Category: Posts

Scenes of October

The month is winding down in a whirl of autumn leaves and chilly breezes hinting that winter is not far off.

Gold and red autumn leaves over house


Foliage was especially bright this year thanks to regular rainfall after the semi-dry conditions of the past few years. The only drawback to it all is having to rake the leaves up afterwards. Some people toss their leaves after bagging them up as if it was all some sort of rubbish. But doing that robs the soil of critical nutrients which would have been recycled and reused by the trees if left to break down naturally. My method of disposal involves my composter. Once that is full, there is a chicken wire leaf bin. Since that is mostly full anyway, that fills up rapidly and the remainder I dump in the small patch of woods in back of the house.

As all this starts to break down, fungi of all sorts get to work. If it wasn’t for these hidden allies, leaves, and deadwood would remain on the surface of the ground, their nutrients inaccessible, the material becoming a potential fire hazard. So a near invisible clean up crew of earthworms, millipedes, mites, insect larvae and other micro-critters start chowing down on all this material.

As they chew up, digest and process the leaves, an enormous tribe of fungi begin the next step of reducing it even further. The vast majority of fungal forms live unnoticed in the soil under our feet sending microscopic filaments through all the leaf waste. But every so often they send up a fruiting body called a mushroom or toadstool. These can come in all forms and sizes from mini-mushrooms,

Tiny mushroom next to lettuce leaf.

to dinner-plate sized.

mushroom wide as open hand.

By the time they are done, the result is fragrant humus, ready for the next generation of plants.

By the end of October, wildflowers have largely gone by with the occasional exception of a late blooming dandelion or tardy fall wild aster. At this time of year, it is the seed heads of these flowers which are the main feature. They are often food for migrating birds and small rodents such as chipmunks, voles and mice. The seed heads themselves can often be as striking as the flowers. The picture below is of a patch of goldenrod gone to seed. The seedheads look more like flowers than the flowers do!

goldenrod seed heads

Last but not least it wouldn’t be October without that classic fixture of every end-of-month decoration.

pile of pumpkins

Happy Halloween everyone!

Trickster – the oldest of them all

Images of Coyote the trickster in his animal form
Trickster Coyote

In last month’s posting, I mentioned Coyote and Spider (also called Anansi) who are two trickster characters. For those who aren’t familiar with the concept of the trickster, he (very rarely she) is an ageless being who, depending on the story being told, is clever, sly or clumsy and dim-witted. He’s always breaking social rules, violating the laws of physics, pulling practical jokes and cheerfully ripping off stuff. He also performs acts which are beneficial such as stealing fire and giving it to humans, showing them how to plant crops, even how to have sex!

This curious immortal who can take the form either of a human or animal, can be found throughout the world under various incarnations. In North America he is seen as Coyote, Rabbit or Raven. In West Africa, he is Anansi, the spider. Norse mythology had Loki as the trickster. Pacific Ocean cultures had the divine being Maui as the trickster and native Australians had a character Bamapana notorious for his bad language, crude jokes and general upsetting of the cultural applecart.

That such a being can be found in traditional cultures all over the world suggests he arose very early in human history. The human global diaspora dates back many tens of thousands of years, with native americans coming in waves, probably as early as 30,000 years ago. Native Australians arrived on the island continent 50,000 years ago.

So the trickster certainly dates back before then, perhaps as much as 100,000 years ago or more. When did our ancestors start telling stories? Probably when they started talking and preserving oral traditions as a way to survive. Part of this oral tradition involved social rules, where to find food, how to get along with neighbors both human and non-human. Relations with the spiritual Otherworld no doubt arose at the same time. And whenever you have rules, there is inevitably a rule-breaker. If there’s a rule, Trickster is sure to break it.

Tricksters are not noted for their physical strength. No Heracles or Atlas here. Instead they rely on their wits, scheming and tricking people to get what they want, whether it’s food, money, sex, what have you. They’re chronic shapeshifters, constantly altering their forms and occasionally even their genders! His antics range from bumbling (think Wile Coyote) to outright malicious (think Loki). Reading over many of the myths about Trickster, he come across much like an amoral sociopath. Yet at the same time he makes it a point to right certain imbalances. The most common form this takes is the theft of fire. Usually fire is being hoarded by certain divinities who refuse to share this gift. So the trickster devises a scheme to get fire away from its owners and into the hands of humans.

Campfire - which Trickster stole for us

Some stories have Trickster having a hand in creating the world. His reasons for this? Well, it’s not for the joy of creation or vaunting himself as a creator to be worshiped. It’s for the very practical reason of giving people a place to sit. It’s the same with fire theft. The goal isn’t to perform a noble deed but just to get light in a place of darkness, for warmth and to cook food (Trickster’s always hungry).

Even the chronic rule breaking serves a purpose. Trickster loves to turn things upside down and inside out if possible. The effect of this is to break people out of rigid patterns so new patterns can be developed. He mirrors the forces of nature which can do the same thing; volcanoes spewing out molten lava and hot ash which breaks down becoming fertile soil, hurricanes which redistribute moisture and heat, forest fires which burn out old dead vegetation and create ashes which nourish new plants and lightning bolts which contribute to the nitrogen cycle so critical for growth. Destructive? Yes! Creative? Also yes!

The trickster has lost none of his allure in the 21st century. A popular character in the current Marvel Comic movies is Loki, the mischievous, malicious yet charming troublemaker who plagues the heroic Thor. Another is the cartoon character Bugs Bunny always getting the upper hand on his foes and having fun doing it. Wile E Coyote is often mentioned as a trickster character but I’m more inclined to think it’s really the Road Runner who consistently outsmarts his pursuer and pulls off more than a few tricks of his own. I can’t imagine their appeal ever fading. All these tricksters embody the chaotic side of life, ever changing, sometimes destructive but definitely never boring.

Bugs Bunny - a modern day trickster
A modern day trickster

Plant Galls

On investigating plants throughout the summer, it is not unusual to come across a bizarre looking growth on a plant, many times looking much like a tumor or a wart. These are galls and they are produced by a variety of parasitic organisms such as viruses, fungi, mites and insect grubs.

Galls come in an astonishing assortment of shapes, colors and sizes, depending on which organism created them and which plant is being parasitized. Gardeners may bemoan the appearance of these funky growths. But for the most part, they don’t really harm the plant unless it is already sickly or is heavily laden with galls, they only render it a bit unsightly to look at.

The invading organism releases a substance which irritates the surrounding plant cells which begin forming a microhabitat for the parasite to live in. Insect galls will often have nutritious starches and other materials which may insure that the grub remains in one spot and doesn’t entirely devour its host.

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The above picture shows a small clump of galls on a wild grape vine in my back yard. They are likely the product of grape midges that hatch from eggs laid by the mother inside the stem of the vine which then forms the gall. There are a variety of grape midges each with its own life cycle. The vine itself appears uninjured and as long as the damage remains minimal, I will leave it be.

This particular gall was found on a non spiny member of the thistle family (not sure of identity). The gall extends several inches along the stem, swelling it but not apparently interfering with the growth of the weed as it managed to produce flowers. Until I can firmly identify which plant it is, the identity of the gall maker will be uncertain.

This odd bulbous growth found on a jewelweed plant is also a gall. It is formed by the larva of the jewelweed gall midge. The egg producing the larva is planted by the mother into a forming flower bud which then creates this odd structure looking much like a Christmas ornament. Once it has matured enough, it will chew its way out, drop to the ground and winter over.

Galls can take many whimsical shapes, some looking so much like part of the plant that if you aren’t familiar with the species, you might not realize you are looking at a plant gall. One is the willow pinecone gall which resembles its namesake. It looks quite ordinary until you recall willow trees don’t have pine cones. Oak apple galls often look so much like apples, you could be forgiven for thinking it was an actual fruit. But a closer look reveals its true nature, an oddly structured home for the little grub inside.

It’s easy to pitch a hissy fit when you see these strange formations on prized plants in your garden. But for the most part they are harmless. Many of these larva and mites hide inside the plant to avoid predators such as birds and other insects who would gladly chow down on them if the opportunity presented itself. What looks like a nuisance to you is actually lunch to somebody else. If you really have to, just pinch off the leaf or odd growth and remember it’s merely another startling reminder of some of the astonishing adaptations to be found in Nature.

The Perils Of Gardening

All of us dream of having a garden like this –

But wind up with something that looks like this –

Well, maybe not that bad. But with all the hungry critters and erratic weather, it’s not easy to produce something that’s even halfway between the above photos. So how does one ward off persistent fence crashers such as deer and woodchuck, the two large beasts that cause me the most trouble?

Put up fencing. Lots and lots of fencing.

Chicken wire is also a good defense. Here are some of my peas under a force field of chicken wire.

And some of my wax beans with fencing and wire mesh.

I found a wire mesh cage stashed up in the top of the garage when cleaning out the detritus of 50 plus years. It makes a nice wire cage for the bush squash I am trying out.

Will any of this be effective in making it possible to harvest some veggies later on in the summer? Only time will tell. Stay tuned.

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I am happy to report the sale of a third story to the quarterly magazine Into The Ruins.
Thank you Mr. Caris!