happy' (wait! Now I look like a plant-hugger! I don't do that... Cacti have spines and... Well... Ok! My Peyotes don't... But I also don't hug them! ). Try to grow 2 similar plants under different conditions and you'll see what I mean.

What more can I say? Echinopsis subdenudata flowers at night. Too bad... But! In the morning you'll still be able to see them (which is the reason why these photos are kind of dark). And... You'll also smell them.

Time for my Gandalf-pipe, some German aromatic tobacco and a beer! Can't wait to see the Hobbit! Yeah... Nothing to do with the rest of this Blog, but I'm almost done, reading the book and up till now (haven't read the last 4 books of LotR), I like this story more than Lord of the Rings! All those pipe-smoking dwarfs in Bilbo's little hobbit-hole. Fantastic! Ok... I'm flying from subject to subject again. Time for a good smoke... Have a nice weekend!

Gandalf pipe

By the way, something completely different now; if you have the time, listen to THIS interview with Daniel Quinn. Answering questions about world's problems in few time is kind of hard, I imagine, but he's doing a great job! Cheers!