Friday, November 25, 2005

small things


I am easily amazed, and also easily pleased. Little things thrill me - simple outings, flowers in our garden, dewdrops on spider webs... it doesn't take anything complex to get oohs and aahs from me.

Some things in nature I find especially intruiging because they're just not natural. Or at least they don't look natural. Once, pre-kids, Fatty and I went to stay at a rainforest hideaway. Outside our cabin was growing the weirdest-looking blue flower. It was waxy and boardshort blue and was the best imitation of an imitation flower I've ever seen. We kept touching it to be sure it wasn't plastic. Even then, the only thing that convinced us it was alive and real was the stalk attaching it to its' plant.

My kids found these 'berries' (that's what they look and feel like) under a tree near one of their favourite playgrounds. They have not been painted, truly! (that's what Fatty thought when he first laid eyes on them - that they were some child's abandoned art project). They are the size of gumballs. Fatty says the tree above was covered in bright blue berries.

Laura Lou has taken them for show & tell, and Ben is packing them in his daycare bag today to display at daycare. I must just be a big kid at heart, too (perhaps destined to one day break my hip playing hopscotch, just like Sharon predicts for herself!), so here we are - Blog Show & Tell day!

2 comments:

Alice said...

The magnificent blue berries may well be from an Australian tree called ELAEOCARPUS RETICULATUS (Blueberry Ash). Grows 4-9m tall and 5m wide. Usually kept pruned to a shrub in cultivation. Leaves to 15cm long, with toothed edges. Creamy white to pale pink flowers in Spring-Summer, deep blue drupes.

You could try growing those seeds. Soak them in water overnight before planting them.

(Jellyhead - You asked if I have other children, besides Michelle and Sara? Tanya is 'Purple Giraffe' and Russell is the man in 'Kirby Kid' photos.)

Heather said...

What beautiful blue berries! (Nice alliteration, eh?)