Grin for the Day

As an Otologist in a former life, I had to share this.

Don's Blog A SPECIAL DAY 11-21-2020

I was born 85 years ago today. I don't remember a thing. I am proud of my blog which began in 2009.
You can visit it at this link:

https://donsessions.blogspot.com

Final Flower for the Day Celosia 11-4-2020

We had a big freeze several days ago so most everything is wilted. My last offering is celosia which is an ornamental plant in the Amaranth family. Celosia is from the Greek word for burning referring to the flamelike flower heads. It is also called wool flower, velvet flower and cockscomb. 

Celosia spicata has distinctive flower spikes.

Celosia cristata has a crested inflorescence much like a cockscomb.

It becomes a luxuriant velvet.

Celosia is an annual which re-seeds itself yearly.

HAIKU
"Before the Garden"

Cockscombs--
I'm sure there are at least
Fourteen or fifteen stalks.

Masaoka Shiki
trans. Donald Keene

According to Beichman:
The headnote of the poem indicates that Shiki was on the veranda looking out at the garden. The poem is a comment on the cockscombs-- he has tried to count them and this is his estimate.

Shiki wrote the poem at a haiku meeting attended by eighteen of his disciples on September 9, 1900.

And according to Keene:
...ignored by most professional haiku critics for years, [this haiku] is now often acclaimed as his masterpiece…

"Every masterpiece is a flower on a precipice to be picked only with spiritual danger. The risk is life itself. It is too much to hope every poetry-lover will unfailingly grasp all subtleties of the creative act, but no artistic masterpiece exists without the danger of its being misunderstood. It is a tremendous assertion for the poet to have said, 'There must be fourteen or fifteen stalks of cockscomb.'
' After we read this poem we cannot imagine the possibility there could have been more or fewer cockscomb than fourteen or fifteen."
[end of excerpt]

And finally Greve comments

In a recent documentary about the life of Shiki, I saw the cockscombs in his garden, a flower he liked very much. When he could not move around any more, his sister, who cared for him lovingly, planted the flowers a bit closer to the veranda. Later, when he had to be in bed all the time, she re-planted them again so that he could still see them when he uplifted his upper body, holding on to a crutch under his arm. Counting the blossoms was one of his daily joys in his sickbed.

Flower for the Day Chrysanthemum 10-26-2020

For years I tried to have chrysanthemums in my garden. They just never came back the next year.

I got tired of digging the dead bodies out in the spring and admitted that just putting them in a container 

worked for me.

Chrysanthemums are in the aster Family. They are related to all my favorites: dahlias, sunflowers, marigolds, zinnias, and cosmos. Each bloom is made up of hundreds of tiny flowers called florets.

                 Haiku

              gentle rain

scent of the seedbed turning

           a deeper brown

Katrina Shepherd

from Before the Sirocco (NZPS,2008)

Flower for the Day Marigold 10-24-2020

In mid August I bought and planted seeds from  an original Burpee 1950's heirloom which they brought back. 

I realized I was nuts but I loved the package - Mission Giant Yellow Marigold (Tagetes erecta). Only one of the five seeds came up and last week it finally bloomed. 

Marigolds are in the sunflower family and this one has large chrysanthemum like flowers.

This bumble bee had no trouble finding it.

Marigold Haiku

A soft burning glaze
Upon golden Marigolds
Of diamond sun

Savita Tyagi

Thursday, February9, 2017

Flower for the Day Russian Sage 10-23-2020

This bush of Russian sage (Salvia yangii) was here when we moved into our house more than three decades ago. It is a very hardy beautiful bush. The only thing I have done with it is to occasionally trim it back. I love its silvery gray foliage and its purple flowers and its herbal fragrance.

The flowers bloom from June through October. The small flowers are arranged in pairs. Each flowers sepal is

purpled is densely covered with purple or white hairs.

Haiku

russian sage

this day begins…

swarm of bees

 By haiku mind

Aug 29, 2016

Flower for the Day Bristle Leaf Sedge 10-22-2020

Bristle leaf sedge (Carex eburnea) is a native grass which grows well in the shade even in poor soil.

It is also called ivory sedge and ebony sedge. Soft, thread-like, green leaves form a porcupine-like clump  6-10" tall and as wide. Whitish-green flowers on spikes in spring are insignificant. 

I like its delicate look and feel. This plant is two years old.

Flower for the Day A Question 10-21-2020

This hanging fruit was by a woodland trail. Any idea what it is?

10-21-2020 Herd Immunity

Our deer herd continues to grow. There is one huge buck who is always alone.There are two young bucks

that still stay together and there is a herd of younger deer. At first I saw four.

And then six 

And then eight - but I could only get seven in the image.

We have never had so many.

Deer Haiku

Petals on the porch
Half wet with a full day's rain
Deer in the bushes

Calvin Olson

May 25, 2017

Flower for the Day Self Heal 10-19-2020

The other day I was on my knees on a trail in the wildflower garden taking a photo of oriental lady's thumb when I noticed a t-tiny flower nearby. It is self heal (Prunella vulgarism), a herbaceous plant in the genus Prunella. It is also called heal-all ,woundwort, heart-of-the-earth, carpenters herb, brownwort, and blue curls. It seems that some little known flowers have multiple names. The leaves are lance shaped on a square stem.

The flowers grow from a whirled cluster. The flowers are two lipped.The top lip is a purple hood. The bottom lip is lavender with three lobes and the middle lobe is larger and fringed upwardly.

 

Self heal is reportedly edible: the young leaves and stem can be eaten raw as a salad and the whole plant can be boiled and eaten as a leafy green like spinach. Finding enough plants in my garden would make this idea fanciful at the least.