22 over 7 = [aspects and concepts of matter and energy / form, flame, light, space, image and imagination]

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?"

A few more moments on video

More videos from around town (plus one from Seoul):

The Harmonious Journey
wound its way through
Seoul on Sunday.

Updated 28 April:

"Thousands of young Chinese assembled to defend their country's troubled Olympic torch relay pushed through police lines in Seoul on Sunday, some of them hurling rocks, bottled water and plastic and steel pipes at protesters demanding better treatment for North Korean refugees in China.

"Two North Korean defectors living in South Korea poured paint thinner on themselves and tried to set themselves on fire in an attempt to protest what they condemned as Beijing's inhumane crackdown of North Korean refugees, but the police stopped them, according to witnesses and the police.

"The South Korean police and Chinese students also overpowered at least two other protesters who tried to impede the run along a 25-kilometer, or 15-mile, route through Seoul. The route was kept secret until the last minute and guarded by more than 8,300 police officers.

"In other cities, the globe-trotting relay of the torch leading up to the Beijing Games in August has triggered protests against China's crackdown on violent protests for independence in Tibet. In South Korea, one of the torch's final stops before entering the safety of China, demonstrators focused on human rights for North Koreans who live in hiding in China after fleeing hunger in their homeland."

From Thursday:
"The Korean Olympic Committee announced yesterday that the torch will be carried on a 24-kilometer (15-mile) course from Peace Square in Olympic Park, Songpa District in southeastern Seoul to City Hall downtown. The relay is scheduled to begin at 2 p.m. and end at 7 p.m.

"However, the specific route has not been announced and is subject to last-minute changes because of security concerns, the committee said.

"The Tibet Peace United, an umbrella organization of 63 civic groups, said yesterday that it will start protests at 4 p.m. Sunday at Pagoda Park. Additionally, human rights organizations, Christian groups and North Korean refugees will demonstrate from 11 a.m. at the relay’s starting point.

"With the planned protests posing potential risks to spectators' safety as well as to the torch itself [some of the groups have declared their intention to disrupt the relay --Ed.], the National Police Agency said it will dispatch 100 elite officers to stand guard. The officers, who will wear marathon uniforms, are expected to run together with torch bearers.

"Two torch runners selected to take part in the event, environmentalist Choi Seung-kuk and civic leader Park Won-soon, have already said they will boycott the event to protest China's Tibet policies."

On to another bit of business
(namely, Brugmansia)

My Lady Friend laughed and said "I can just see it" when I told her about walking home yesterday, spying a four-foot-tall, yellow-flowered Brugmansia at a shop across the street, and then turning in midstride to cross four lanes (no traffic) in order to see it up close.

It was about seven months ago that she and I were out together and my mouth fell open when I saw a double-flowered Datura at a different flower stand. Then, like now (especially now, since I'll be leaving in four months), it's all about the seeds.

Expect to read more about my best floral friend's cousin in the coming weeks.

Oh, and here's the 2008 garden in all its splendor:

One does what one can in the space available. I could show you a lot about how and where people plant in Korea.

Meanwhile, rising in the east...

After dealing with so many photos from Saturday afternoon (331, was that what it said?), on Monday I did not want to add to the backlog. So I left the camera on the sofa when I left for school. Then I walked to the corner and saw this, which I had to use the cellphone cam to capture:

This is a 22-degree diffraction halo around the Sun, which you can just make out (look to the left of the utility pole). The bright arc above the clouds was created by either water vapor or ice crystals in a thin cloud layer. If there'd been less dense cloud cover, then there would've been a complete ring around the Sun at a distance of 22 degrees from the centerpoint... like this:

Blossom blowout, part 15
(After arigato)

OK, this is the sculpted explosion of azaleas
that I referred to in the previous post.

And because I like the photo so much,
I'll lead with the Arigato girls again.

As I told friends by email:
"No, I don't know those girls.
Yes, that's how they posed."

Part 14

Let's take a video break...

...although the content will still be local flora.

First, here's another view of those quince blossoms I went nutty about two weeks ago.

Next, the sculpted explosion of azaleas in front of which the "Yes! More Arigato!" girls posed.

Finally, from Saturday, some busy bees among late-blooming blossoms. When I get the corresponding photos online, the blossom blowout will be over.

Blossom blowout, part 14
(In the pink, part three)

Part 13 and part 15

Blossom blowout, part 13

Just thought I'd mention that 95 percent of the tree blossoms (and half of the azaleas) around Gimhae have blown away or begun to fade since these shots were taken. There are so many of these Blowout posts because I was reveling in the emergence of color (and I knew that it would all soon be be gone).