I May Be Going Bananas

Hi, guys. I know. It's been too long, so I figured I'd pop in to say hi and give y'all a brief update before another month slips through my fingers. My daughter has been working reeeeeeeally hard, both with a physical therapist and on her own at home, and her progress is absolutely astounding. I'm so proud of her determination and good attitude. She was even able to shoot some pool a couple days ago!

And me? I'm doing well. Better some days than others, but mostly, I can't complain. Thanks to some wonderful ham friends, all the antennas and towers that were at the side of the house got dismantled last weekend. Woo HOOOOOOOO!!! Still more antennas and towers to go, but this is a huge step. (I haven't seen the naked side of my house in years!) Hams are the BEST. Really. I've gotten lots of other stuff done, too, but no need to bore you with the details. One kinda neat thing... my neighbor mentioned that he was going to buy a riding lawn mower, and I told him he could just use mine... and asked him to give me a brief tutorial so I can operate it, too. Get this. He's gonna use my mower, but he's also gonna maintain it... and cut my grass! Win-win for both of us! Life is good.

I started writing the following post one year ago today. I got about half of it done, but then Mike got sicker, and I wasn't in the mood to finish. Now is its time. Might as well... I'd already done the research and taken notes. HA. No promises, but I'll try to get back to the blogosphere a little sooner next time. Y'all take care. I love you guys.

#################

Thought for the day: The older you get, the better you get. Unless you're a banana. [Rose Nyland]

Some of you may remember this cute little guy, because I've shared his picture with y'all before. Mike (AKA Smarticus) gave him to me for Valentine's Day about a thousand years ago. Give or take. 

Anyhow, when you squeeze the monkey's belly, he gives a wolf whistle and says in a raspy dirty old man kinda voice, "I go bananas over you!"( If he had eyebrows, they would've wiggled, I'm sure.)

The monkey's voice is fading and is growing more and more muffled, but he still looks good as new. Even his banana looks pristine. Which is a lot more than I can say for the bananas I bought at the grocery store a couple days ago. I swear, if I ever get a speeding ticket on the way home from the grocery store, it'll only be because I was trying to get home before the darned bananas turned brown.

A ham radio friend emailed me the picture on the right, which he described as a giant elephant made out of bananas. 

First thing that came to my mind was that a heckuva lot of people must've worked on THAT project. I mean, just think about what it'd be like if anyone ever tried to pull off a feat like that single-handedly. Before the poor slob even made it to the halfway point, the first bananas he'd put in place would've already mutated into smelly oozing gobs of brown mush that he'd have to replace. Impossible, I tell ya!  It'd be like trying to fill a bottomless bucket with water. Oh, and don't forget the fruit flies. The smell of overripe and rotting bananas would attract fruit flies like... um, flies. Yeah, exactly like flies. Those annoying little boogers would magically materialize out of nowhere, and they'd establish a brand new thriving community faster than a hungry gorilla can inhale a banana . 

So, um no. Not gonna try that. I'll happily bake some banana bread or a decadent banana cream pie, but ix-nay on the banana-building with a bunch of rapidly rotting bananas... while being swarmed by fruit flies. 

But what would be fun is... a banana CAR. You know, like the famous Oscar Meyer weinermobile... only instead of a rolling hot dog, it'd be a rolling... banana. I find that idea rather... a-peel-ing. 

Evidently, a guy named Steve Braithwaite liked the idea, too. 

This self-proclaimed goofy fella decided about a decade ago to up his eccentricity credentials by creating a unique vehicle to tour around the U.S. and spread joy. He wanted something totally ridiculous and fun. Looks like he got just what he wanted, dontcha think? Built on the chassis of a 1993 Ford pick-up truck, this impressive never-rot banana mobile measures twenty-three feet long and is 9.8 feet tall. Like everything else, the pandemic has changed things for this adventurous gent, but no doubt, as conditions improve, I reckon he'll be able to resume his appearances at fairs and festivals all over the country. His license tag? SPLIT. 

Hmmm, which reminds me... do you know why the banana split? 

He had artistic differences with the rest of the bunch. 

And how about the banana smoothie?

He's the one who gets all the girls. 

Ever hear of shoes made out of bananas? 

Yep, they're called slippers... (Totally nonfriction!)

Okay, how about some fun facts about bananas?

• The inner skin of a banana peel works well to polish leather. (I wonder what inspired someone to try this for the first time...?)
• Bananas can float on water, because they're less dense. (Does that mean they're smart? )
• Bananas grow on plants considered herbs, but the banana itself is classified as a... berry. ("Berry" is a botanical term, indicating the presence of seeds, pulp, and three separate layers: the exocarp is the outer skin, the mesocarp is the part we eat, and the endocarp is the part closest to the seeds... which are on the inside. Ironically, blackberries, mulberries, strawberries and raspberries aren't actually berries at all... but bananas, pumpkins, avocados, and cucumbers ARE.)
• Bananas are low in salt and high in potassium, generously providing a natural way to help lower blood pressure. Most of you probably already knew that, but did you know banana potassium is slightly radioactive? (K-40) Not dangerous... just interesting. (If someone eats too many bananas, do you think he could go into banana-phalactic shock...?)
• Bananas may serve as a mood enhancer. That's because they contain tryptophan and B-6, which help the body produce seratonin. (All they do for me is give me gas... which makes me giggle. So yeah... mood enhancer... never mind.)
• In addition to polishing your leather shoes with a banana peel, you can also rub that inner peeling on your skin to alleviate itching and inflammation. (And the fruit flies will just LOVE you!)
• Would you believe humans share about 50% of the same DNA that's in a banana??? 
• A cluster of bananas is known as a hand, and each banana is a finger.
• In China, it's illegal to stream videos of anyone eating a banana.
• Despite the banana's phallic shape, alas, its sex life stinks. Cavendish, the kind of banana most of us eat, is sterile. In the wild, most bananas have very large seeds and are mostly inedible, and what we eat is a mutation, in which the seeds are underdeveloped and incapable of sexual reproduction. Farmers use cuttings to start new plants and replant cuttings to clone.

There. Now you know far more about bananas than you ever cared to know. You're welcome. 

   

                                    Until next time, take care of yourselves. And each other.

P.S. The picture of the giant elephant made out of bananas that my friend sent me is actually a depiction of the Hindu god Ganish, made of green bananas. It was created in Odisha, India, in 2017, and at the conclusion of a 10-day festival, the ripened bananas were then distributed to the poor.

Vive Les Differences!

Thought for the day: Do you think God gets stoned? I think so... look at the platypus. [Robin Williams]

[image: wikipedia]

You ever feel like you're moving in slow motion? Unmotivated and more than a little lazy?

(ahem) Yeah, me neither.

Who am I kidding? Lately, I feel like my inner self is turning into a sloth.

Not that I don't appreciate the sloth, mind you... I do. With that Chewbacca-like long hair and those diva-like long nails, it's a veritable glamour queen of the animal world, and it undeniably marches to the beat of its own drummer. A verrrry slow beat. But as much as I appreciate the sloth, one of the animals I appreciate even more is the wonderful, amazing, totally unique duck-billed platypus. Talk about individuality! I dunno if Robin Williams was right to say God was stoned when he created the platypus, though. I prefer to think of the platypus as being the manifestation of a great sense of humor.

[image: wikipedia]

I mean, really. Think about it. The platypus has clawed feet in the rear, webbed feet in front, a beaver-like tail, otter-like fur, and a soft pliable duck-like bill. Believe it or not, this unusual-looking guy shares DNA with mammals, birds, AND reptiles. It's as though he were made from a bunch of spare parts, all thrown together willy-nilly. (The original case of cosmic recycling?)

I like the duck-billed platypus
Because it is anomalous.
I like the way it raises its family,
Partly birdly, partly mammaly.
I like its independent attitude
Let no one call it a duck-billed platitude. [Ogden Nash]

Um, then again, maybe the platypus wasn't one of the original animals from the get-go. Maybe there was a little bit of (ahem) hanky panky taking place on that ark...








Alas, most of us will never have the pleasure of seeing a duck-billed platypus in person, although it's one of those bucket list kinda things for me. You folks in Australia might not even ever see one in the wild, because they're pretty introverted and vant to be alone most of the time. But at least you guys have the option of seeing them in your zoos and conservation facilities. (Lucky you!)

Some interesting fun facts about the platypus:

• They don't have stomachs! (So that's how they stay so slim...) Instead, like fish, they have a gullet that connects directly to their intestines.
• Their bills are covered with thousands of super-sensitive cells that detect the electric fields of other critters... kinda like a sixth sense. When a platypus goes underwater, a protective flap of skin covers his eyes and ears, making him both blind and deaf, but his bill more than makes up for it. That handy dandy electrolocation ability in his bill takes over and allows him to zero right in on his prey.  
• They're one of only two egg-laying mammals in the world. (The other is the echidna, also native to Australia.) And although they lactate, they have no nipples! What they do have are mammary glands, and their babies simply suck the milk from their mother's abdominal skin or fur.
• The males have a venomous spur on each hind leg, which is only activated during mating season, presumably to prevent other amorous males from getting too chummy with their ladies. 

[image of spur: wikipedia]

• The webbing on their front feet is retractable. It helps them swim in the water... using their front legs, like a doggy paddle... and then retracts on land to reveal sharp claws.
• They have no teeth. The adults don't, anyway. (Babies have tiny teeth, but they don't last long, and once they fall out, they don't grow new ones.) They scoop up gravel from the river bottom to use as makeshift teeth to grind their food. Pretty cool, huh?
• Their tails may look like beaver tails, but they serve a different purpose. Platypuses don't use them to slap the water as a warning, like beavers do. Nearly half of their body's fat is stored in the tail... kinda like a back-up pantry... and it serves as a food source during times of scarcity. Moms also shelter their incubating eggs against their warm bodies with those tails. 
• Know what platypus babies are called? Puggles! Isn't that adorable? Wouldn't you love to snuggle with a puggle...? (They're such spiffy dressers!)

                                    Is it any wonder I'm so enamored of these creatures?

In December of 2019, there were so many duck-billed platypuses in Australia, they were deemed common. (As if!) Sadly, as of January of this year, they've joined the ranks of endangered species, due largely to drought and wildfires. Thankfully, there are many people dedicated to saving them... like these folks with the Taronga Zoo in Sydney:

If you're like me, that isn't NEARLY enough footage of these critters. So how about  a little bit more?

There are sooooo many incredible, awe-inspiring creatures in this world of ours, but to me, the duck-billed platypus is in a class by itself. Truly unique, in every sense of the word... kinda like... us! So I say embrace your differences, people! Celebrate the unique! You may not have the privilege of being a platypus, but, by golly, YOU are the only YOU in the entire world. Like the platypus, you are truly one of a kind.

Oh, yeah! I almost forgot. Did you ever wonder what a platypus sounded like? Well... wonder no more:

                                                                   
                                                                (You're welcome!)

                                  Until next time, take care of yourselves. And each other.

More Fun in Charleston

Thought for the day: All good things must come to an end. (sigh)

No matter how beautiful a day may be, the sun has to eventually set, and no matter how much fun an experience may be, it, too, must end.

So I promise this'll be the last post about our 50th anniversary trip to Charleston. Then I'll find something new to bore you with.

This last post will be about two plantations in the Charleston area. Boone Hall, located in Mt. Pleasant, has been dubbed the #1 plantation by USA Today, and called a must-see destination by many, so that was our first plantation stop. But that wasn't the only reason. I'd seen pictures of the entry to that plantation... and there's a good chance you have, too, because it's a rather iconic shot. If you saw the movie North and South, you might remember the scene with Patrick Swayze riding on horseback down that entryway road. The plantation was also featured in numerous other flicks, like The Notebook. So me being me, even though we'd already visited the mighty Angel Oak, I wanted to see this impressive line-up of live oaks in person.

Boone Hall was founded in 1681 by Englishman Major John Boone, and it was his son who planted the 88 live oaks in 1743. It took nearly two centuries for the trees to become large enough to form a canopy over the road, and this Avenue of Oaks extends for 3/4 of a mile.

A view of the canopy from the car. Believe, me, it looks a lot more impressive in person than it does in this picture.

This one was taken on foot. A little better.

 

The Avenue of Oaks offered the most concentrated grouping of live oaks on the plantation, but they weren't the only ones in sight. They were all over the place... and they were all gorgeous.

Last shot of the trees. I (ahem) tend to get carried away...

The old cotton mill (circa O-L-D) is an impressive-looking building. As you can see, it's currently undergoing some extensive restoration. 

It's kinda funny that I took a picture of THIS, but not a single photo of the plantation house. Without a doubt, it is beautiful, but what I would've really liked to capture is its interior. The furnishings are magnificent, and the sunroom-like area is fabulous. Unfortunately, taking pictures inside was a no-no. The McRae family purchased the plantation in 1955, and a year later, the family began allowing tours. Family members still live on the upper level of the home... which was not part of the tour. Although the number of farmed acreage has shrunk over time, Boone Hall remains America's oldest continuously working plantation.

A handful of original slave cabin remain, and they're all made of bricks... which were made by the slaves themselves. In fact, millions of bricks were made on the plantation, and they were used to build many important buildings in Charleston and far beyond. Ft. Sumter was constructed of bricks that were made at Boone Hall.

Each of the remaining cabins has been converted into small museums, each one telling a different chapter in the story of  African Americans. This gal in the picture told the story of the Gullah people, and her presentation included some awesome music. Man, does she ever have some pipes! And she sang a little bit of everything...

I delighted in the music of Africa, the earliest of the slave plantation songs, the transformation into Christianity and all that Christianity brought to the lives of the Africans who were forced to come to America. [Harry Belafonte]

I'm a little sorry I didn't take more pictures. I guess I was too busy taking in the experience to bother recording much of it. Sorry... how selfish of me not to think of you guys. HA! Here... maybe this short video will make up for it. (And I don't know how the sneaky fella got away with taking a couple shots inside of the house. I wish he would've gotten the darned sunroom!)                                       

                                                                Pretty cool, huh?

The other plantation we visited was the Charleston Tea Plantation... the ONLY large-scale commercial tea plantation in America. There, we toured the area where the tea is processed, sampled all kinds of their awesome teas, took a wagon ride all around the plantation, learned a ton of stuff about tea, and... came home with a whole grocery-sized bag full of teas. (Which I'm drinking my way through quite handily. I just ordered some more of their loose leaf tea from Amazon. The peach and mint are my favorites.)

This is one of the many fields of tea. See how flat the plants are on top? That's because the process of harvesting entails skimming off a couple inches of new growth at the top of the bushes. Every plant on the plantation today is the offspring of the plants originally brought to South Carolina in the 1700s, and for hundreds of years, each plant has been grown from shoots, which are nurtured in greenhouses for four years before taking their place in the fields.

This funny-looking contraption is called the Green Machine,and it was built specifically for harvesting tea. There are only a few of them in existence in the world, and each machine can do the work of 500 people. Where people would have to carefully pick the new growth leaves from each bush by hand, one at a time, this machine gently slices off that new growth and tosses it into a bin.

Did you know the three basic types of tea all come from the same plant? The difference between black, oolong, and green tea lies not in the tea, but in how long it's processed after it's picked.

SOME FUN FACTS ABOUT TEA:

• Tea-drinking dates back to 2700 B.C. Not sure how it was first discovered to be such a tasty beverage, but rumor has it that some tea leaves accidentally fell into a pot of water that was being boiled for his consumption, and Chinese Emperor Shen Nung was so pleased with the taste, he mandated that they be purposely added to his water every day after that. 
• Tea became immensely popular in China and Japan, where it was considered both health-enhancing and mystical. It wasn't introduced to the Western world until the time of Marco Polo's explorations in the 1600s.
• Tea is a member of the camellia family. Its proper name is Camellia Sinensis.
• America provided two innovations for tea: the tea bag, and iced tea. Tea bags are now popular all over the world, but iced tea? Not so much. About 85% of the tea consumed in the U.S. is iced, but it has never become popular anywhere else in the world. 
• Tea is the world's most popular beverage after water.
• Approximately 6 billion pounds of tea are produced every year, enough to provide every man, woman, and child with 200 cups per day. (I'm doing MY part... are YOU?)
• The boiling water you pour over your tea bag or loose tea releases the caffeine. To reduce the amount of caffeine by 65%, pour boiling water over your teabag or loose tea... and then dump it out and pour some fresh water on the bag or tea. Ta DA!

                                                         Gee... suddenly... I'm very thirsty...

                                    Until next time, take care of yourselves. And each other.

P.S. Many thanks to all of you who left a comment on my last post, even though I wasn't available to respond. I appreciate the heck out of it. And you. We were chilling in western North Carolina with some friends who live at the top of a mountain. Lots of fun, and after seeing bear scat up there, I won't be grumbling so much about the piles neighborhood dogs leave in our yard. And Geo? Your comment gave me cause to pause, but although your account is terrific, our Huong was most definitely trying to get a rise out of me. :)

And Today's Winner is... YOU!

Thought for the day:  Today I will live in the moment. Unless it's unpleasant, in which case, I will eat a cupcake.

[image courtesy of Unsplash]

 I'd say we're all winners, or at least, we all have an equal opportunity to make this a terrific... and winning... day. All we have to do is carpe the hell out of the diem. Seize the day, people!

I was at a loss as to what to write about today, so I decided to let the day itself dictate the topic.

So what's special about this day?

Well, for one thing, February first is the day Abraham Lincoln signed the 13th amendment, which ended slavery in the United States. In 1948, Truman honored the event by making today National Freedom Day as a way to recognize America as a symbol of freedom.

May freedom and justice become realities... and not just lofty ideals or symbols... both in the U.S. and in every corner of the world.

We must accept finite disappointment, but never lose infinite hope. [Martin Luther King, Jr.]

So, please... feel free to celebrate! We can't all visit the Liberty Bell to lay a wreath, but we can most certainly go to Taco Bell for lunch.

[image courtesy of Morguefile]

Know what else today is?

Hula in the Coola Day! Woo HOO!

Know how to celebrate? Go outside and do the hula, of course! Maybe you could have a luau, even. With tiki torches and ukuleles, the whole bit. (On the plus side, if there's snow on the ground in your neck of the woods, maybe the tiki torches will encourage it to melt...?)

Reminds me a little of the one and only time I ever went trick-or-treating. I was thirteen years old. My father was... let's just say he was difficult... so Halloween at our house meant locking the door, closing the drapes, and turning out the lights. Forget giving candy to any so-and-so neighborhood kids, let alone allowing this so-and-so kid to go out begging for it. But that year... my father was working the 3 to 11 shift, and my mother said I could go out with my friends. (Yes, there may possibly have been some uber dramatic begging involved.) Anyhow, I decided to go as a hula dancer. Yeah. In Maryland. In October. I made the coolest grass skirt ever out of crepe paper, and I decorated a bra top out the wazoo, and I even had a lei. I was ready, baby!

My mother said no way.

She made me wear a sweater under the decorated-out-the-wazoo bra top, dungarees under the skirt, and a big old coat over top. Let's just say I didn't do the hula... but don't let that stop YOU from doing it today!

[image courtesy of morguefile]

Let's see... what else is being celebrated today...?

Well, it's Change Your Password Day. (You can go first...) It's also G.I. Joe Day, a day to celebrate the first doll designed just for boys. Yeah, yeah, I know. NOT a doll. An action figure. (I wonder why he and Barbie never got together? Think her personality's too plastic for him?)

Today is also (ta-Da!) Decorating with Candy Day. Pretty cool, I guess, but heck, I celebrate that darned near every day. I simply love to decorate my tummy with candy...

[image courtesy of morguefile]

YUM! Today is also National Baked Alaska Day. To be perfectly honest, I've never tasted this dessert before, but the cake, ice cream and browned meringue combination sounds absolutely scrumptious. Maybe today's the day...?

Today is also National Serpent Day and Robinson Crusoe Day. (Rather fitting that the day falls on a Friday this year, dontcha think?)

It's also National Get Up Day.

Somehow, I think expectations are higher than simply crawling out of bed, but at least, I accomplished that much. Baby steps, people. Baby steps.

Tomorrow, I may touch my toes.







I saved the best for last.

                                                       Today is Spunky Old Broads Day!

Actually, today is the first day of a whole month's celebration of us sassy women over fifty who refuse to get old quietly, and who are hell-bent on living a regret-free life. YAY, us!!!

Today is the oldest you've ever been and the youngest you'll ever be, so make the most of it!

                             Until next time, take care of yourselves. And each other.

Odds and Ends

Thought for the day: If your odds 'n' ends drawer only has one item left in it, which is it... an odd or an end?

This blog always tends to be a bit on the eclectic side, but today, we're going all-out random by writing about four totally unrelated items. See, whenever I come across something that piques my interest, I write a note to self to remind me to dig a little deeper.

So... I dug... and this post is the result. (I hope you dig it!)

[wikipedia image, courtesy of David Iliff]

For the first item, we're going to visit a beautiful national park. Yosemite. This mountain formation is known as the Half Dome, because with its one sheer face and three smooth rounded sides, it kinda looks like a dome cut in half. Located 4737 feet (1444 meters) above the valley floor, it's quite the majestic sight, isn't it?

It's also a favorite target for intrepid mountaineers and rock climbers. In particular, there's a section known as the Thank God Ledge. Personally,  I'd be more inclined to call it the No Way in Hell Ledge, because there is NO WAY you'd ever find my butt up there.  I'm not even sure my fat feet would fit...

                                                           Care to take a peek?

Whew, huh? Although we wimps may consider the notion of putting one's life in danger by traversing a ledge that was clearly not designed for people to traverse, I'm sure those who do such a thing may consider us to be the odd ones.

[wikipedia]

Since some of you either live or have lived in parts of the country where these evil cacti grow, I'm sure you're familiar with them. (Hopefully, not too closely.) The proper name of this booger is cylindropuntia fulgida, but it's more commonly known as the teddy bear cholla. Awww! Sweet name, huh? I guess 'cause it looks so cute and cuddly...

[wikipedia]

Those thorns don't look all that cute and cuddly in this close-up shot, do they? This piece, detached from the cactus plant, demonstrates why it's also known as the jumping cholla. 

No, it doesn't actually jump... but I bet it's made plenty of people and animals jump. And holler.

And bleed.

These little pieces of the cacti are so loosely attached to the plant, lightly touching the plant makes them detach. Even the vibrations from someone foolish enough to walk too closely to it can set 'em free.

And they aren't nearly as easy to detach from human and animal flesh as they are from the plant.

[wikipedia]

The hymenopus coronatus, AKA the orchid mantis is much more friendly than that cactus. Unless you're an insect, that is.

Found in Southeast Asia, this mantis is pink and white with semi-opalescent flattened limbs that enable it to blend in beautifully with an orchid. It clings to the blossom with its rear legs and sways gently to attract flies and other insects. (AKA dinner)



                                      Even if you don't like bugs... isn't she a beauty?

[wikipedia]

We're going to end with a rather remarkable woman... Mary Ellis, who was the last surviving female pilot from WWII. She flew 76 different types of planes and delivered more than 1000 of them, but her favorite plane to fly was the Spitfire... which she flew solo. She passed away in July of this year... at the age of 101... and as you can see in the video, which was made just a few months before her death, she was still full of spit and vinegar.

No wonder the biography about her is titled A Spitfire Girl. (Author: Melody Foreman)

       Well, that's it for now. Odd enough collection for ya? (Never apologize for being different.)
Curiosity killed the cat, but where human beings are concerned, the only thing a healthy curiosity can kill is ignorance. [Harry Lorayne]

                                  Until next time, take care of yourselves. And each other.

I'll Fly Away

Thought for the day: What the caterpillar calls the end of the world the master calls a butterfly. [Richard Bach]

[image: morguefile]

It'd be kinda cool if we could eat and eat and eat until we're too fat to move, and then sleep for a while, only to wake up transformed into a beautiful creature. With wings!

Yeah, not gonna happen. With my luck, I'd morph into a cockroach. (shudder)

Anyhow, July 21 - 29 is recognized around the world as National Moth Week, so I thought this would be a good time to take a little flit around the Lepidoptera family with you. Although moths make up from 89 to 94% of this family,  most of us are much more familiar with butterflies. Why? Easy. They flutter through our gardens during the day and their brightly-colored wings are usually very beautiful. We associate them with flowers and summertime, and in general, most of us like them. Moths, on the other hand, tend to be rather drab and do most of their flying at night, and we associate them with devouring our trees and snacking on our favorite woolen sweater. (They really do need to get a better PR team!) However, like butterflies, moths also play an important role in plant pollination.

[image: seniorark]

Other differences between moths and butterflies:

• Butterflies have antennae that are club-shaped with a long shaft, while moths have feathery or saw-edged ones.
• Moths fold their wings in a tent-like manner to cover their abdomens, while butterflies raise them vertically over their backs.
• Moth larvae develop in silk cocoons, while butterflies build a more hard-shelled chrysalis.
• Moths have a gizmo called a frenulum, which couples their wings, allowing them to work in unison. Butterflies do not.
• When you were a child, did adults dissuade you from handling butterflies and moths by saying they wouldn't be able to fly if you dislodged some of that powdery stuff from their wings? Not true. They actually shed that powdery stuff naturally. It's more like scales than some kind of magical flying dust. 

How about some spiffy pictures and fun facts?

[image: wikipedia]

The lime green luna moth has a wingspan of about four and a half inches, and it glows in the dark! (A built-in night light!) These critters are indigenous to Georgia, but I've never seen one. 

[image: wikipedia]

This hairy-looking guy is a buck moth, and he clearly demonstrates another difference between moths and butterflies. Moths are generally stout and fuzzy, while butterflies are slender and smooth. The larvae of this  Ewok-looking moth have hollow spines, which are attached to a poison sac, and their sting can cause itching, burning and nausea. This moth is also a rebel. Unlike other moths, this guy prefers to fly during the daytime.

[image: wikipedia]

Another day-flying rebel moth is this brightly-colored urania leilus of South America.

[image: wikipedia]

But the biggest rebel of all has to be this Castniid moth of Australia and Indonesia. Not only are they day-fliers, but they have clubbed antennae and brightly-colored wings. (Half of 'em, anyway.)

[image: wikipedia]

Recognize this? It's a tent caterpillar nest. These moths are more sociable than most, and build and share huge silk nests. Where I grew up in Maryland, they were very prevalent, with nests in almost every tree, and bazillions of the caterpillars lumbering all over the place on the ground. I used to kinda like them, until the boy down the street smashed several of them on top of my head. I never felt quite the same about them again...

The largest moth? That would be the Atlas moth, whose wingspan can be as great as twelve inches. The smallest? The appropriately named pygmy moth, which is a teeny 3/32 of an inch. Barely noticeable, right? Not so of this Atlas monster:

[image: wikipedia]

With wingspans measuring an average eleven inches, Birdwings are the largest butterflies. This chart shows males on the left and females on the right.

The smallest? Blues, which are between one quarter and one half inch in size. And, um... they're blue.

[image: wikipedia]

One of the coolest butterflies... and the queen of camouflage... has to be this dead leaf butterfly. Amazing, isn't it?

[image: wikipedia]

When its wings are open, it shows it true colors.

[image: wikipedia]

This is a gypsy moth larva. For a very brief while, our older son had one of them... as a pet. Larry the larva.



In the early seventies, my mother and aunt came down for a visit, and while Smarticus was at work, we went to Lake Lanier for the day. The place was absolutely swarming with an army of official-looking khaki-clad fellas, but we didn't bother them, and they didn't bother us. In the meantime, our son found the colorful larva and like most little boys, wanted to bring it back home. Well, (ahem) it turned out that those men were on the look-out for gypsy moth larvae... so they could kill them, because the little boogers are extremely destructive. And we, um, brought one home with us. Let's just say the holes we punched in the jar lid had verrrry sharp edges, and Smarticus, being the friendly fellow he is, yelled "Helloooooo, Larry!" to the larva quite often... while, um, shaking the jar vigorously. (What? The rude little guy refused to answer!) And that... was that...for the dearly departed hairy Larry.

I can't resist sharing this video with you. It's another one of the giant Atlas moth. I mean, what kinda person would let a moth do this...?

                                     I would NEVER! But a butterfly? That's a different story...

I'm flitting off to spend some time with our grandchildren, so I won't be responding to your comments right away. Trust me, I will not let our kiddos capture any larvae in a jar.

                           Until next time, take care of yourselves. And each other.

Boughing to the Wonder of Trees

Thought for the day: Never say there is nothing beautiful in the world anymore. There is always something to make you wonder in the shape of a tree, the trembling of a leaf. [Albert Schweitzer]

[Thanks to Icanhascheezburger.com for permission to use this pic]

Albert Schweitzer was one of my childhood heroes, so it's good to know I have something in common with him.

I love trees. I love them for their beauty, their diversity, their tenacity, and their strength. For the fruit and nuts they provide, the blessed shelter of their shade on a hot day, and for the gift they give us of cleaner air and water.

(ahem) In the spirit of full disclosure, it is, however, possible that I may have said an unkind word or two in the past when raking up a bazillion leaves or stepping on one of those... blessed... weapons, AKA gumballs, littering our front yard. But that's beside the point. I still love trees.They're some of the longest-living and most marvelous wonders in the world.

Trees are poems that the earth writes upon the sky. [Kahlil Gebran]

Although a gentle breeze rustling through their leaves sometimes sounds suspiciously like laughter, I seriously doubt if trees have a sense of humor. Then again, maybe they do. It'd be perfectly oak-ay if they bark with laughter at us silly people for raking up their leaves, even though it isn't a very poplar job and is sometimes over-elming.

Dogwood trees would make awesome pets, dontcha think? They have a nice bark, but they wooden ever bite.

And maybe redwood trees tell tall tales.

What did the beaver say to the tree? It's been nice gnawing ya.

Oak-ay, I'll stop before I make an ash of myself and yew guys get even sycamore of me and my puns. (Even though you're kinda aspen for it... after all, it's a risk you take whenever you visit my blog.) But let's talk about some amazing trees, shall we? Cedar are lots of things to say about trees that don't include bad puns. (Sorry. Last one.) (What a releaf, huh? Oops... sorry! Oak-kay, I'm done now...)

[image courtesy of seniorark]

Even if they don't have a sense of humor, trees do communicate. When asked how many miles it was to the nearest town, look how the helpful tree in this picture responded.

Okay, so that's a lie. But trees really do communicate. For example, when a willow tree is attacked by webworms, it emits a chemical that warns other willows, which triggers them to produce more tannin so their leaves are harder for those worms to digest, thus protecting them from infestation.

[image courtesy of wikipedia]

Giant sequoias earned that name. Some of them are more than thirty stories tall and greater than 82 feet in diameter.

In 2006, scientists discovered a coast redwood that was 379 feet tall, which they estimated to be 700 to 800 years old. They named it Hyperion, but to this day, they've never revealed its exact location. Why? They're afraid it'd cause such an influx of tourists, it could upset the ecosystem.

So essentially, what may be the tallest tree in the world... is in hiding.

As soon as a redwood is cut down or burned, it sends up a crowd of eager, hopeful shoots, which, if allowed to grow, would in a few decades attain a height of a hundred feet, and the strongest of them would finally become giants as great as the original tree. [John Muir]

[image courtesy of Leonard Chapel]

And redwoods aren't the only ones. From this fallen tree, supine on the forest floor, grow four new trees... living examples of hope and resiliency.

A few minutes ago, every tree was excited, bowing to the roaring storm, waving, swirling, tossing their branches in glorious enthusiasm like worship. But though to the outer ear these trees are now silent, their songs never cease. [John Muir]

[image courtesy of wikipedia]

Some bristlewood pines, as shown in the photo above, are believed to be the oldest trees in the world, and at nearly 5000 years old, the one named Methuselah has been deemed the oldest. But in 1964, a grad student, in pursuit of his research project, got permission from the Forestry Department to cut down one of these trees in the Great Basin National Park in Nevada. It turned out that the tree was over 4950 years old, and at the time, Methuselah was only 4803. So sadly, the student not only found the oldest tree in the world; he killed it. The tree was later named Prometheus, and a cross section of its trunk is on display at the park's visitor center... as well at some other research centers around the country.

[credit: Beatriz Verdugo, UA News]

This seven-foot cross section of Prometheus hangs on the wall of the University of Arizona's Laboratory of Tree Ring Research.

Most people know that tree rings reveal the age of a tree, but they also provide information about environmental changes, which is what the student researcher was studying.

You've probably heard that most moss grows on the shadier side of trees, which means in the northern hemisphere, it's more abundant on the northern side of trees, and in the southern hemisphere, on the south. This knowledge can come in handy when someone gets lost in the woods. Also, the tree rings can reveal directional info, as well. I'm not suggesting you fell a tree, but if you look at a stump, the thickest rings will appear on the sunny side of the stump. (i.e. on the southern side in the northern hemisphere, and the northern side in the southern hemisphere.) Then again, you could be like me. Discerning which direction is north doesn't necessarily mean I'd know which way to go.

[image courtesy of seniorark]

That's why I prefer to rely on helpful trees like this one.


(Actually, I rely on Smarticus. That man has an uncanny sense of direction.)

[source: wikipwedia]

Our back yard used to be graced with a gorgeous live oak tree. Our whole family loved that tree.  Unfortunately, it was struck by a mighty bolt of lightning about thirty years ago, and the tree lost.

It was a massive tree, and a fantastic tree for climbing, but it wasn't as huge as this tree. This live oak tree is the famous Angel Oak, located near Charleston, South Carolina.

[source: wikimedia commons]

These gnarly moss-covered trees look positively primordial, don't they? They're antarctic beech trees, mostly native to Chile and Argentina.

[source: wikipedia]

The ta primh temple in Angkor, Cambodia was built in the late 12th to early 13th centuries, and it was later abandoned in the 15th century. As more centuries passed, the jungle crept closer and closer and merged more and more with the buildings. This century, efforts have been made to conserve and restore the temple, but as much as possible, workers are retaining the eerie marriage between buildings and trees.

[source: wikimedia commons]

These windswept trees of New Zealand withstand incredibly strong and inhospitable winds. But they don't give up. Their growth patterns adapt to the conditions.

[source: wikimedia commons]

This amazing tree, dubbed the Tree of Life, lives in Olympic National Park, Washington. It seems to defy the laws of gravity and the all expectations for what a tree needs to survive. But survive it does.

[credit: Leonard Chapel]

As does this one... still clinging to life, against all odds.

[credit: Leonard Chapel]

And this one... growing out the third floor window of an abandoned building.

[credit: Leonard Chapel]

Beauty and strength rising from a rock.

[credit: Leonard Chapel]

How is this even possible?

Must be something akin to sheer determination and a stubborn refusal to give up. If it had a motto, it would be, Where there is life, there is  hope.

[credit: Leonard Chapel]

How about that? Evidently, some trees are music lovers, too. (I sure hope nobody thinks about Chopin that tree down...)

[credit: Leonard Chapel]

Wow! This palm tree is quite the non-conformist. And another example of doggedly rising above adversity. There's evidence of trauma there, but that tree is still standing tall.

Okay, I'm pining to share more pictures with you, but this post is getting too long, so I'd better leaf.

If you share my love of trees, you might enjoy the book Remarkable Trees of the World, by Thomas Parkenham. It's chock full of fascinating information and breathtaking photographs. Best present my big brother ever gave me!

                                   Hey! Whattaya know? Trees DO have a sense of humor!

                                   Until next time, take care of yourselves. And each other.
                                                        Pssst! May the forest be with you. 

The tree which moves some to tears of joy is in the eyes of others only a green thing that stands in the way. Some see nature all ridicule and deformity... and some scarce see nature at all. But to the eyes of the man of imagination, nature is imagination itself. [William Blake]

Just a side branch reminder: Every comment you make on my blog this month earns you a chance to win a signed copy of my newest book. Mention it on your blog, and earn another two chances.

{P.S. ALF says the book is... outta this world!)