circumpolar

warning: this is another wildflower post, but only in part.

exactly a month ago today, our swedish friend ingrid treated jm and me to an excursion to a forest preserve outside eskilstuna. we rode our bikes until the path became too narrow, hilly, rocky, rooty, mossy, dark, and full of holes where trolls lurk (trolls don't like to come out in sunshine, so we didn't see any, nor did we see any other human beings).



we walked to a small lake, where ingrid spread out the typical and delicious picnic lunch of västerbotten cheese pie and some pickled herring and beer. i tried to ignore the water snake(s?) that was tacking back and forth between the reeds and waterlilies. we relaxed and indulged in some long-winded storytelling about people on our minds.


at several places in little openings in the forest were modest groups of small pink twin flowers (Linea borealis). these modest little blossoms are the one plant that the great botanist Carolus Linaeus chose to name for himself. he might have said that this plant was like himself: "lowly, insignificant, disregarded, and flowering for but a brief time..." (no citation for this given; is this an example of the Swedish dictum not to boast?)

there were several stands of them, so we picked one. the flowers have a very sweet, delicate smell.



the same twin flowers show up in my "wildflowers of michigan" book, as an indicator species of ancient woodlands. i've never seen them here--i suppose they must be further north. they are described as 'native.' this seemed puzzling until i found a reference online that called them 'circumpolar.' very good. i like the concept and the term itself.

but then, how many other things on earth are circumpolar, i wonder? evergreen trees, i imagine. seals? bears? deer? lichen? mosses? and much more. did the sami people from the polar regions of europe have contact across the ice with the inuit?

on our way back, we rode past a farm with dairy cows grazing in a field some distance from the road. knowing that ingrid is an expert in an archaic form of traditional cow calling, we encouraged her to give it a try. amazingly, the entire herd immediately came galloping towards us, about as fast as cows can run.

these were the cleanest cows i have ever seen, but then, they were Swedish cows.

as you can see, we enjoyed a perfectly beautiful summer day.

wildflower of the week

after feeling so discouraged about all the invasive species taking over the natural world, my spirits were lifted when i saw this stand of native wild lilies, called variously 'turk's cap lilies, Lilium superbum,' or 'michigan lilies, Lilium michiganese.' these are on the north side of earhart road, south of seven mile. the exotic red-orange flowers blaze through the surrounding greenery.

dangerous alien invader

this is a plant called wild parsnip (Pastinaca sativa) that has recently started to show up along the roadsides and in other areas in michigan, our garden for instance. it has attractive yellow flowers growing as high as four feet tall, and resembles other carrot family umbrellifera, like queen anne's lace.

but this is a dangerous plant, as its sap is highly toxic, containing chemicals (furocoumarins) that will burn and blister the skin when exposed to the ultraviolet rays of sunlight. (google it if you want to see some nasty second-degree burns on several websites). if you find it on your property, check various websites for how to eliminate it.


this is a stand of wild parsnip along six mile road, near earhart. judging from the bikes and toys in the driveways, it's likely that children either live or play in the houses nearby. i wonder if the adults know about the dangers of this plant? we expect everyone to be familiar with poison ivy, but this is possibly even more dangerous, and the flowers are attractive. once established, it spread rapidly.

should i tell the families what i know about this scary but pretty plant?

on the subject of alien invasive plants (those that have the potential to take over and dominate an area), it seems that before long the entire state of michigan and much else will be completely covered with garlic mustard, canada thistle, autumn olive, purple loosestrife, reed canary grass, wild parsnip, buckthorn, and various others too numerous to mention. it's downright depressing to see stands of wild parsnip all along pontiac trail now.

postcard from the british museum

to: CP and SS
june 29, 09


thinking of you when i saw this line-up of greek philosophers in the british museum.they represent, from left to right: socrates, antisthenes (a cynic), chrysippos (a stoic), and epicurus. these are all roman copies of greek originals, and it is impossible to know if they resemble their subjects at all. two of these portraits were found in the library of a roman villa on the via appia (i forgot to note which two), dating from the late second or first century bce.

what better evidence of the continuity of western culture: scholars and students still reading their texts and debating their relevance now more than 2,000 years later. will the academics of another 2000 years from now still be thinking about these guys, and will they be hanging photographs of sartre and simone de beauvoir in their libraries? will there indeed be any academics in the year 4,000? or even anyone left of our species? who can imagine it?

as our friend pk says, 'isn't it all interesting?'

warm regards, as always, j

postcard from salisbury

to: ms in a large metropolitan area
15 june 09

today we went to salisbury cathedral. it was completely built in 30 some years, from 1220 to 1258. in one book i looked at on english gothic architecture, it stated that the architecture of the cathedral may be too perfect, giving it a cold, impersonal feeling. do you think a building be too perfect? (or is 'too perfect' an oxymoron?)

and what about that modern baptismal font? could fonts be fountains? probably not. but why not?

thinking of you and art, love, j

postcard from london

to: anw and jhw
29 june 09

today at the british museum, still one of my favorites, i saw these items for sale in their shop. the text goes on about how grazia is one of the great ancient deruta ceramics centers of italy. and the pattern is ever so elegant and traditional. and if you'd like to buy a cup and saucer you'll be putting 110 pounds (about $160) on your credit card. so now you know not to put the deruta in the yard sale.

love, your mom

snapshots from my summer vacation: paris

i've always enjoyed paris but i have never been crazy about the eiffel tower. it suggests cheap rhinestone pins with matching french poodles, can-can girls at the moulin rouge, berets, and all the most cliched tourist concepts that apparently are still fresh in some people's minds. they sell well in the cheesy souvenir shops now lining the rue de rivoli. you'd think toulouse lautrec was still alive and you might pick up a painting by a young, up and coming impressionist in the place du tertre.

for a change, here are images from paris that might capture a more contemporary concept:




the windows of the institut du monde arabe, designed by jean nouvelle. on a sunny day, the openings (like the iris of a camera) shut down to reduce the light levels within; on cloudy days they open wide. in either case, they are also said to reflect the design of screens used in interiors in those sunnier parts of the world.

and, as a bonus, the institut has a rooftop bar and restaurant (quite pricey) with a view of notre dame and the seine and cafe (ground floor) with a cheerful handsome young syrian waiter who yearns to come to the USA for the music scene. alas, most of the exhibitions were closed, in the process of change.



determined to see some of the sights i'd never visited before, i took the metro to pere lachaise cemetery. i've never cared much for cemeteries and i didn't care much for this one, with its thousands of gloomy little temple-like family tombs, many very neglected. the biggest surprise was oscar wilde's tomb covered in lipstick kisses (click on the image for good detail). someone had left a stack of sheets with his witty sayings, including these: "america is the only country that went from barbarism to decadence without civilization in between" and "a little sincerity is a dangerous thing and a great deal of it is absolutely fatal."

it's a bit difficult to find the tombs of the many individuals you admire, but i did find colette (an unattractive very new red granite slab: why?) and chopin and jim morrison. his tomb was the easiest to find, as you just follow the streams of young and middle-aged folks clutching maps and wearing 'doors' tee shirts. it's not much to look at.


do you remember the old-fashioned waiters in the cafes of paris? middle aged and elderly men in black with long white aprons who steadfastly ignored you and then had an annoyed, supercilious expression when you ordered your cafe au lait in perfect french and snapped "yes, of course, right away, mademoiselle."

here's an improvement: a handsome, cheerful waiter at the cafe danton, right at the odeon metro stop. i had my petit dejeuner there on several mornings and he was professionally smiling, efficient, and never needed to show off his english. he didn't even mind when i asked in perfect french (if only) to take his photo.