When a plant grows with all it's stems/leaves/flowers from one central point it's said to have a basal growth habit. The design is simple and evolved and very smart, the plant getting all the sun it needs while the roots are running deep below following the vital and limited water source. It stays low to the ground and compact, able to withstand wind and weather and the occasional predator. If they sustain some damage, so be it, they regenerate and grow tougher. You find that many weeds that have adapted to survive in such rough conditions over the eons are often basal growers and form basal rosette's, the perfect example probably being your common dandelion. Even your local unnamed weeds can teach you something very interesting about survival if you open up your thinking a little bit. I love that about adaptation and natural selection, real lessons in tenacity.
Wednesday, August 31, 2011
term of the day: basal growth
When a plant grows with all it's stems/leaves/flowers from one central point it's said to have a basal growth habit. The design is simple and evolved and very smart, the plant getting all the sun it needs while the roots are running deep below following the vital and limited water source. It stays low to the ground and compact, able to withstand wind and weather and the occasional predator. If they sustain some damage, so be it, they regenerate and grow tougher. You find that many weeds that have adapted to survive in such rough conditions over the eons are often basal growers and form basal rosette's, the perfect example probably being your common dandelion. Even your local unnamed weeds can teach you something very interesting about survival if you open up your thinking a little bit. I love that about adaptation and natural selection, real lessons in tenacity.
morning commute before the sun comes up
on the headphones Yo La Tengo with "Last Days of Disco"Saw you at a party
You asked me to dance
Said the music was great for dancing
I don't really dance much
But this time I did
I was glad I did this time
And the song said let's be happy
I was happy
It never made me happy before
And the song says don't be lonely
It makes me lonely
I hear it and I'm lonely
More and more
Where I belong
Where I belong..."
The song is from the album And Then Nothing Turned Itself Inside-Out, Matador Records, February 2000, a must if you fancy this brilliant Hoboken trio who in my mind easily get classified as one of my favorite bands ever. Holy pretty stuff, Batman!
Bravo,
Tuesday, August 30, 2011
I covet thee
This guy appeared on a neighboring block a few months ago and is clearly here to stay. What a great looking truck, a Ford F-100 from the early 70's I'm guessing.
Monday, August 29, 2011
blurry beautiful body language
post a festive evening with Miss Shannon, loopy laughing by the warm street lights on our way home
the fly and the honeysuckle
Growing up we had honeysuckle growing all over my little town, in overgrown yards and wild along the roadside. The sweet fragrance so distinguishable and inviting to the summer senses, a part of growing up in the country was when an older relative or friend would teach you how to dissect the yellow and white flowers to extract a single drop of "honey" to sweeten your tongue for the rest of the walk down to the ocean. Today I know honeysuckle to be an introduced woody vine from Asia that is often considered quite a weed, and especially troublesome down south where it has nearly invasive status. But I have to admit regardless of my horticultural training coming across this plant during my early morning walks still makes me smile and slow down and breath deep to get all that delicious fragrance. This morning the fly and I were obviously on the same page, totally unmoved as I snapped a few quick pics.
Lonicera japonica- commonly called Japanese honeysuckle
- member of the woodbine family, Caprifoliaceae
- hardy in USDA Zones 4-11
- originally from Japan, Korea, and China
- a twining vine with opposite dark green foliage and tubular flowers from early summer into fall
- adaptable to most soil conditions but known to be aggressive and weedy in habit
- produces berries in fall loved by birds
- member of the genus Lonicera which includes over 180 different species of vines, groundcovers, and shrubs
Sunday, August 28, 2011
After Irene, mostly comical shots
Hurricane Irene rumbled her way into the tri-state area through the night and surprisingly we slept right through. We really thought we would have been woken by wind and crashing sounds outside but we would wake the next morning to see that little had changed on our block. Before bed I took a couple of shots of the block from our front stoop, ready to take the after shots the next morning showing all the downed limbs and chaos that ensued. But we were very lucky and sustained little to no damage. Even the dead wood that I was figuring would definitely fall was still there atop the trees the next morning, stubborn and rigid. All Cosmo had to do was go over to his garden patch across the street and restomp the roots of his six foot sunflowers back in the ground and they were back up and at 'em like nothing had happened. We decided to heed the over sensationalized media coverage and stay in until the afternoon when the winds finally calmed. We heard via facebook of friends and family losing power out east on Long Island and up in Connecticut. Vermont was probably just getting the wrath they were dealt as we were sipping our coffee and checking in with the world. My parents out in East Hampton would be without power and water for a week, some Connecticuters that long and then some. My high school dormhead and mentor Grim would post pictures of where he now lives in Vermont, complete with destruction like I have never seen up there before. The youtube footage of flooding down in Long Beach and other favorite coastal spots had us rapt.
Eventually we would take a walk through the hood to take care of a cat sitting gig that felis femina had and I brought my camera along. Quickly we realized that Astoria did not escape totally unscathed, though the scenes were mostly comical.
You got to love how well New Yorkers pay attention and observe safety precautions. The greatest city in the world, they never said anything about common sense.
Of course we had to have a celebratory post-Irene pint with the gang down at Dillinger's, our wonderfully reliable local haunt. The menu was limited because they had not gotten a few deliveries, but the taps were flowing just fine.
We stopped at the grocery store to grab a couple things we needed. Or rather, we stopped at the grocery store to find that the hysteria had them totally picked clean.
No hamburger buns for you!
Finally Sunday afternoon we got the first glimpses of blue sky in days and it was glorious. Is that a black cloud over the city or is it just me?
Before the Empire State Building put it's evening lights on....
Thanks Irene for another fabulous sunset here in Queens.
Eventually we would take a walk through the hood to take care of a cat sitting gig that felis femina had and I brought my camera along. Quickly we realized that Astoria did not escape totally unscathed, though the scenes were mostly comical.
You got to love how well New Yorkers pay attention and observe safety precautions. The greatest city in the world, they never said anything about common sense.
Of course we had to have a celebratory post-Irene pint with the gang down at Dillinger's, our wonderfully reliable local haunt. The menu was limited because they had not gotten a few deliveries, but the taps were flowing just fine.
We stopped at the grocery store to grab a couple things we needed. Or rather, we stopped at the grocery store to find that the hysteria had them totally picked clean.
No hamburger buns for you!
Finally Sunday afternoon we got the first glimpses of blue sky in days and it was glorious. Is that a black cloud over the city or is it just me?
Before the Empire State Building put it's evening lights on....
Thanks Irene for another fabulous sunset here in Queens.
Video of the Month: Tow Highlights from Tahiti
Hurricane Irene rumbled through the night and we woke to not nearly as much chaos as there could have been. Cousins in CT are without power, friends at home on LI have talked about trees down and losing power too. Here in Queens it's still blowing but seems tame. Some have already begun cleaning up their yards. We're playing it safe and staying in until later when we too will undoubtedly take a walk and explore the neighborhood. But for now we have gotten sucked into cyberville and I've been catching up on the Billabong Pro surf competition happening in Tahiti, from the 20th to the 31st of August. The Billabong Pro Tahiti is held at a break called Teahupoo, without question one of the strongest and most mind blowing waves on the planet. It's not the biggest wave in the world, not by any means, but the way the island is contoured and how the huge swells can come in and jack up to form these insane "20 foot slabs" that throw down so much water on such a shallow reef is simply diabolical! You can go to surfline and look up their feature on the mechanics of Teahupoo, very interesting. These are some highlights of the crazy, genius men and women who brave tow-in surfing this spot. I just say "oh my God" over and over again, and curse a lot in pure amazement, and I think you might too. In-sane. Enjoy.
Video of the Month (runner up)
Jon Stewart, funny as ever. I have to admit, I don't get these mathonomics either. Thanks to Grim for sharing, keeping all of us LC alums thinking economically.
Saturday, August 27, 2011
...and it begins...
We decided to crack the bottle of bubbly from the one and only Sara Hardin when the rain really began. For us it was just before 8:pm, the outer bands of Irene beginning to brush us here in Queens. Took pics of the block and the 'hood. Anxious to see what it looks like after the fact.
'til then, Happy Hurricane Everyone!
cheers,
arborboy and felis femina
Come on Irene
With Irene making her way up the east coast the media once again has the masses freaking out. A category 1 storm we are in for some nasty rain and wind and flooding, no doubt, but enough that people have to wipe out the grocery store of damn near everything and plywood the holy hell out of their homes and businesses? Perhaps a bit of overkill. But just the same better safe than sorry, and I do agree with that. The small containers from out front are lining the stairs up to our apartment. The green Colocasia looks nice in the amber light and the herbs make the front foyer smell fabulous.
The big pots out front are tied and knotted together with heavy duty climbing rope to appease our adorable and nervous little ol' landlady. Doubt I'll be climbing any trees this weekend. The saws are cleaned and staged in the closet in case of emergency. We are keeping the vibe mellow in the face of such hysteria. Cleaning and filling water bottles for the fridge the reggae set is on shuffle and Errol Walker wails through the rain. "If you buy a house he wonders how. If you buy a car he must know why..." This is John Public!
Stay Safe,
xo arborboy
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