The Red and the Black - El Rojo y El Negro

Rojo y Negro Hormigas!   (ants)

Oh my word, working in the garden certainly has its own rewards, except that my neighbour has today thinned out the hedge separating his garden from mine and I feel exposed!  No more naked weeding!   (I joke!)

I have removed and remodelled part of the garden which will be my nursery and vegetable garden, this involved much pulling up of weeds and I have started to construct a “natural” fence in order to hide the what was a work area for the gardener.  I have also found the most wonderful garden centre the plants are relatively expensive but the addition of a few hanging baskets of exotic flowers has brightened up the terrace no end.

I was wearing rubber gloved and tried to remember to tuck my trousers into my socks, but the area was/is full of ants. There are little tiny red ants that bite and their bite stings like crazy.  Especially when you plunge your hand by mistake into a nest of these blighters and then find that your glove has a hole in it!  And after about half an hour the only thing to do is to run to the door strip and run into the shower in the hope that I can remove the little devils and gain some relief from the pain!

The much (MUCH!) bigger black ants seem on first meeting to be more amiable provided you don’t interfere with the leaf moving, it is so strange to stand watch a leaf moving across the grass, on investigation there will be small team of ants some lifting and couple seemingly giving instructions.  I kicked an old advocado shell across the  lawn the other day and out poured about 200 of these fellows, they were not happy!  A strategic withdrawal was required.  And I do not know if a these guys bite and hope I don’t have to find out!

Rojo y Negro Tamales!

Christmas and New Year and any family occasion is normally celebrated here buy the production of Red and Black Tamales.   I got acquainted with these lovely comestibles at a party on Boxing Day they were served along with Porto Rican red beans and rice  and a potato salad.

So what are they?   Tamales are a traditional Latin American dish made of maize flour dough, usually corn-based), which is steamed or boiled in a banana leaf wrapper. The wrapping is discarded before eating. Tamales can themselves be filled with meats, cheese, fruits, vegetables, chilies or any preparation according to taste, and both the filling and the cooking liquid may be seasoned.

Tamales have been traced back to the Ancient Mayans, who prepared them for feasts as early as the Preclassic period (1200-250 BC). 

The house of the little grandmothers

The Red and Black Tamales

 

In Guatemala these are the absolute must at Christmas and New Year the red being filled along with the masa with chicken, capers, olives, chillies and all in a red chilli paste!  The black being filled with chicken, raisins, sultanas, cherries, prunes and lots of sugar to make a dark paste plus the obligatory chillies. Mmmmmmmm!

Except that tamales at the fiesta were not chicken but Salmon!  And they tasted fantastic. Sadly many people in Guatemala simply cannot afford to either make or buy them.  I bought 3 red and 3 black for New Year and it cost me Q.75 making them about £1.10 each, or for some people almost a days wages!

Rojo y Negro Serpentes!

OK ....... "If red touches yellow, you're a dead fellow; if red touches black, you're all right, Jack" ..................

Just encountered my first reminder that I am gardening in the tropics! And suddenly I spot a tail~ red and balck bands definately belonging to a snake! A strategic withdrawal ~ armed with alonghandled how I gave the taila poke and found that the "snake" was fortunately long dead but it was in a border I was clearing, and a friend has told me that there will certainly be some in what was a compost heap! My dead "friend" is now hanging in a tree ~ a grim reminder to his relatives! But as the red bands touched black bands it was only a harmless milk snake! Had their been a yellow band it would have been a very venomous coral snake!

After much research on the net I decided to play it safe in future and proceed with caution! 

The good news “hissing sid” turned out to be a long abandoned toy, made of wood!  But I am still not taking any chances in future as this is the time of year according to Mayan tradition for snakes to be on the move!

 

And finally ……

I got news today that my investments have paid me a dividend of around £85 so I went out and bought a camera to replace the one that was stolen!   Did some negotiating and got the price reduced from Q1300 to Q1050 and including a 2GB memory disk! I made up the difference (£12) by having a meat free week! Happy bunny!

 Next blog with my own photos!  

It has occured to me that if you areregistered with this blog you should easily be able to "post comments"  ~ but there are non!   Maybe re-registering will do the trick ~ would love to know what you think about my whitterings!

Hasta Luego Amigos!   (Soon)