My Mind Blows Gently

Ken lets me steer the boat for a couple of hours. I manage to keep to a heading (give or take 30 degrees).

Cousin Katie comes to visit for a couple of days. We take her to a Tiki bar on the beach and to the Marie Selby Botanical Gardens.

According to Wiki, "The Gardens feature the most diverse living and preserved collections of epiphytes in the world, and feature more than 20,000 living plants including 5,500 orchids, 3,500 bromeliads and 1,600 other plants".

In case you were wondering, an epiphyte is "a plant that grows on another plant but is not parasitic, such as the numerous ferns, bromeliads, air plants, and orchids growing on tree trunks in tropical rain forests".

The orchids are very pretty, but my favorite plants are the ones that have evolved in poor soil and have become meat eaters. Some of those are coming up later...

Let us arrange 

these lovely flowers in the bowl

since there's no rice

― Matsuo Basho

White plum blossoms―

though the hour is late,

a glimpse of dawn

― Yosa Buson

 Observe:

see how the wild violets bloom

within the forbidden fences!

― Shida Yaba

smells like rotting flesh

luring the hungry insects

plants dining on death

bending down for the top leaves 

on the bonsai tree —

baby giraffe

The pedigree of honey
Does not concern the bee;
A clover, any time, to him
Is aristocracy.
-Emily Dickenson

Mai-Tai in a Tiki Bar on the Beach.

I am observing
mighty Mother Earth spinning

my mind blows gently...
Tim Ryerson