inordinate fondness for seedpods

j. b. s. haldane was a great british entomologist who classified hundreds of species of beetles, perhaps the most widely varying form of life on earth. late in his career, he spoke to a group of churchgoers about his work. feeling metaphysical, they asked him to reflect on what science had taught him about the mind of God. “i’ve deduced,” he replied, “that God has an inordinate fondness for beetles.” which reminds me, of two things. one, i am not a great scientist although i think that would have been as thrilling in its way as being an artist. and two: i am also not god, although i would love to meet her some day, and if that ever happens, i will talk about my inordinate fondness for seedpods, and ask why they were made so beautiful and so strange.

lotus seedpods

you are beautiful and strange

i’ve been taking pottery classes. and i made this porcelain vase last week. just kidding. i could spend my whole life at a potter’s wheel and never make anything as beautiful as this sea urchin made just by growing to adulthood, without a central brain, reacting to stimuli with tube feet that act like eyes. i will also never be as weird as a sea urchin.

green sea urchin exoskeleton

hey babe. you have an exquisite exoskeleton.

this will not be the last you will see of these spectacular little orbs of algorithmic beauty. i spent a glorious hour photographing them today, and ended up with at least six keepers. i won’t thrust all them on you at once. but, c’mon. talk dirty to me.

green sea urchins (strongylocentrotus droebachiensis)

coils and springs

i have always been fascinated by tendrils. it wasn’t until this century that scientists figured out how vines pull themselves up by their tendrils. they wind around the plant they are climbing, then the coil they have made contracts, and it pulls the vine up vertically, but it gets better than that, because at some point the tendril reverses direction and winds counterclockwise, so that the vine doesn’t pull the plant in a spiral. when they finally figured this out, scientists were able to invent a new type of spring with no net twist when it stretches and contracts. we just keep learning new things, and discovering how little we know.

teeny tiny vine tendril

calef brown

when our kids were young we were desperate for good children’s books. there are so many, and yet so many terrible ones. among our very favorites were the books of calef brown, including “polka bats and octopus slacks,”  and “flamingoes on the roof.” his verses were just exactly right–silly enough to make the kids laugh, sneaky wise enough to hold our overtaxed young parent attention. this photo reminds me of one of his poems, called “skeleton flowers.” i recommend finding the original. thank you calef, for a lot of bedtimes that were a lot less soul sucking than reading about big purple dinosaurs.

poppy pods