More Marvelling

This is the time of year when we think of leaves.  We don't much think about them in the summer - they're green like most of nature, they're on the trees and plants around us, so are ordinary.  In the Fall, they start their downward journey. We see them underneath our feet on a path, in a stream, bunched in doorways where the wind puts them.  They interrupt our view of normal things. I didn't notice the underside of these coleus leaves until last week, when I took some cuttings to start plants for next year.  The upper-side is deep red-black and a perfect foil for chartreuse in the planter display.  I didn't realize the same drama was on the underside of the leaves themselves.  It is one of those marvels.  Go to Google today to play their 'defeat the ghost game'.   I wonder what they do with the statistics.  Here's a site that shows some of the amazing Google numbers - 2 trillion searches annually seems amazing to me.

Water's Words

The Autumn colours in Grimsby don't seem to be that bright.  I made a trip to Toronto on Tuesday and the colours at the Toronto Botanical Garden were splendid.  Beautiful orange and yellow maples reflected in the water of Wilket Creek. The highlight of the trip wasn't the opportunity to catch some Fall colour, but the opportunity to hear Doug Tallamy speak at the  Carolinian Canada CoalitionConference.    "Doug Tallamy is  professor and chair of the Department of Entomology and Wildlife Ecology at the University of Delaware, where he has authored eighty research articles and has taught Insect Taxonomy, Behavioral Ecology, Humans and Nature, and other courses for thirty-two years. Chief among his research goals is to better understand the many ways insects interact with plants and how such interactions determine the diversity of animal communities. His book Bringing Nature Home: How Native Plants Sustain Wildlife in Our Gardens was published by Timber Press in 2007 and was awarded the 2008 silver medal by the Garden Writer’s Association. Tallamy was awarded the Garden Club of America Margaret Douglas Medal for Conservation and the Tom Dodd Jr. Award of Excellence in 2013." A persuasive speaker gives us motivation through facts and data.  The most compelling statistic was that Oak trees supports 534 species of moths and butterflies.  And that their caterpillars are a mandatory food source for nesting birds.  This connection gives us the understanding of why we need to plant insect-friendly species in order to maintain our bird, butterfly and bee populations. And his most important point?  It is up to homeowners to make their gardens welcome to birds and insects.

Time Flows Downhill

We often think of time passing they way we read a book - we read it from left to right from the beginning to the end. There is a remote New Guinea tribe where time flows uphill.  The article is in the New Scientist here.  For this tribe, if they were facing downhill and talking about the future, the person would gesture backwards.  How interesting compared to us - we have a few standard notions of time's spacial orientation.   “HERE and now”, “Back in the 1950s”, “Going forward”… Western languages are full of spatial metaphors for time, and whether you are, say, British, French or German, you no doubt think of the past as behind you and the future as stretching out ahead. Time is a straight line that runs through your body." A standard memory pattern is to recall the past looking up to the left, and imagine the future looking up to the right.  You can find out if this is your internal process by considering a daily activity - e.g. brushing one's teeth.  First recall brushing your teeth yesterday, and the day before, etc.  Next imagine brushing your teeth tomorrow, the next day, etc.  You will likely 'see' an image of yourself placed in front of you to the right and the left.  Today's image is a weathered piece of wood on a St. Augustine dock, with the title "Time Flows Downhill".  How would we interpret this title compared to our New Guinea tribe?

Marvelling the Mushroom Series

Hi everyone,

Here are a few more images in the Marvelling the Mushroom Series.  These are macro images of the underside gills of mushrooms.  They reveal the rich patterns and textures in nature's micro landscapes.