FLORA, NOT FAUNA

When I was in Eastwood High School Mr. Derr was our jolly, knowledgeable and enthusiastic Biology teacher.  

A huge, imposing man, he loved his subjects and that energy was infectious.  This was a time when the curriculum favored 9 week “mini-courses” and I took all of his but one in a year.  

I have vivid memories of Anatomy and Physiology ("Don't do anything inappropriate and gross with your probes!" Mr. Derr thundered) and Comparative Anatomy (when we began dissecting the dogfish shark we discovered it was pregnant. His gleeful giddiness at getting an 8-for-1 deal on this shark nearly overpowered the strong saltwater fish smell.  Almost.)   

And Taxidermy, for which I stuffed a quail, two starlings and a muskrat, all provided by classmates to this non-hunter/trapper's hands.

But the class I studiously avoided was Botany.  Plants just couldn’t hold my interest then.

My sister, Amy Jo, has fond memories of taking that class from Mr. Deer and told me she kept her sketch books for many years before they were lost to a plumbing leak.

Today, I’m thinking of Mr Derr and my internal shift because on this tour, I am blessed to observe several wild animals:  

—a couple of turtles that are migrating across the roads of southern Missouri beneath the morning sun;  (Steinbeck's chapter on the turtle crossing the road)

—a fox that is so captivated by a morsel in the middle of the road that its concentration nearly forces my car to help it join the prey in the hereafter as I near downtown Firth, Nebraska;

—3 black bears that Connie and I see in Tennessee, 

—the numerous road-killed deer that I drive past along I-80 in Illinois, Iowa and Nebraska. 

This time, however I am captivated by the Flora.  

When I drove across the country, from Maryland (Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Missouri, Arkansas, Oklahoma and Kansas) to Colorado in April, I was taken with the colors purple and lavender.  (""...Listen, God love everything you love---and a mess of stuff you don’t. But more than anything else, God love admiration.

You saying God vain? I ast.

Naw, she say, Not vain, just wanting to share a good thing. I think it pisses God off if you walk by the color purple in a field somewhere and don’t notice it.  ----Alice Walker quote from “the color purple”.)  

(My sister later informs me that these are the colors of Spring.)

Today, the corn in southern Missouri is way taller than our annual adage in Pemberville, Ohio: "knee-high by the 4th of July", more like Oklahoma's O, What a Beautiful Morning! song "...the corn is as high as an elephant's eye."

This time, the brilliant yellows, oranges and golds from the roadside lilies line my route in Missouri. 

Pink mimosa trees, 

Blue hydrangea bushes

 and 

magenta crepe myrtle in Tennessee ;

The gold and brilliant oranges of lillies in North Carolina;

Light blue cornflower lines the northern highway route in Illinois, Iowa and Nebraska. 

The earth is brimming with joyous color in celebration of its fecundity and the heavy ripeness of the season.  The colors are alive with sound!

I see,
I hear,
and I notice.