Howdy Beaver
By Alkali Springs Correspondent
This column is mostly about flowers. It is flower season in the beautiful Bear Paws and maybe it's because of the drought or something, but those that are out, look more beautiful than ever.
We heard about a new book just out that we are going to get a copy of soon. It is called "Anatomy of a Rose" by someone named Russell. It takes flowers in general and gives them a new look. Like they say, read this book and you will never look at a field of flowers the same way again.
Just a few things we heard in a review of the book. For instance, man and beast have both loved flowers equally from almost the beginning of time. Did you know that even Neanderthal man strew the graves of their dead with flowers? Not much different from today. What is incredible is that the beauty of flowers was as much a part of mans' existence thousands of years ago as it is today! Unbelievable!
One mistake that man makes is to lump flowers into a special category as sort of a benign, but lovely part of life. This book goes on to say that flowers are anything but benign. They are as much predators as man and reptiles. For instance, did you know that flowers can change their scent to very sexual tones in order to attract, say a beetle or caterpillar, to them for whatever reason? Or that in a field of flowers, 85 percent of the pollen floating are male sex organs just going on a hunt for something to fertilize along the way?
And that, in spite of climate changes, flowers are much more adaptable in this world than man or dinosaurs? They have been around much longer than man and it appears that they will be around after man is no more on this planet. Flowers originally came from the sea and became the staple thing, along with water, that keeps the earth going. Interesting.
So when we drive out to the beautiful Bear Paws and see those hillsides filled with beautiful wild sweet peas these days, just imagine what is going on in that field that we don't have a clue about.
This is the right time to view the wild sweet peas. There are whole hillsides full of them, carpeting the ground with bright yellow from afar.
As well, and just in time for Memorial Day weekend, hillsides are just absolutely white with June berry blossoms. Their beauty is just incredible, particularly when viewing them alongside of dark fir forests or golden-green new leaves on trees and bushes.
This time of year makes us always think of that line from Robert Frost that goes, "Natures first green is gold." Well, this is the time of the year to see just exactly what Robert Frost is talking about.
We have seen some wild larkspur, beautiful dark purple plants this week. We love that too.
In fact, take your flower book, camera and lunch and get out and identify some of the myriad of flowers to be seen right now. You will love getting out and seeing close up all that beauty.
A word of caution. This weekend is the long Memorial Day weekend. It is traditionally the first of camping season in Beaver Creek Park. There will be lots of campers, picnickers and walkers, so be careful. And do have a very memorable Memorial Day weekend!
