California Poppies

June 16, 2010

California Poppies. Each one with 4 startlingly bright orange-golden petals forming a funnel, the funnel swirling down to upreaching stamens in the center. A small fly looking like an ant with wings carries pollen between the flowers. Vetch also grows here, tender seeds inside a tiny nascent pod. Now a surprise. I see that the tiny violet-pink disk flowers are actually part of the poppy plant. Oh, I see. The small disks are what remains after the stamens and petals are gone, and the seed-carrying pod grows out of that. The poppy petals, despite their amazing iridescent intensity are not uniformly the same color. Tiny striations of darker color decorate each petal, tiny lines that start at the center tip of the petal and continue to the outer edge. Now the small fly that looks like an ant is gathering pollen on a small yellow flower with tiny lacy stamens. I’ve seen others of this same plant with the flower still enfolded in a ball, tightly held by green leaves, waiting to be revealed at the right time.

Under the pine tree, miniature pine cones are growing above my head. Their swirling funnel shaped reminds me of the poppy flowers. A ladybug crawls along a pine branch, perhaps looking for aphids. Whatever her business, I’m sure it’s helping maintain the balance of nature on this beautifully healthy farm.

Looking at this complexity of Nature’s design and balance, there can be no thought that humans can somehow mimic or control it. Mansanto surely knows this as well. Whatever they are doing, they aren’t really trying to improve on Nature. We who know that Nature has intelligence will find a way to saturate our global consciousness with this understanding. And soon it will be up to each person to discern where they will take their stand – to continue to try to dominate Nature or to work with Nature in love and cooperation.