Weed!London, ON
May 2008
[Click to embiggen]
After last week's WW entry, I was challenged by the ever-brilliant Bernie to post a turf-themed image this week. So I went out and played in the grass with my camera.
It's weed season here in Ontario. Our greenery promises to become even more weedy in future as the province moves forward with plans for a ban on lawn chemicals. That works for me: I'm tired of wondering whether our propensity to spray everything in sight will result in us growing third arms. I'm also tired of realizing - often too late - that my dog has walked on a just-sprayed lawn. We seem to have lost our way in the pursuit of the perfect lawn, and I fear we're already paying a serious price for it.
There, I'll get off my soapbox now. It matters little to me how we define this dandelion. It's a living, robust flower that enthralls my kids when they get to blow its fluffy seeds all over the place. And I get to lie in the grass - worry-free - to take pictures like this. Enjoy!
Your turn: Weeds...thoughts?
One more thing: Welcome to my new Wordless Wednesday visitors - it's a joy to have you drop into my humble blog. Before you click away, I hope you'll read this week's Caption This entry (just click here to head on over) It's a weekly tradition here at Written Inc., and I look forward to you adding to the fun as well. Thanks!
You are absolutely right: it's beautiful. You have quite a talent for making the everyday thing that would typically be overlooked astonishing!
ReplyDeleteHappy WW :)
Carmi every year I go through a few weeks in early Spring when I wonder if my grass will ever be anything OTHER than weeds. It seems that the good stuff always starts to show up and eventually take over the yard...at least for the most part.
ReplyDeleteNice shot! In Sweeden we call it "maskros". :)
ReplyDeleteYes.. the look on their little faces as the little fluffy white seeds fly off into the air is breathtaking :)
ReplyDeleteOur yard is full of them
Great shot - it goes perfectly with mine this week.
ReplyDeleteWhy do we call dandelions weeds?
They're bright, lovely, and happy. They grow everywhere. They don't have to be nurtured or carefully cared for. They just thrive.
Then they turn into delicate, puffy, little globes of seeds, waiting to waft away on the breeze and perpetuate their kind.
They're a favorite of children, being plucked by chubby little fingers and lovingly gifted to another. What child hasn't happily blown the little seeds off to their random new life somewhere?
Yet we call them weeds and do our darndest to get rid of them. I think we ought to embrace them and smile when they bloom, pick them when they go to seed, and enjoy sending them away. :D
ahh - seems we're both weedy today. love your shot - hope you'll post the fluff ball when it blooms. :)
ReplyDeleteIt's hard to deny they are beautiful, regardless of the "damage" they do. Make a wish...
ReplyDeleteMy WW is up here:
http://love2bhomeschoolersweeklymuse.blogspot.com/
great one for WW! mine's up too hope you can drop by.
ReplyDeleteHi Carmi: I met an elderly man today with two hearing aides who has been working in an environmental non-profit group for years. So this is timely. I love the yellow dandelions against a green lawn in the summer sunshine. They are just beautiful (even if they are a weed)!
ReplyDeleteYou'll have to take some more shots when the dandilions start opening up. Happy WW to you. I like your photo :D
ReplyDeleteCool photo. I agree with you. My "lawn" is weed heaven and I like it that way. All those dandelions and other wild flowers are pretty!
ReplyDeleteYou have a great talent for finding beauty. And think how much more beautiful it will be when it opens.
ReplyDeleteDandelions have a soft spot in my heart. Have a great day!
ReplyDeleteHere is another soft spot:
http://hayleytownley.blogspot.com/2008/06/wordless-wednesday-turkey.html
Hmmm. I don't like dandelions, but happy WW anyway!
ReplyDeleteI see you got beaten to the first spot this week. How DO you guys do it!!?? As soon as I see it's up, there are already 30 links.
This week though I have no excuse. I put the psst up yesterday to automatically publish tonight, then forgot about it until the first comment was pout on it. Oh well.
I believe Ralph Waldo Emerson said that a weed is just a plant whose virtues have not yet been discovered.
ReplyDeleteBeautiful! I think that dandelions are pretty, I love the bright yellow and when you see a field of them, it's beautiful! Matter of fact, the empty lot beside us was covered with them last week, before the mowers came. :( And the fluffy seeds, not just kids enjoy blowing those....hint hint.
ReplyDeleteI so enjoy coming to see what you have posted because it's always something interesting and eye-catching!!
Happy WW!!
Amazing how even a weed can be beautiful. Happy WW!
ReplyDeleteNice shot as ever Carmi. I love the use of the wide aperture to blur the background.
ReplyDeleteI think we are less worried about the perfect lawn here in the UK. On the whole we will settle for a good lawn and there are many organic solutions on sale to help. Weeds are simply a plant growing in the wrong place, but the wildlife love them. It's a case of getting the balance right. At the moment I have a huge patch of daisies in my lawn and I just love it when they flower and speckle the green with white petals!
Happy WW!
As always a great shot. It shows these is more than what meets the eye.
ReplyDeleteHappy WW!!
nice shot...great one for WW
ReplyDeletemine is up. hope you can check it out.
View of HK Harbor
I think weeds are beautiful and often capture them in portrait!!
ReplyDeleteI wonder about the third arms too, but typically imagine them growing out of people's foreheads. :D
ReplyDeleteTink *~*~*
My Mobile Adventures *~*~*
Don't get me started about lawns and chemicals... I'm also trying to slowly rip up my grass and landscape as much of the front as I can. Grass may be God's carpet, a cousin of mine always said, but that doesn't mean it's got to be in front of my house, where no one walks anyway.
ReplyDeleteThe nickname of my NH home is "Windsor upon Weeds" -- we have a lawn issue (washouts,burnouts, and grubs). The only thing that thrives are the bushes and trees.
ReplyDeleteThanks for making a dandelion look wonderful!
Great macroshot, Carmi! I've posted my Peace Globe for blogblast for Peace. :D
ReplyDeleteYou'd be right at home in our grassy lawn. It is full of those dandelions. I only mow and spread them probably. We are chemical free. I have lots of clover growing too.
ReplyDeleteAnd a beautiful bit of turf it is--- I do love macro as you can see on my WW today, I think we pass up so much beauty everyday as we hurry around in our lives-- it is so nice to literally take time to stop and smell the roses or dandelions--This is another one of those wonderful posts that shows the kid in you coming out.
ReplyDeleteLovely photo! Nature is a gift.
ReplyDeletepeople become fanatical when it comes to dandelions and getting rid of them.... so i'm always on the lookout for the lawns that have been sprayed with pesticides... but for me, i like them....
ReplyDeletehere are a few fun facts:
The word Dandelion comes from the French name for the plant dents de lion. This means teeth of the lion and refers to the jagged edges of the leaf of the plant.
The other French name for this plant is pis-en-lit, in English this means wet the bed. Dandelions deserve this name because their greens, when eaten, remove water from the body. So eating the greens could cause someone to well… you can guess the rest. Not recommend for a bedtime snack.
The dandelion first came from Asia but it now calls the entire planet home!
Each year fifty-five tones of coffee substitutes made from roasted Dandelion roots are sold in England, Australia and Canada.
The Dandelion provides an important food source to bees. The pollen from this plant helps bees out in the spring because it flowers early and the flowers continue through to the fall providing constant food. In fact no less then 93 different kinds of insects use Dandelion pollen as food.
The Dandelion seeds are important food to many small birds.
I'll have to post the pictures of my son blowing his "weed"...we call them wish flowers!
ReplyDeleteI don't mind them...but then again, I don't have a pet...or, for that matter, a LAWN.
If it weren't for weeds my garden would be pretty empty!
ReplyDeleteI posted a dandelion just ready for wishes a couple of weeks ago. They are beautiful.
I used to LOVE dandilions and now my toddler is very much into them. How can you deny a kid the joy of blowing those fluffy seeds all over the place? Enjoy the bright yellow for now. :D Good shot, by the way.
ReplyDeleteI would rather have weeds then have my son stick something off of my lawn into his mouth...which he does constantly....LOL!
ReplyDeleteIf you pick off the heads you can eventually win the weed battle anyways...
Weeds rule! At least at my house. It is amazing though that weeds thrive when everything else is brown.
ReplyDeleteYa know, Carmi, I'm a fan of the weed, too. Who has the right to say they're "less than" just because they grow without much help. There's something wonderfully captivating about blowing a thousand dandelion seeds into the great beyond :).
ReplyDeleteI've almost posted pictures of "weeds" I've photographed, too. Hmmm, need to go on a hunt of the archives :).
Good for you, getting ground level with your WW!
i have always felt they held a beauty, and it is a shame they are a weed.
ReplyDeleteGreat WW.
Good day, Hope you'll visit my 16th WW...Blogging for Peace at The Cafe.
Ooooo dandelions, I've never looked at them the same way after seeing them through Robert Fulghum's eyes.
ReplyDeleteHugs,
Holly
Wow, I've forgotten all about weeds, actually -- Living in the downtown jungle, one forgets that there's things like gardening to do out in the burbs.
ReplyDelete:)
love it!
ReplyDeleteMy kids like the hold the dandelion up to their chin and watch the yellow glow. Then we huff and puff and blow the seeds when it's ready. So much fun!
Happy WW!
Beautiful shot of a weed!
ReplyDeleteI can't stand them in my lawn either, but I lost the battle this summer!
Oh dear, the Dandelion... A weed?!?!
ReplyDeleteWhilst yes, it is a weed, but what is the definition of a weed? That's simple, it is a plant that is growing in the wrong spot/place! So, does that mean that a tree, no matter what the spp is, is in an undesirable location, does that make it a weed?? Oh the debate continues...
For my Masters thesis, I researched what the environmental fate of herbicide is. In effect, it was a study of selective targeting of a turf spp within a turf situation. So t is fairly typical, not to mention topical, in many environs. I am hoping to present this paper at the next International Turf Society's (I am a member) conference in Santiago next year!
Back on topic for you (again) wonderful photo, simply STUNNING!
Ours is up as well at bothburntofferings and more at bernies fotoblog. I do hope you stop by...
Hope you had a great WW!!