life goes on

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Life on earth is tenacious.

It has already survived several mass extinctions, global catastrophes. To steal from the old Timex ads "It takes a lickin' and keeps on tickin'."

In the past 540 million years there have been five major extinction events when over 50 percent of animal species died. Boom! The last one, known as the Cretaceous–Tertiary mass extinction occurred approximately 65.5 million years ago, killed the majority of species including those big boys, the dinosaurs.

Okay. You are correct; some survived to live on as birds, and that does illustrate the bone at the center of this post’s drumstick. Life on earth is tenacious. It finds a way. It pushes forward. Despite the odds, despite the obstacles, despite meteors, volcanoes, earthquakes and other apocalyptic disasters, life goes on.

At the nature center, many of the trees are beginning to drop their leaves. The rest are showing signs of age, changing their colors and, yet, here is a young redbud, still sallying forth, producing fresh new leaves. Still not willing to “go gentle into that good night.”

Yes, this young leaf will wilt and fade in about a month, but it still puts forth the effort. The tree will carry on and will regrow new leaves next spring.

The drive to survive is too strong to prevent it.



Thank you Karen Sue for your tenacity.

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natal and new

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It's still hot. Summer. Heat index: 90s. 100s. Who knows were it'll go.

Spring is over and most of the trees have stopped producing leaves. In fact, some of the foliage is already starting you look a bit wilted and ragged.

Yet, many of the redbuds are still optimist. Still foliating. Still sallying forth. Delicate, red, heart-shaped leaves. Natal and new. But the cool breezes of April are long gone, and goodness, did they pick a sultry—Tennessee Williams: Cat-on-a-Hot-Tin-Roof kind of world to be born into.

How about a glass of ice-cold lemonade?

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sing along

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"Barred owl sitting in a redbud tree" (Best if sung to the tune of "Blackbird" by Lennon and McCartney, although I think Paul actually wrote it, not edgy enough for the walrus. Goo goo g'joob. )

Redbud is in bloom at the nature center. How do I know? The barred owl told me.

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not red

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Brrrrrrr! With temps in the 30s for the next two nights, I guess we are having redbud winter because that's what's in bloom everywhere. The lowlands are sprinkled with red.

Red? Is it me? Or am I just being too persnickety, but redbud is just not red. It's magenta, a purplish-pink that's more fuchsia than red. In fact, fuchsia would serve the tree better than red. That color honors German physician Leonhart Fuchs (1501-1566) one of the founding fathers of modern botany, so there's a pedigree to the color. It would make a great name for the tree but, of course, fuchsia is already used for another flowering plant. So, I guess we are stuck with the unimaginative redbud. How unfortunate, 'cause it's just not red.

Photo taken at Ijams Nature Center

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