We Decided To Pop Over To The Weekend Plant Market,

I wanted to buy some more seeds and seed trays,

 if you want to visit it, it is on the Sumkivitt Road, leaving Pattaya go past the Bangkok Pattaya hospital on your left, take the next 'U' turn so you are now heading back to Pattaya and it is on your left hand side, to day we parked at the opposite end of the car park, this is the view looking towards the hospital,

 nice blue skies for a change,

 some of the first plants we went past were these yucca plants,

 all around the market there are tubs which are kept full of water and are topped up during the day, that way the traders can keep their plants and trees watered, but there is another use for the tubs if you want to cool off!

 the water tubs are placed every few stalls or so, 

 so many plants to chose from,

 as well as garden ornaments,

 and they spell better than me!

 I always find this stall fascinating, they sell insectivorous plants,

 and these, Venus fly traps were the seeds I was planting last week, hopefully in a few months they will germinate, I sowed lots of them, I figure that there will be a high failure rate, plant growing is not my forte, 

 on to one of the aquatic stalls, the dry goods section,

 and wet goods, fish in aquariums, 

 and pools,

 this stall looked so colourful,

 they just had to be artificial,

 a waterfall stall,

 a few visits ago we watched one that was being lifted by a mobile crane for delivery to the buyer,

 many of the plants here like these need protection from direct sunlight, so sun shades are placed over the stall,

 another aquatic stall though a bit smaller than the previous one,

 waterlilies, so nice in a pool,

 especially these that are huge,

 the cactus stall had lots to chose from,

 I planted a couple of cactus gardens some time ago,

 and they are growing well,

 but at the front of the stall I noticed these plants in flower,

 which I do not think are actually cactus,

 in the stall next door some orchids,

 and some more garden ornaments, these in a natural finish,

 opposite coloured ones,

 two happy sheep,

 and what garden would be complete without a couple of rabbits? 

 we then found another stall selling artificial flowers,

so colourful,

 a plant from the past, a couple of  Cycads,

they typically grow very slowly and live very long, with some specimens known to be as much as 1,000 years old, because of their superficial resemblance, they are sometimes confused with and mistaken for palms or ferns, but are only distantly related to either, the reason I called them a plant from the past is because, the cycad fossil record dates to the early Permian, some 280 million years ago,

 orchids,

 boxes and boxes of them all yours at 2 plants for 100 baht,

 this stall caught my eye, at the back something I had not seen before,

 a water feature which is common enough with parrots and mushrooms, but this one was a garden light as well,

 this is a very unusual plant, we have seen these before, but I do not know what it is called,

  but one thing I do know the flower at it's base had so many flies around that it must give out a scent to attract them,

 next stop the coffee stall, I had bought some Adenium seeds (desert rose) as they are east to grow, but try as we might we could not find any seed trays, so on the way back we tried every plant centre we could find,

 like this one in Soi Khaotalo,

they had so many plants,

 pots and containers,

 but no black plastic oblong seed trays that I really wanted, as with all of the other outlets we tried, lots of round ones but not a oblong one to be had, so off home we went,

 and as it was the first Saturday of the month it was time for a water change in the aquariums,

 I just hope the fish appreciate it!

 they certainly seemed happy enough playing in the incoming water,

 for our evening meal our usual bar-b-q,

 we had starters of garlic bread, followed by prawn kebabs,

chicken legs for Diana and a baked potato,

to go with my marinated chicken which was so tasty, Diana had marinated it in a mixture of ginger, lemon grass with salt and pepper, but also added the juice from a couple of those small bitter oranges that grow on a bush in our small garden, the difference in flavor was exceptional, if you have one of these bushes/trees next time you fancy a change try using the juice form a couple of the fruits with chicken, 'Cheers!', we then moved inside for our evenings film,


The Duellists, a film that was actually based on events that started in 1794, as a young officer in Napoleon's Army, Dupont was ordered to deliver a disagreeable message to a fellow officer, Fournier, a rabid duelist, Fournier, taking out his subsequent rage on the messenger, challenged Dupont to a duel, this sparked a succession of encounters, waged with sword and pistol, that spanned decades, the contest was eventually resolved, but I will not say how in case you want to see the movie, but it was an enjoyable film set in rural France, then for us we were off to bed.