back when reading the kids to sleep involved picking any book about any kind of animal in the world, we read a lot about the odd extremes of the animal kingdom, because those are what kids want to know about–the biggest, the meanest, the ugliest, the tiniest, the grossest, and the most unusual. i realize as i look at this protea flower that it reminds me in every way except its color, of a pangolin, which is an animal i haven’t thought about much lately, now that eva is reading steinbeck for english class instead of “animals of the rain forest” picture books, and joe . . . well . . . joe is probably still reading about pangolins at night.

protea flower

bought at a saint paul, minnesota florist; native to south africa