Author: Flower Roberts

Parsley in Protective Custody

| Flower Roberts

My parsley plant started disappearing again.

Last time this happened, I found a little striped Black Swallowtail caterpillar munching on it.

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After a few days it crawled up on the Passion vine, changed shape,

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formed a chrysalis, and disappeared.

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This time though, I could not find the culprit.

Each day the plant got smaller and smaller.

Ah Ha!  I finally caught the bandit in action.

No Black Swallowtail this go-round.

It was a black New Zealand Lop rabbit, Charlotte.

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The plant has been moved out of reach of Miss Munchie.

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She was out there searching for her snack this morning.

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Whew! These rabbits keep me hopping.

FLOWER

Tree of Life

| Flower Roberts

My sister and I found all these different life forms growing on and in one old tree.

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This tiny pine was growing ten feet up between branches.
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The hole in the trunk was full of cobwebs and one lovely white mushroom.
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This mushroom was deep inside the hole in the trunk.
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Lichens and mosses covered the old bark.
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This huge bracket fungi was up about twelve feet high on the trunk.
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Small plants nestled around its roots.
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This dried up lichen looked like leaves.

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It was like a treasure hunt.

This tree is a treasure.

FLOWER

 

Creepy Coffee Cups

| Flower Roberts

Just when you think you know a plant, it morphs on you.

The Coffee Cups/West Indian Kale/Colocasia escuelenta was unhappy.

I moved it.  It loved the new spot beside the small pond.  More sun, more water…

I loved it there too, until the leaves turned into “Coffee Cup Caterpillar Crappers.”

Then the Yellow Jackets started using the leaves as their levy. They hold water you see.

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Then came the creepers. Long skinny purple arms reaching out in all directions.

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One even grew down into the fish pond.

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Since when do elephant ears have runners?

Oh well.

I love them for their swirly venation

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and their purple stems and ribsIMG_4885

and how water beads up on the leaves

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and how the curled up new leaves look like closed umbrellasIMG_4887

and the heart-shape of the leaves

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and that the baby leaves have a blue hue.

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I just love this plant, despite all its quirks.

I am glad, because it looks like I will have many more.

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FLOWER

The Poisonous Path

| Flower Roberts

I went into the woods this evening

to try to locate a lovely bracket fungi that I had photographed previously.

I needed to look up to find it,

but one must always look down while walking in the woods.

This is how I found the path…

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of white mushrooms.

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Yes, they are poisonous Amanitas.  They are lovely but deadly.

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Fear not. I was following their path, not eating them.

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A circle of these is called a fairy ring, so I thought of this as a fairy path.

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If YOU found a fairy path in the woods wouldn’t YOU follow it?

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Every ten feet or so was another cluster of lovely, glowing, white mushrooms.

It went on and on until I had to pause in awe.

There before my very eyes was the Mother of all mushrooms.

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It was big enough to wear as a hat.

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It was a magical adventure. I am so lucky.

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The FLOWER follows a poisonous path through the woods and survives to tell the tale.

What can we learn from Fungi?

| Flower Roberts

There is devastation in Texas, Mexico, Florida and many of the Islands below Florida.

Once all the power and water are back on, there is a big souvenir pile left.

Debris. Non-biodegradable. Non-reusable. Trash.

Soggy sheet rock, insulation, plastics, moldy furniture, ruined appliances and cars…

Dig a hole? Throw it in it?  Have you forgotten the water table below?

Nature experiences its own devastation.

Who cleans up?

Fungi.

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They break down the dead trees and leaves and return the nutrients to the soil.

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This isn’t the end of the story.

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Things eat the mushrooms. They are food for the living, while living off of the dead.

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That’s called a cycle. The circle of life.

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Until we humans figure out we are all part of this same web,

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we may end up in one of these holes we keep digging.

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FLOWER

Finding the Falls

| Flower Roberts

Across the lake, past the island, under the bridge,

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around the bend, through the farm pond

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left of the rushes and mallows,

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up the creek, under the hornet’s nest

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through the floating fungi,

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over the sand bar, down by the liverworts

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toward the sound of running water, up to the rocks

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there is a lovely little water fall.

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FLOW

 

An Evening Walk in the Woods

| Flower Roberts

I took a walk down our road this evening.

I wanted to photograph two of our wildflowers.

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Jewelweed/ Impatiens capensis/Touch me nots

The orange Jewel weed was being molested by a group of hummingbirds.

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They were zipping through the patch, shaking the plants and making all kinds of racket.

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Periodically one would sit and rest on the nearby Pokeberry weed.

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I also wanted to get some pictures of hearts-a-bustin’.

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Hearts-a-bustin/ Euonymus americanus

I cut across my neighbors’ property on the way home.

I found even more fungi.

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Red -belted polypore/ bracket fungi

This snail is having this knocked-over-one for supper.

IMG_4304I gave it back after the photo.

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Amanita ? Poisonous ? Never eat tall white.

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‘Tis the season!

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Snail on a mushroom on a tree. Food chain!

Snails love their ‘shrooms!

Wild FLOWER

Up River

| Flower Roberts

If you want to go where it’s cool and quiet, go up river.

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As you travel, you feel you are leaving everything behind.

Floating between the water and sky with the wind in your hair,

Quietly cruising past the lazy life along the river.

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The air gets cooler as the water gets colder.

It’s time to soak in some sunshine.

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Sit on the shore.

Maybe hang out with Huck Finn

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or lay low with only a couch and a cooler.

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The only sounds are quiet sounds up river.

The wind passing through the grasses,

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and the water lapping the shore,

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or the an eagle flapping its wings.

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the splash of a fish or the plop of a turtle leaving its log.

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Life is slow up river.

We know when we turn around,

that we will yearn for this peace.

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But the wind blows us and the current takes us back to our lives.

Waiting for us to get busy again.

FLOW