Autumn crocus (Colchicum autumnale) Its pale frail lavender petals are always a surprise to me when they emerge in the fall. It's related to the plant from which saffron is harvested-- one little stamen at a time. Colchicum grows from a corm, which was, in ancient times, used as a poison when ground into a powder, and administered in wine. According to the Greek naturalist Theophrastus, slaves ate small pieces of the corm when they were angry with their masters to make themselves ill and unable to work.
Might be useful knowledge for Elizabeth some day.
This gaudy fellow was one of several on on my little bay tree. He's a daddy-long-legs or a spider who looks like one. I don't have the entomologist's eye to tell the difference. But, rumor to the contrary, these guys are not poisonous.
And this -- a perfect parfait of a dawn glimpsed through a tree a few mornings ago.
4 comments:
As much as spiders can often creep me out, they are also so very fascinating.
Biggify that picture and check him out -- like a Star Wars creature!
Not to be seen as indecisive in voting for my favorites, but honestly I like them all. It is great fun opening your blog and discovering that today is "chicken day" or perhaps a long forgotten memory that is captured in an old photograph. My vote - don't change a thing!
That seems to be the overwhelming consensus -- surprise me (as your mother once said.)
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