You know the children’s book, If You Give a Mouse a Cookie? Well, I know what happens if you give a mouse a ginkgo fruit. It isn’t quite the same story, and it would not make a bestselling picture book. Continue reading “If You Give a Mouse a Gingko Fruit”
“Inchworm, inchworm, measuring the marigolds . . . ”
Ever since Middle School chorus the Inchworm song has helped me double eights and sixteens. (Danny Kaye sang it first, in his weird but mesmerizing film Hans Christian Anderson.) It’s also the song that loops in my head—nearly a literal earworm—when I see inchworms. Continue reading “Twig Mimic”
Native persimmon time again: fat little sacks of sweet pulp waiting to be baked into muffins. Mom and Izzy and I foraged in an office parking lot last night, under a tree I watch all year. I check for blooms, leaves, caterpillar tents, and any evidence that the property owners have lost patience with car-spattering, jelly-bomb season. Continue reading “Wild Persimmons on the Sidewalk”
Hackberry Emperor (Asterocampa celtis), foraging for salt and minerals. My finger is deliciously sweaty. Continue reading “Hackberry Emperor”
I post pics of my volunteer Passionvine every year. (Passiflora incarnata.) I’ve talked about the extravagant exoticism of this native flower,
the Christian symbolism devised by early missionaries,
the fact that it is Tennessee’s official state wildflower,
that it is the host plant for Gulf Fritillary butterflies,
and that the wrinkly yellow fruit is delish.
But I’ve just learned something new: the flowers are smart. Continue reading “Passionvine Family Planning”
SIDEWALK NATURE 