Straight On To Today's Post,

I have split it into three parts as there are lots of pictures,

first stop the 7-11 to pay the telephone bill, then to Theprisitt Road to the 3BB office to pay for our Internet connection,

 our next port of call was to a friends house where from there we drove to the plant and flower festival which is held at the Wat Yansangwararam complex once a year,

 we parked next to the stage,

 and made our way into the grounds,

 the very first stall we saw had orchids for sale,

 and this was one specie I had grown a few years ago when I had some outside the house,

 apart from its colour which was rich and deep and the ease of growing it had the most beautiful fragrance,

 these are of the same type, but for some reason they do not have such a strong fragrance,

we then made our way through the information centre, as well as the temple complex there is a full time college here,

giving help and advice to farmers,

 just outside the centre there are some citrus fruits growing,

which are fruiting well,

 there were also lots of school children here drawing and painting,

 all quietly concentrating on their work,

I remember as a kid in the Natural History museum in London there was an arts centre, you would pick up a fold up chair, board, paper and pencil, then off you would go sketching, the days just flew past,

 I guess the same here as the kids seem so preoccupied,

 looking across the central area a photo shoot of visitors is always popular,

 but on a more serious note students are being taught the basics of farming,

 I am guessing there is a live in scholarship of some sort available for students,

 we then continued along the stalls on the perimeter,

 I hope our bromeliads grow as big as these,

 there are of course lots of plants for sale,

 like these coconuts at just 25 baht a plant,

 or some flowering ginger plants,

 that have such strange wax light flowers,

 there were also few bonsai on display,

 I thought this one was cute with a table and chair under the tree,

 a few more of the many plants on offer,

 then I chanced upon these, they are air plants,

 we have two pieces of drift wood that we wanted to put some of these plants on, locally there are quiet expensive, even here they still were high but at 70 baht each I bought a few,

 if only we had a bigger garden I would have bought a few of these mango trees as well,

 we then entered the dessert rose selling area,

 it is a adenium,

 which are often seen out here, it has a large root base which it uses to store water,

 coupled with large attractive flowers,

 as it happens we have one in a pot in our front garden,

 I then nearly missed it, a small stall selling more species of air plants,

 I have to admit I had not seen this one before,

 the one with a flower was 300 baht, I settled for a couple of small ones at 80 baht each,

 in the very next stall some thing else I had not seen for sale out here,

 black stemmed bamboo, at 500 baht, not cheap either,

 we were now at the far end of the central section,

 so we made our way along the top of it,

looking across the central area, if you want to see more just scroll down or hit the 'older posts' button.