This Old House

Tuesday, January 17, 2012

House Junk : an Envelope, a Sign and Cameras back in the day

Time for another House Junk post.

Sometimes we have to wait a while to gather enough interesting stuff for a post. It's getting harder and harder now.

First up is this envelope we found. It was in the drawer of an old dressing cabinet and I chanced upon it while looking for old CD's.

Anyway the envelope was in good condition but was definitely old. The paper was a bit brittle and powdery at the edges and it smelled old too.

The small yellowing tag at the corner read "Sorrento - Scugnizzo". Italy right?

When I look at what was inside I found an old water color painting of what looks like the River Seine with the Eiffel Tower in the background.

Probably a street art souvenir from one of lolo and lola's travels. But if the envelope says Sorrento, Italy why is the painting a river scape of Paris,France? Perhaps we'll never know...

I also saw this book that I thought was interesting. Need a crash course in culture and the arts?

This book is like Cliffs Notes for opera world.

I wonder who stole this one from the food court of Divisoria Mall?

Marty found a lot of old rolls of film in storage so he rummaged around for the "players". There were several boxes of what looked like projectors so he brought them all out.

I just love the cases and the packaging these old machines came in. It was a lot more sophisticated and durable then. Things were really built to last and were expected to be used for a lifetime and It was reflected in the way they were manufactured. Pretty stark contrast in this age of planned obsolescence.

After releasing the locks at the bottom the entire top cover came off to reveal the projector.

La Belle, after a quick google search, turns out to be a manufacturer of SLIDE projectors. To the people born in the 1980's and beyond, this is what we used before Power Point and LCD projectors were invented.

Here it is with the lens and tray attached. The photographic slides went in the metal tray on top.

Next box... or should I say suitcase?

Another solidly built projector.

By the looks of it this one is for film. Moving pictures!

Sure looks awesome.

This might increase in value soon because KODAK is already filing for bankruptcy and might soon cease to exist.

Then there was this other mysterious box. It had a fabric cover...

... and a pretty solid wooden case.

It had a metal plaque with my grandfather's name on it.

When we opened it, it wasn't another projector at all.

There was a door at the side where you could insert and load a roll of paper.

The back has what looks like an air vent with a mesh cover.

It's a Viso Cardiette Electrocardiogram. Quick google search says: " Sanborn Viso-Cardiette is a portable (“portable” as long as you want an upper-body workout. It’s all-metal and very heavy) electrocardiograph, which is a machine that creates a “print-out” of a heartbeat. Its manufacturing company was founded by Frank Sanborn in 1917 and was bought out by Hewlett-Packard in 1961."

The machine has a stylus that moves up and down and leaves a mark on the rolling paper, the result is a visual representation of your heart beat.

The stylus needed to have the proper temperature to write properly and it needs to be kept dead center to have an accurate reading. These knobs fine tuned the stylus for that.

Garden Update Year 2 - Part 7 "Odds and Ends"

OK so let's finish this off.

There is now specific order or theme in this post. These are just the miscellaneous photos that just didn't fit (or I simply forgot to include) in the other posts.

First up is the lone Canary Island Date Palm we have. This is a pretty common palm all over the world but it is actually pretty uncommon here in the Philippines. This one has about 2 feet of trunk already.

Copernicia fallaense. This is the largest and seems to be the fastest of the Genera. The leaves are about 4 feet tall now and exhibit the beautiful blue color it is known for.

Still just leaves coming out of the ground. The trunk will eventually be 2 to 3 feet across.

Strelitzea juncea or the leafless bird of paradise. This guys is about 2 feet tall and has already split into 2 growth points.

Caryota no, This is one of the few fishtail palms that grow into gigantic proportions.

A couple of birds nest ferns. The tree they are growing on dies suddenly and they have lost the leaves that usually provide them with shade. Lets hope they survive the summer.

Another tree died on this spot so I replaced it with a variegated 'kapok' tree. It seems to be doing well.

The Phoenix sylvestris we planted in the driveway is growing beautifully. It has a nice full crown of blue leaves.

The trunk is also starting to develop.

This planter gets intense afternoon sun exposure and has a balcony overhead that protects it from rain so it is an ideal spot for succulents. We planted a variety or arid plants here.

On one end we planted a mixed group of Aloes. i don't even remember which species these are but they all look nice and healthy.

Surprising development in the pergola at the upper level, we suddenly have a number of seed pods hanging from the full moon vine

This vine has been growing here for decades but this is the first time it has ever produced seeds.

I plan to relocate these agaves. We will fix this 'island' this summer- provide better soil and construct several levels to make it more interesting. Watch out for a post on that.

The Cuban Royal palms are growing steadily and their leaves continue to be a periodic hazard when they fall.

The triangle palms are getting along pretty well but obviously nowhere near as fast as the Royals. At one point in time they were the same size. They were all just seedlings when I planted them in the ground about 15 years ago.

Last but not least, a trio of Pinanga aristata that we just planted in the ground.

END OF THE UPDATE

Sunday, January 15, 2012

Garden Update Year 2 - Part 6 "The Epiphytes"

The Epiphytes are next.

Epiphytes are basically "air plants". They don't live on the ground and grow on anything that can support them and give them a more strategic spot in reaching sunlight.

Tillandsia is a Genera of plants closely related to the pineapple. These are usually grey or silvery white and though not colorful, usually have very weird looking leaves that keep them looking interesting.

The life span of many of the smaller Tillandsias are usually very short - usually just over a year. Once the mother plant flowers and dies it is replaced by several pups that pretty soon grow up into adult plants as well and this usually results in a small colony.

The shape of these colonies is typically a ball or sphere-- like this one.

The two Tillandsias here are example of the larger species. T. Hildae on the right takes about 10 years to bloom. It's actually the largest species of Tillandsia.

The one on the left is T. Xerographica and has a life span of maybe 4 to 5 years before blooming.

There is a wider variety in this group.

One of the weirder looking Tillandsias is T. Duratii. It's leaves are actually prehensile and can grab on to anything within its reach for support and stabilization. This one is still small though.

This other species looks similar to T. Duratii but is fuzzier and very white. Forgot the name though.

T. Funkiana pup. This species grows into long "little snakes"

Another species that develops a long body - but I don't know the name of this one. Notice that it is already producing several pups along it's length.

Some of the wood we used for the mounts had some boring insects and couldn't support the plants anymore. We have to work on these this summer.

This mount is in a shadier spot so Tillandsia's won't do well here. We mounted Aechmeas instead.

On the large Mango tree we mounted this Platycerium bifurcatum a few months ago. It looks like it has established itself well.

On one of the tall 'Anahaw' palms we also mounted a lot of Tillandsias, which really look like they are doing well in this hot and exposed spot.

This one is a hybrid. It looks like a T. capitata crossed with one of the species that develops a long body.

A couple of small cuttings that haven't developed roots yet. In a few months these should be able to cling to the trunk on their own without needing any wires.

We mounted a lot of epiphytes on a trio of very tall Areca catechu near the gates.

Platycerium bifurcatum growing very well.

A Tillandsia ionantha, but I am unsure about the particular cultivar because there are so many. This one has quite a number of pups already.

The very weird looking T. bulbosa. The pups are the two at the bottom

T.duratii

Another colony of T Ionanth. On this one the mother plant has competely disappeared.

There are a couple of Plumeria trees that we have mounted a lot of air plants.

This T. capitata is already the second generation. the original plant flowered last year and there are 3 or 4 offshoots that took its place.

Some of the freak mutant Polypodiums. This one is not quite established.

Another platycerium but I think this one is a hybrid. It doesn't quite look like the leaves of a bifurcatum

Another Platycerium.

This is another Plumeria tree nearby with more Platyceriums growing on it.

This one is really spreading all over the trunk now. In the wild these clusters of stag horn ferns have been known to grow so large that the branches they grow on sometimes break off from the tree from their sheer weight.

Another species of Platycerium but the name escapes me.

Some of our feeble attempts to establish orchids on our trees.

This is an interesting development. There are quite a number of volunteer ferns growing on the trunk of this palm. These are plants that just grew here accidentally probably by spores carried by the wind from nearby plants.

What's peculiar is that these seedlings seem to have come from some of the "mutant" ferns in our collection because most of their leaves are forked and split.

It's going to be pretty cool to see what comes out of these hundreds of seedlings growing all over the place.

Speaking of mutant ferns. This is the one with a "ball of lettuce" growing a the end

Some of the orchids that have survived neglect. This is a Phalinopsis or a butterfly orchid.

A hjodge-podge of epiphytes. Mostly ferns and orchids.

A closer look.

Another Platycerium bifurcatum. This one is mounted on the Dypsis decaryii in the middle of the main garden.

A dead orchid stem with a lot of off-shoots . Hopefully the babies will get established and grow into adult plants.

Platycerium pups that are beginning to cling.

We have a special bromeliad display which houses mostly epiphytes.

A couple of T. straptophyllum. The dryer they get the more twisted their leaves grow.

T. ionantha. These are turning red because they are about to flower and die.

These striped bromeliads are Aechmeas.

T. Funkiana developing a couple of clusters from the mother plant.

A mix of Tillandsias. I don't know the species names of these

Group shot! Aechmea at the back and Tillandsia xerographica in the foreground. The hair like curtain are are actually tillandsias too. I forgot the species name but I think these are also called Spanish moss.

The potted bromeliads in the ground are Neoregelias. Technically these are also epiphytes but they get so large that it is much easier to place them in pots. We don't plan them in soil though, we use fern chips.

Mother plant with children

These two are doing pretty well.

This one is T. Seleriana. I was told that this might not do too well in the tropics but this one seems to be happy

This one is a local hybrid - T. caput medusae x bulbosa. Really cool looking with the wavy tubular leaves.

Tillandsia Bulbosa and by the looks of it this is probably the 'giant form'. ordinary T. bulbosa would have flowered and died before getting any close to this size.