This plant is called a pitaca. It is in the agave family (like aloe and where tequila comes from), the tips of the 6 ft tall, silver “leaves” have a spine that will pierce you to the bone and the blossom spike (the last burst of life the poor plant has at the age of three years) is 25 ft tall. These plants dot the landscape and are protected-if not federally then by the locals. You can’t cut a living blossom spike but once the spike is spent its fair game.
There is a small “grove” of these pitaca in the rambla right next to the house and after studying them during a few of our hikes we decided one would make a lovely Chanukah Bush! With a bow saw and some brute strength we cut a choice specimen.
We had big plans for our pitaca! We were going to paint it white, place it in the courtyard and cover it in white lights but, it’s rained so much there was no painting it and we didn’t dare use Tom and Carlos’ indoor lights out in the courtyard. We did however, enjoy it’s grandure in the courtyard for a few days which involved passing it over the walls of the house as we could not get it through a doorway of regular width!
After a few days of seeing our sad pitaca undecorated and out in the rain, we decided we could better enjoy it if we brought it into the sunroom (back up over the roof and through double doors).
Since there was no time to paint it we tarted it up with colored lights and a few ornaments annnnd….made a tree skirt out of cacti trimmings from the garden.
So here you have it…our lovely Christmas Pitaca. The photos seriously don’t do it justice. It’s stunning!
And right out that arched window behind the tree is the Mediterranean Sea…have I told you we’re near the Sea?
Feliz Navidad!
No comments:
Post a Comment