Today in my garden

[Atash Hagmahani]

It's been a day for cleaning up, fertilizing, and weeding. This is what I found today:



It's fragrant, and if another Passionflower had been blooming at the same time, that little "button" close to the end of the stigma could turn into a tasty fruit.

[Atash Hagmahani]

For those who are wondering why I post stuff like this:

Those of you who know me, know that I have become increasingly disenchanted with the dominant modern culture. There is something very wrong with it...and it seems to have to do with lack of appreciation...

for the beauty that is everywhere...
for everyday pleasures...
for the joy of living...I mean everyday life...actually enjoying the process of living, including hard work

It is the lack of appreciation for everyday beauty and everyday pleasures that causes people to chase after unsustainable lifestyles and luxuries, and commercial "entertainment" that plants counterproductive ideas in their heads.

I'm a shutter-bug. I see something pretty or even just "interesting" or "poignant" and I feel compelled to run for my camera and take a bunch of pictures of it. I have no illusions of permanence. I haven't even figured out how to effectively archive my photos. I just enjoy them for the moment.

[opsec]

I just had a flashback from the movie "Little Shop of Horrors".

[Kitteh]

Feed me Seymour? 

Seriously, it looks beautiful.

But I find beauty in both nature and modern culture.  I remember moving to the city for the first time and hearing my sisters complain, as they helped me unpack, that I couldn't see the stars anymore.  I showed them the view of my eighth floor window, and told them that they were wrong: The stars were on the ground!

Beauty is everywhere, and it's poignant and it's painful.  We are part of nature thus we are beautiful too.  Looking at a circuit board is an exercise in aesthetics. 

Now just because I can see the beauty in modern technology and culture doesn't mean that we should count on it always being there.

That being said, I'm glad you post the flowers.  They brighten my day.  I know you'll post them without my approval, but for what it's worth I hope you keep doing it.

[Atash Hagmahani]

Seriously, it looks beautiful.

You should have something similar in your part of the world, where they are called "Maypops". Passiflora incarnata. This one is a hybrid, (P. incarnata x P. cincinnata) x P. caerulea.

The one native to your part of the world produces an edible fruit. The pulp is tasty but full of seeds, so usually they are either turned into jelly, or juiced. Commercial Passionfruit juice comes from Passiflora edulis (well, fancy that), but a lot of Passionflowers have edible fruit, some of them reputedly tastier than the common Passionfruit.

Do you get Heliconoid butterflies in your part of the world? The caterpillars feed on Passionflower leaves.