I’ve been reading Barbara Kingsolver’s “Flight Behavior” and enjoyed it right from the start with her economical yet meaning-dense phrasing that imparts so much depth into the characters that I could just about sketch them. Imagine my delight when not far along the Monarch butterfly emerged as a central theme! I won’t spoil it for anyone and even though I’m only about a third of the way through I highly recommend it.
I’ve been continuing to distribute seed packets at both our local Wild Birds Unlimited store but also at the New England Botanic Garden at Tower Hill, the former being just a box display so I don’t directly interact with the recipients but at NEBG I do. I just have a small sign and so don’t approach any guests directly, not wanting to intrude on their experience, but a sizeable portion note the sign and come chat. Here are just a sample of some of the recent interactions:
- A schoolteacher with a project at their school showing native plants, especially pollinator-friendly ones. She indicated they already had some milkweeds but definitely wanted to expand.
- A couple that had transformed their entire yard into a no-mow, native plant garden. Perhaps more than can be done in some neighborhoods but I definitely thanked them for their efforts.
- Several that had been looking for seeds for a while but never had found any – something I could definitely sympathize with. There’s a fairly short window in the fall between a pod not being ripe and coming back not much later to find it burst and the silks and seeds literally scattered to the winds. (For my own backyard patch, I harvest every day to catch them at the just-opened-but-not-lost stage.)
So encouraging!
