Tag Archives: Education

The Surprising Science Behind Dandelion Survival

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Another week… and finally some nicer weather! It’s still a little chilly, but at least the sun was out today. Alas, the dandelions have turned into their little puff ball stage. Gone are the yellow rivers along the curbs, and a snowy, grey blanket has replaced them. If you’ve been following along, we’ve been chatting about the humble weed, and this week is no exception. And we’ll begin with a cool “fun fact”.

Cool.

Did you know that dandelions are “hydrophobic”? Which, for you non-science type folks, means “afraid of water”. Afraid of water? It’s a plant. Sounds a little sus. That means a little off in case you don’t speak teenager. Anyway… it is true. Each dandelion seed is attached to a tiny parachute like structure (called a pappus). The pappus has little hairs, and when the tiny hairs of the pappus are submerged in water, they close up, trapping a water droplet inside, essentially rendering the parachutes dry. Those little puff balls, when dipped in water, do not soak it up; they will come out pretty much dry again. If you want some proof, here’s a little video link to check it out! Dipping Dandelions. Pretty cool, eh?

And since that little puffball can resist a pretty significant downpour or dunking, it might get picked up and blown away. That “wishing flower” can send off upwards of 200 seeds, which have a germination rate of about 90%. Which is likely why we see so many of those yellow flowers blooming again! A pretty successful “weed”. And resilient too. We talked about that, already though (go check it out if you haven’t read the last few weeks of our “study”.)

So let’s muse about it, shall we? Resisting a downpour. Unable to be “wet blankets”. Not harmed by a little outside interference. Sounds pretty protected if you ask me. I’ve been learning about our Godly protection lately. Harnessing His Power to resist the downpours that come our way. Did you know you can be “resistant” too? You have the cool ability to say, nope, not today, Satan. Go ahead, dunk me under if you want… but I am coming out dry on the other side, and then I am gonna spread my wishing flower of 200 plus witness stories, Lord willing! And 90% of those stories will have an impact: and then there will be more of us to resist! Satan and his evil schemes don’t stand a chance. Dandelions seem to keep popping up year after year, no matter how much weed killer you might spray. We just get encouraged and float over from someone else’s wishes.

Spread a little sunshine, my friends!

So stand tall, my little puff balls! Resist the downpour. Fight back and make wishes. Spread a little sunshine and happiness to the next lawn over. Or float on the breeze and go as far as the wind will take you. Then take root, and pop up with glory to smile at another spring! Blessings, dear ones!

Sounds of a Silent Saturday

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Welcome back, my friends. Apologies for skipping out last week… just wasn’t there. It was Easter and I was certainly musing, but I didn’t get a chance to sit down at the computer to write about it. So it’s going to overflow into this week. It’s my blog, I’m allowed. It’s been an eventful week this week too … two words: baby chicks! Therefore, I am a little late in posting. But: it’s my blog, I’m allowed.

Okay. Here we go. I want to invite you in to the middle of the night at my old farmhouse. I have very few neighbours. It’s not the big city. We have one streetlight, so that permeates the absolute darkness of, let’s say, three o’clock in the morning. I’m lying in bed awake, as some women of my age do, listening. The chubby dog takes up half the space I have allocated myself and I pull the remaining covers up over my shoulders. It’s chilly, but that’s okay. The dog snorts. I hear myself and the hubby breathing. My eyes are closed and block out the streetlight. I listen again.

Photo by Kseniya Budko on Pexels.com

During the day, our old farmhouse creeks and we hear the wind outside. Our neighbouring cows are loud most of the time. The occasional car, truck or farm vehicle zoom past our front yard and kick up the dust – the dog barks at the slower traffic. Up until recently, Morris our rooster could be heard. (It’s a myth that roosters only crow in the mornings. That crazy bird yelled all the time at us!) However, I’m sad to report he’s been missing now for a few weeks. I’d like to think he was heroic and was “taken” fighting the whole time to protect his ladies. Even our buddy down the road commented he hadn’t heard him lately and kinda misses him. Enough about that sad event. Moving on.

Back to three o’clock in the morning and the snoring dog. Imagine you hear a gurgling like a giant belch emanating from some underwater jelly-bellied monster. That monster happens to be the sump pump located in the basement, directly underneath our master bedroom. It belches several times throughout the day and night. Earlier in the spring it followed a constant sound of rushing water as the spring melt emptied and got flushed back out by the sump pump. I’ve learned to appreciate the sound of the it, because it means my basement isn’t flooding. Like the sound of generators running constantly during our ice storm a few weeks ago. Thankfully, those have stopped now, and we are back to a general quiet.

Listen again. Hushed breathing. The cat jumps down from something upstairs with a soft thud. My new baby chick birds finally rustle. I listen to hear them as I’ve only had them a few days (yeah!) and I’m still at the new momma “please don’t die” stage. Somebody peeps very softly, and I say a prayer of thanks for signs of life in the middle of the night. They settle back down in their living room home with the soft red light of the heat lamp. Silence again. Gurgle belch. Hushed breathing. The furnace clicks on briefly, with a rush of pilot light flame. Otherwise it is pretty quiet here.

I’m a week behind in this muse, but I’ve been thinking about it since a comment I heard Easter weekend. You’ve heard of “good Friday”. You may have heard of “celebration Sunday” or “Easter Sunday” or even “resurrection day”, but this year, for the first time ever, I heard someone use the term “silent Saturday”. The day between Jesus’ death on “good Friday” and rising again on the third day… the day when all was absolutely silent. Apparently, I am late to the party on this concept, for google has lots to say about silent Saturday. Not so silent on the internet. Well fine. It was a new thought for me. And so, I share it with you!

One imagines Jesus, stone cold in a dark tomb. Obviously, corpses don’t say much. God the father did a lot of “talking” on Friday, but no signs and wonders happen to be recorded on the day in between. Jesus’ followers have probably gathered, but may be hiding out, keeping a low profile. It seems like it really was a “silent Saturday”. And it seems, with some reflection on my part, and the internet sparking my thoughts, a day of quiet reflection should totally be a part of the Easter story! Life is difficult. There will be hard days. Yet, life is also beautiful, and there will be many a day filled with joy and celebration. And we often need a few silent Saturdays, to balance it all out. To question why God seems to have abandoned us. Why He seems like He is not answering our prayers. Then to reflect on His faithfulness, and draw strength for the next step. Like me listening for signs of life at three in the morning, thankful that things are still “okay so far”.

So, thanks to that friend that happened to mention this phrase to me last week… it ignited a muse that’s spanned a week! Was it news to you? Even if it wasn’t and you knew this lingo way before me, I hope it’s been a good reminder to you, to appreciate a bit of silence. May you take the opportunity to hear the gurgle belch of a good sump pump and appreciate all you have. Be blessed, beloveds.

How Nature’s Harmony Reflects Life’s Lessons

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Welcome back to another episode of me and my little piece of the internet. The hubby asked me what I was writing about this week. I told him “symbiotic relationships”. He gave me the blank “okay fine” look and slowly walked away. I hope you don’t feel the same way. Let’s see where this thought goes, shall we? I hope by the end of this post you don’t “okay fine” stare and keep scrolling. I hope it makes you smile. So, yes, I was thinking about how cool it was that things all mesh together. Classic science calls this “symbiosis”. It’s where two different species have a relationship that somehow connects. For example, anyone who’s watched Finding Nemo knows about the clown fish and sea anemone. The fish gets protection and the anemone gets its daily cleaning from the fish. This is a fairly positive relationship. Parasites are an example of a negative symbiotic relationship… only one half benefits. The other half usually gets eaten. You can dig deeper if you want, but my original muse kind of expanded from there.

Therefore, we need to back track a little. This winter has been quite snowy. Snow has piled high and there was storm after storm. Most of us are sick of it. Finally, this weekend, it rained and rained. In fact, there was a thunderstorm with lightning and thunder. The rain has washed quite a bit of the snow away and we are finally seeing some grass on the ground (and mud… but that’s a topic for a different day). This is where my brain went: How cool is it that God set science in motion to bring rain to wash away snow. And this for that, and that for this, and … well you get it. Life and seasons all work in such as way to progress.

Time keeps ticking. We age. Life moves on whether we like it or not. The sun rises and sets and we mere humans can do very little to stop it. I think about all we do to mess it up. We cut down the rain forests, we pollute, and politics erase borders and plot, kill and pillage. History is full of human attempts to mess up God’s design for the perfect world and all that ebbs and flows naturally. At least that’s how I see it most of the time.

Perhaps that’s a pessimistic view of the world, and we should change the direction of this rant. Let’s go back to a mutualistic symbiotic ideal earth… where we all get along and benefit from others. You have to admit, it’s pretty cool that two species just hang together and help. Did you know that there is a bacteria designed simply to help the cow digest its food? Just living its best life in the warm, juicy rumen stomach breaking down all those cow yummies. Only a creative, imaginative God could set (even the fallen) world in order. And then keeps it ticking.

“Takes a licking and keeps on ticking”

We tapped our trees tonight for maple syrup. There’s grass. The chickens are so happy to be out and about again. The bunnies will soon be back in their run soaking up the sun. The pool and pond will eventually melt completely and be green again so the hubby can start his quest for pool boy of the year all over! Spring has finally started – as we knew it would eventually – and I am just feelin’ it! Are you?

Our pastor spoke on worry this past week. Admittedly, I’m not a huge worrier. I know, lucky me. It’s because of muses like this. I see how the world around me simply keeps on moving on, and me worrying cannot add a day to it. I get the whole “birds don’t sow or reap but they eat just fine” verse. I see it. And I hope after reading today’s post, you see it a bit more clearly, too. Happy Spring, my beloveds: Enjoy it!! God designed it to be a new start to refresh us all!