Too late for wishes

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Not dandelions. Prickly Golden Fleeces (Urospermum picroides).

16th Jun 2013, 00:42 comments (3)

Dragon Arum

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Dracunculus vulgaris.

I actually have this flower in my backyard. It's strikingly beautiful... and it stinks! It has a nauseating smell of rotten meat, supposedly to attract flies for pollination. Horrible, although the flies seem to love it.

This plant is older than I am at this house. My grandmother doesn't remember where she brought it from but from what she told me I can tell that her relationship with this flower has always been... complicated. At first, because of the smell, she regretted bringing it here and tried to destroy and eliminate it, but failed every time. Every year it flowered again somewhere else in the garden. Later, because of the beauty, she regretted ever trying to destroy it.

Personally, I'm glad she failed. This unique flower is worth two or three days per year of terrible stink in the garden.

10th Jun 2013, 01:04 comments (3)

Varied Carpet Beetles

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I found them on my parsley and I didn't know what they were, so I just thought they were pretty and harmless little pollinators. But then I discovered that they're a common household pest and while the beetles feed on pollen, their larvae destroy everything from clothing to carpets (hence the name) to furniture. Huh.

Not a good idea to unintentionally bring them indoors, it seems...

8th Jun 2013, 09:20 comments (2)

Hello!

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I'm back... and I just realised: in the last two months, April and May, I took exactly four shots, two each month. And none of them particularly interesting (the three above are from late March). That's just how occupied my mind has been with other things lately.

But June is going to be different, I hope. Starting tomorrow, I'm going to pick up my camera and go outside see if I haven't lost practice. And then I'm going to start catching up with Moblog and see how you're all doing. At least that's the plan. :)

Tomorrow, because right now I'm just too tired.

31st May 2013, 23:31 comments (5)