Returning to the roots

[randy_byers]

The Seattle Times ran an article yesterday about wild lupine and the part it plays in the local ecology. Amongst other things lupine was the first thing to spring up in the Mt St Helens pumice. The thing that caught my eye, however, was that lupine has evolved to react to the native bumblebee: "The blossoms include an ingenious spring-loaded mechanism, triggered when the bee's weight opens the flower. That trips a dusting of saffron-colored pollen popped loose from 15 tiny anthers."

I planted a lupine in my bee-friendly garden this year, but since it's apparently a June bloomer, I guess it won't flower until next year, because it certainly isn't blooming right now. I wish I had planted more than one now, but there's time enough for that. The bee-friendly garden is nothing if not a long-term project and process of self-education.

Comments

[wrdnrd]

WHAT?? Journey is awesome. You take that back!!

[randy-byers.livejournal.com]

I won't! I had the most hilarious conversation about Journey with my niece and nephews on Roatan this year. My niece's husband: "Chicks dig Journey." That obviously explains a lot about my love life!

[wrdnrd]

Well, it's true, i only really enjoy a handful of Journey songs -- mostly some of their biggest hits. Of early-'80s arena rock bands, i actually prefer Styx.

[randy-byers.livejournal.com]

I think of Styx as a '70s band (soundtrack to my high school years, argh!), and by the time Journey recorded "Don't Stop Believing" I was listening to Elvis Costello and Brian Eno and Talking Heads. Journey was the anthesis of all I held sacred. I'm less doctrinaire now and have even gone back to listening to Yes, who were a favorite in high school. I'll even listen to country-western now and again. (Which was my father's music.)

[wrdnrd]

Yeah, when Journey was big i was only about 10 or 12 or so and was still subject to the musical whims of my mother. (Tho', thankfully, i escaped without any love at all for The Carpenters or Barry Manilow.) A few years later, when i was finally acquiring my own musical tastes, it was more Indigo Girls and They Might Be Giants and whomever else Sassy magazine had featured that month. Still following someone else's musical whims, i suppose, but at least they had better taste! I'll take Elvis Costello and Robyn Hitchcock ANY day over most of Mom's collection. I guess i'm still stuck with Journey and Styx and Loverboy, tho'.