Signs of Life

Thought Tony the Tortoise (or Toni, if it is a she) – “The buffet is looking a little understocked in this joint, but at least I can cross the drive without worrying about that madman FedEx guy barreling through”. Even the coldest Winter in 25 years here has shown some color and signs of life, often delicious, though much of it wouldn’t be alive if we hadn’t gone to great trouble to protect the delicate things. The sweet potato vines from edge of the Mt. James bed yielded this gnarly monster, and we enjoyed about 25 huge pomelo citrus in November and December. A rare sight, Indian pipe root (Monotropa uniflora) is a pale flowering parasite of fungi that are beneficial to tree roots. Ma found our first clump of these flowering under the oak canopies early last month as we did a morning walk around the yard.

Whatever the cricket frogs are eating in the heated greenhouse must be tasty too, because these are looking a bit larger than normal. The one hiding under the blue cactus table came up to get hydrated as I gave Tent #1 the monthly Winter watering. I like such company, though I dearly hope no diamondbacks take up lodging between pots overnight for warmth. Snake chaps and a little more caution are on my “To Get” list.

Ma’s been on a creative streak with the crocheted cactus collection and I can see that she is drawing inspiration from her favorite fuzzy columnars in the Summer yard. I wouldn’t put money on the chance that she’ll crochet one of the giant bugs, but the colorful mushrooms might someday spark inspiration.