UNITED STATES—Last night the wind was howling. Night had fallen and yet there was a sultry warmth in the air. The Santa Ana winds were up to their convection-oven mischief. It was the kind of sighing wind to cast a spell over you, in the process of lying down on the couch/bed conjuring sleep, sweet sleep. At some point you nodded off into a rhapsody of slumber.
The next morning you awoke to the aftermath to find howling wind was not something you dreamed, through it was very dreamy indeed, nightmarish yet comforting. The wind had shaken all dry purple-tissue petals from the bougainvillea. Not a bad thing at all. Of course it would be the cue for the next visitor to Casa de las Bugambilias to pester its chief resident to get out the rake and bag it for Friday’s garbage pickup. And he might go slightly bananas, because he does not was to be manipulated into doing that chore, or worse still, rake them up proactive-preemptively so that said visitor doesn’t need to voice the unwelcome reminder of the bougainvillea petals littering the sidewalk.
In case you were wondering bugambilia is a Spanish variation of the spelling. In Mexico the dried petals are steeped in the petals to make a tea that is a home remedy for coughs and sore throats. Add the magenta petals to boiling water. After the water turns reddish, add Mexican lime juice (key lime) and a spoonful of honey to the cup. Recommended three times a day.
Now if you are trying to lay off the firewater, in the vexing abundance of the holiday season, this non-alcoholic remedy may be just the thing to supplant the tried-and true hot-lemon/tequila/concoction—another great home Mexican remedy to relieve sore throat, cough and chest congestion.
Bougainvillea is a native to South America discovered in Brazil, in Rio de Janeiro, by a French botanist, Philibet Começon in 1768. The name that stuck was commander of the round-the-world expedition: Louis Antoine de Bougainville. This beautiful, high maintenance plant-tree was a late-comer to California in the 1880s (long after taking root in France and Britain following the Bougainville voyage). Like the Mexican Fan palms, brought by Franciscan missionaries for use on Palm Sunday, later planted by the thousands for the 1932 Olympics, Bougainvilleas are an interloper here, brought primarily to create a tropical image for Southern California and attract new residents.
So that wind howling forlornly was no hallucination. A morning stroll verified streets clotted by fallen palm fronds, and piles of Bougainvillea petals littering the walkway in front of my humble abode. The BEWARE OF DOG sign was hurled to the ground. Most disconcerting.
Lupe is on the loose. Oh, my gosh. She’s not in the yard, the kitchen, nor usual room. Wait, there she is—at the foot of the couch, where, unbeknownst to me, Lupe quietly spent the night next to my feet.
To be continued…
