what about the plastic animals?

No Longer Stinky

Late last week an Amorphophallus titanum, better known as a corpse flower, came into bloom at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden.  Fascinating fact:  Amorphophallus is Latin for "deformed penis".  Thursday was officially "Baby, the Corpse Flower" Bloom Day in Brooklyn.  Baby was still in bloom when I went yesterday.  The flower no longer smelled like a rotting corpse.  The awful smell of the flower attracts insects that would normally lay their eggs in rotting flesh.  Along the way the insects pick up some pollen, which then gets distributed to other corpse flowers.  Not wanting to take a chance with insects, the botanic garden staff cut a small window into the flower yesterday morning and removed a bit of pollen.  According to a sign at the garden there's another corpse flower blooming at Virginia Tech and they are going to attempt to breed the two.

Surprise guests coming to town tomorrow.  I may not return here until the weekend.

Young Engineers

Walgreen's was having a sale on toothpicks (1080 for a dollar) and mini-marshmallows.  They made for great entertainment.  I helped get the buidling started but let the kids take over after a while.

Fields of Western Massachusetts

Corn looks mighty healthy.

Field Memorial Library, Conway MA

If you drive east on Route 116 in western Massachusetts you eventuallly pass through the town of Conway.  Normally the drive on 116 is fun as the road winds up and down hills.  This summer the Commenwealth of Massachusetts decided to replace seemingly all the bridges on 116 west of Conway.  It was drive a mile, stop several minutes, drive a mile, stop several minutes...

The town of Conway has about 1900 people living in it.  In the village proper there may be a couple hundred people at most.  The small size of the town does not prepare one for the large and beautiful Field Memorial Library in the center of the village.  The only other time I was in Conway was ten years ago, enroute to a vacation on the Cape.  The library was closed that day (it's only open a few short hours each week).  Last week the library was open.  Despite not having bookmarks, the tile mosaic floor and domed ceiling were impressive.  The grand library owes its existence to native son Marshall Field, he of the Chicago department store of clock and Frango mints fame that's soon to become a Macy's, who built it in 1901 in honor of his parents.

Blueberries

I was lucky enough to find a couple of pints of lowbush blueberries while I was in Massachusetts.  If you're not in Maine or Nova Scotia lowbush berries are almost impossible to find.  I once saw badly smushed lowbush berries in the Chelsea Whole Foods several years ago.  That was the only time I've seen them for sale in the city. 

Lowbush blueberries are also known as wild blueberries because they're not cultivated as are highbush berries.  The small berries are sweeter and more intensely flavored than the highbush variety.  They are also about three times more expensive because the plants grow close to the ground, which makes them a real pain to harvest.  If you've never had fresh lowbush berries, you need to get yourself to Maine next July!

Why Apple Developed Photo Booth

Because there's a seven year-old in all of us.

Happy Birthday Zoe!

My niece Zoe turned five last week.  Her mother baked a chocolate cake and her father did his usual awesome job of turning it into a work of art.  Ladybugs, frogs and a castle number among the past cakes that have been made for Zoe and her sister.

A long weekend in Vermont and Massachusetts were just what the doctor ordered.  Seeing green mountains during the day and hearing crickets at night can do wonders for a person in the city.

Raps

 

The yellow field seen from the Jagdschloss Grantiz tower was a field of raps in bloom.  The seed of the raps plant is used to make oil.  Canola oil, the oil Mark Bittman no longer likes, because, translated, rapeseed oil isn't that great a marketing term.  The raps were at full bloom the first week we were in Germany.  There were stretches where it seemed like every other field was yellow.

Off to Vermont and Massachusetts for a few days.