Monday, May 3, 2010

Noxious or Not

I've decided that I need to take more blogging breaks. Why you might ask? Because more people follow this blog when I don't write than when I do write. I'm not sure what that means. In the immortal words of Arnold in Terminator 3 - I'm back.

I've been tied up with real life for the last week as I went through a change of operating system on the servers here while herding cats. No, not literally, but figuratively, as I worked to get the members of the board in sync for a board meeting next Monday. It always makes me think of herding cats when you try getting a group of people to agree on a day and time to hold a board meeting.

In other niceties, the weather is finally heading towards full-on spring here in the flatlands. That means that it is time to start planting some of the early cool ground tolerant things. Of course the weeds are already in fine fettle, attempting to conquer the universe one root at a time. There has to be a good reason that weeds seem to have a head start on all the other plants - otherwise they wouldn't be called weeds!

All of which is a round about way to sneak up on the subject for tonight: one man's weed is another man's flower. I remember as a kid when we lived for a few years in Nebraska and then returned to Colorado. I was puzzled that the same plant that was so abundant as to be considered a pest in Nebraska was rare enough in Colorado to be the state flower. It was my introduction to the idea that people can have quite different value judgments of the same objective reality depending on local conditions.


I leave you with this question: Is there any reality where noxious weeds like Russian Thistle are considered rare and beautiful plants? Because if there is, I can introduce you to nirvana without any effort. At least until the weed police come and cart me away for growing a proscribed weed.



At least Russian Thistle leads to tumble weeds in the fall. Unlike Canadian Thistle that just remains troubling and noxious all year round.

5 comments:

  1. I was wondering where you were. Welcome back. I know very little about plants and tend to find all sorts of invasive plants lovely.

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  2. I missed your posts! I must admit that I kind of like dandelions. They are taking over England, but I still think they are pretty. Instead of being horrified to find some as big as my hand I squealed with glee and took photos! Can't wait to blow on them when they turn white!

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  3. Welcome back and those dandelions sort of rock...just sayin.

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  4. How interesting that your state flower is considered a weed in Nebraska. Just goes to show you that you can learn something new every day.

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  5. Glad to see Dan back and blogging!! Like those flower pictures.

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