Natural Art

Went up to the Art Show today, with my dear dear friend P. It rained on the way up, all the way through, and pluvialed on the way back as if Neptune ran the carnival. It poured buckets. Fortunately, we had donned those twenty-five cent plastic raincoats which worked out way better than any umbrella would have. We parked at the bottom of a hill, Lewiston is located at the end of the Niagara Escarpment, which means hills before a deep dive to Lake Ontario.

Lewiston is a village, set amid countryside, but even then the flash of brilliant yellow orange with wings of black startled me; a Baltimore oriole was being chased by two smaller brown birds and flew up into a tree for refuge. It was the second live one I had ever seen, and so was cause for admiration, as I haven't used up all my oriole admiration yet.

Earlier in the day I had checked in on Dad; on the way I again saw the egret who is making his home here this summer. He or she was in a creek that meanders through a golf course, doing its egret job of standing and looking good. Maybe there is more than one around, even so, it is a pleasure to see.

We looked at the art, the poor dealers were kept busy pushing the gathered rain off their display tent awnings and roofs. Few people were buying, possibly because it was raining so hard, and they didn't want to carry items. Really, though, there seemed to be a good turn out in spite of the weather.

My friend stopped by the bathrooms, I waited outside and noticed down on the wood mulch that there were hundreds of Bird's Nest fungi pushing through the chips. Again, something not seen very often, this cup fungi. It grows into small, funnel shaped cups which hold the spore sacs that look like eggs, tiny bird's eggs. When a rain drop hits one just right, the egg is dashed out of the cup, and a tiny tail at the other end snags onto a blade of grass. If a grazing animal eats this grass and moves on, the spore sac is then deposited in another area in the manure. Too much science? Tough noogies. I say double heapings of science for everyone! Rowf.

After, on the way back down the hill, one of my favorite birds was hanging onto a fluff of a flowerhead, picking at seeds. A minute goldfinch was dining in the rain, not far from where we had observed the oriole. The brightness of yellow startles one, and their song is reminiscent of gardens and fields of thistle, where they often feed. This was almost too much, the egret, the oriole, and a goldfinch all in a day. Art, this is the first art.

I had wrapped a couple of the Bird's Nest fungi in a tissue, and have brought them home to put under a magnifying glass. You can tell which part of the art show I liked best, can't you?

No lie, I am tired and the best kind of a Sunday night is the one where you don't have to get up early on Monday. Tonight is one of those. I am going to go flop on the couch and read a bit, another luxury before the school year begins. Tomorrow I am going to find a patch of woods, I know just where, and look for more things to admire. Sleep, peace, sleep.