There Did Not Seem To Be Much In The News Today,

that we found interesting, amusing or just plain weird, so straight on with today's post,

 the day started out wet and rainy,

 but as the rain stopped we returned to the weekend plant market just past the Bangkok/Pattaya Hospital on the opposite side of the road from it if you are going to Bangkok,

 parts of the car park were still under water,

 the Bangkok/Pattaya Hospital in the distance, also a little bit of blue sky breaking through the cloud,

 the first thing we noticed was some nicely trained Bougainvilleas,  many people I guess believe the plant is named after a place, but the plant was named after Louis Antoine, Comte de Bougainville,

 we brought an umbrella with us just in case it started to rain again,

 we walked past the ready made waterfalls to one of the stalls I wanted a closer look at,

 the one that had lots of insectivorous plants on it, I had decided to try my hand at growing some of these,

 the downside was that all of the large plants were in the 500 -800 baht range, so that was not going to happen,

 I particularly liked the Venus fly trap with red on the open petals, but just a bit too expensive,

 also the pitcher plants, now these were more my price range, but I did not make a decision till later,

 on the next stall there were some plants that had been trained,

 into quite amazing shapes,

 I had also decided to buy some more cactus,

 to make another miniature cactus garden,

 the trick was not to buy ones that we already had purchased,

 a few bought at that stall and we were on our way again,

 next we were looking at some more Bromeliads, then as I became engrossed with them Diana took a few snaps of the stall next door,

 rabbits and flamingos,

 with even more flamingos,

 and a hanging basket too,

next stop a few more cactus,

 so many to chose from,

 another stall with water lilies,

 so easy to grow out here, but these will not normally survive the UK winter,

 also unfortunately neither will the Victoria lily, Victoria amazonica originally from South America it is an impressive plant but needs a heated greenhouse to grow it in the UK,

 the leaves have sharp spins on them, to stop fish from eating them, their main claim to fame is that a leaf can support the weight of a small child, the leaves are really that big when fully grown!

 Diana then spotted a cactus that she liked,

 we walked past the bonsai trees,

 to a bromeliad stall, not the one we went to last week but a new one,

 there were lots on display so we bought a few different ones,

 decision made, a few in the bag,

 whilst those were being packed we had a look at a few more cacti,

 so we bought a few more of those,

 one member of the bromiliad group is a fruit we know so well, the pineapple,

 I was tempted to buy one of these 'toy' or miniature ones, but though smaller than the normal ones were still a bit too large,

 next door the stall had many types of Plumeria, known as Frangipani for sale,

 the flowers looked so nice with the rain still on them,

 both in single,

 and mixed colours,

 then time to pay for the bromilaids we had bought,

past the orchids ,

 and back to the insectivorous plants, I had decided to take the plunge and buy four of the smaller ones on offer, the two pitcher plants at the top of the picture 150 baht each, bottom right a Venus fly trap at 80 baht and bottom left another type of pitcher plant at just 20 baht,

 this display of grown cover plants looked so nice, but they will not take full sunlight,

 plant buying over it was time for a ice coffee,

 lots more clouds, more rain on the way as we made our way home,

 then the fun began, first I had to mix the soil with gravel to make sure it drained well,

 we had purchased so many cacti we needed to make two more miniature cacti gardens not one as we had planned,

 it may have looked like I had some sort of planting plan,

 but in reality the plan was just to get them planted,

 all sorted and ready to be cleaned of the soil I dropped on them, so out with the brush,

 one piece of good news was that we also bought some gravel to cover the soil with, to avoid being spiked I used a small pot to firm the soil then the gravel,

 one finished,

 and one to go,

 all done, another piece of good news was that I did not once get spiked by a cactus,

 it was now starting to rain, so I decided to leave potting the insectivorous plants,

 and the bromeliads till tomorrow, I must say I like this miniature gardening, no aching back tilling the garden soil and if it all goes wrong it is so easy to start again!

 speaking of miniature gardening, many months ago we started Diana's miniature garden with ferns and mosses, it has come along a treat,

 there are so many small moisture loving plants growing there,

 we sunk two cooking trays into the ground to act as water reservoirs, filled them with coconut chips to keep the area damp,

 put some pieces of moss and fern from the market on top with a few rocks and that was it,

 just water every day and they are all still growing,

after our evening meal we were out on the town, the VC Hotel showing some signs of its refurbishment coming to an end,

after a couple in Super Girls we made our way down to the street,

 

the last time we were here we decided that this visit would include a look in Happy a go-go,

 

it even has its own street with beer bars lining both sides of it,

 

although we did not go into New Living Dolls this week the last time we were there I forgot to take a picture of its sign,

we walked past the upstairs bars that seem to favour ladies from Europe,

 

I just love the neon signs,

next stop Living Dolls Showcase for a couple in there,

for our final stop of the evening Champions, where we met up with Frankie, soon after Slim Jim arrived followed by Brian, we set the world to rights, then as it was late we made our way home,

the front of the VC Hotel was still boarded up, but I guess it will be open soon, just a small thing, remember yesterday when the banner was being put up in the weekend night market? we drove past it today, not 24 hours later and it was totalled! on our way back a new banner had replaced it, the old one still on the ground waiting to be taken away, you never know the new one might last a little longer, with that we were home and off to bed.