Common Plantain: Wayfarers All
Cruising down the Massachusetts Turnpike on a nice fall day. I’ve travelled this way so often I can recite the stops on the toll card from memory. The New England town names have a pleasing sort of rhythm to them: Framingham, Natick, Ludlow, Palmer, Weston, Newton… Eventually I stop, as all travellers do, at one of the rest areas. Impossible to tell them apart, they all look alike. Not very restful places, really. Not much here for an enterprising botanist. Lots of green, all of it mowed close as a crew cut. Weed whackers have whacked every weed into submission. The shrubs are all planted at...
Read MoreWild Thyme: Time On My Hands
September 13, Election Day? Well, it’s not the BIG election day coming up, only the Democratic primary for state senator, but I was at the polls, yes I was. I was there all day. Ten solid hours. No, I’m not a really slow voter, I’m a poll inspector. For a (very) small wage, I put up signs like Vote Here and No Smoking, check that voters are registered, and generally make sure our local elections run smoothly. Not a hard task at this particular election. My colleagues and I (4 inspectors total, 2 Democrat, 2 Republican) sat and sat and sat and sat, killing time and waiting for customers....
Read MoreLife and Death in the Parking Lot
Look! There. Lurking in the corner of the restaurant parking lot. Half-hidden among the foliage. A tall, gangly, strange-looking character. About six feet tall. Skinny. Big floppy leaves. And long clusters of deep-colored berries, like dangling chains of rubies. I’ve seen this odd-looking plant before, not many times, though. Although it’s a native plant, it’s not too common around here. Pokeweed. I love that name. Sounds so slow and friendly. When I got home, I googled around on the web to find out more about the parking lot weed. Wow, google pokeweed, get 434,000 possibilities. All kinds...
Read MoreExplore the unmowed, untended corners of the world.
The parking lots. The roadsides. The unmowed corners of a graveyard or a schoolyard. Look for the unexpected greenery between the sidewalk cracks.
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