Roadside tableau video

A short motion picture featuring the flowers seen here and here.

Back to the Dats

More of the new Datura blooms:




More at my Datura data page

Roadside tableaux

More of the same, but in rainbow arrangements

Roadside rainbow

All photographed in a self-sowing,
kilometer-long stretch of wildflowers
between Gimhae city hall and the highway.

Cosmic poppies

Say hello to my little friend (again):Another in a series of Datura updates

There hasn't been much to share since the last Datura post because the seeds I sowed took their sweet time to sprout. Of course, it was still chilly in February, even in the enclosed veranda.

But never mind all that. I've got new sprouts and blooms now. I thought that the D. tatula* flowers were going to open up three days ago, but they've only committed to emerging in the last couple of hours.




* Just when you thought it was safe to call it a D. stramonium variant, another recent source claims that D. tatula is its own species. The leaf shape certainly isn't like Stram.

Oh, here's a post about the Brugmansia that's off to the side in that last photo.

It's been awhile, but they're back:The 1000 Hands of Limitless Compassion

What with all of the suffering here, here and here that I've read about lately -- but with ways to deal with it all discussed here -- seeing these dancers and the action they portray was reassuring.

The last post in this occasional series was in 2006? I almost can't believe that...

"In this photo released by China's Xinhua News Agency, artists from the Chinese Art Ensemble of the Handicapped portray Thousand-Armed Avalokiteshvara (Deity of Mercy) during a charity soiree titled 'My Dream' in London on Sunday, May 25, 2008. The earning of their performance will be donated to quake victims in southwest China's Sichuan Province."

A classical, two-dimensional representation of the bodhisattva can be seen here.

MercRet is in effectfor the second time in 2008

Because 97 percent of what's presented on the Internet about Mercury's current retrograde motion has the planet in Gemini and not Taurus (that whole tropical v. sidereal issue that I've discussed before), I will not provide any of the MercRet-in-Gemini "forecasts" for the next three weeks.

Very simply: think a second time, pay attention to what you're saying, try not to sign anything important until the solstice (at least not without double-checking), and back up your data. That is all.

See this Astrology Weekly article for a little more context.

Blossom blowout, part 19(the ever-lovin' end)

Part 18

Blossom blowout, part 18

Part 17 and Part 19

Blossom blowout, part 17

Part 16 and Part 18

Blossom blowout, part 16

Yes, back to this again...







Part 15 and Part 17

A Karmapa follow-up

I posted a bit about the Gyalwa Karmapa's US tour awhile back. Now His Holiness has arrived, so here's a story from today's Herald Tribune:


"His Holiness, as his followers call him, confirmed that he was 22 years old. When asked if he was also 900, he laughed heartily. He carried on most of a brief interview in Tibetan through two translators, with occasional asides in English.

"The visit is a chance to 'bring peace and happiness to the minds of sentient beings,' he said. Asked if he had a message for Americans, he answered, 'Americans have a message for me.'

"He added, shrugging off gravitas with a twinkling eye, 'I am here, and I'm having this new experience, and I'm open to what Americans have to tell me.'"

Something I snagged from a magpie...

...the Arthur Magazine "Magpie" blog, that is.


"Most people have an appreciation for plants and make an effort to occasionally hike among them, repose in their shade or even co-habitate with them. And while it’s safe to say that we recognize plants’ value and usefulness, it’s also a fair assessment to state that the plant kingdom is frequently taken for granted. When we’re not trampling it, cutting it down, or eating it, we’re usually ignoring it altogether.

"Perhaps that’s why the vast majority of modern people who encounter the idea of human/plant communication -- or 'psychobotany,' as we prefer to call it -- find it strange. But it’s equally strange that this viewpoint has become normalized. After all, anthropologists largely agree that people have been attempting communication with the plant kingdom for as long as there have been plants and people. So why is it considered 'abnormal' to attempt communication with plants today? And what can we hope to accomplish by entering into such a conversation in the first place?"