Lamprocapnos spectabilis

Sentience – Day 898

Posted on by Lisa Weikel Leave a comment
Bleeding Heart Bonanza – Photo: L. Weikel

Sentience

At least twice today I found myself contemplating the sentience of certain Beings that share my home with me. Well, one of them lives outside, just off the edge of my porch. The other – whose specific identity remains uncertain  – can be confidently narrowed down to a field of three who do, in fact, reside in our home with us.

Notice I’m not questioning their sentience. Ha – at this stage, I wouldn’t dare. I’m merely contemplating it. Perhaps even celebrating it. Most definitely acknowledging it.

Floral Proliferation

My first appreciation of the sentience surrounding me has to do with the continued astonishing proliferation of our faithful Lamprocapnos spectabilis – our bleeding hearts. (Sort of a little disquieting to speak of how these flowers are flourishing when you consider their common name. Do we really want to celebrate the proliferation of bleeding hearts?) Hmm. Bears some reflection.

Beyond the wisdom (or lack thereof) in speaking of bleeding hearts with such great affection, I want to point out that my Lamprocapnos spectabilis is utterly delighted by having such lavish attention paid to it. If I didn’t know better (which I don’t), I’d say my tiny bleeding heart that I first began writing posts about a month ago is loving all the attention. This plant is becoming ginormous. ‘Flourishing’ barely covers how well it’s doing and how abundantly it’s bestowing its beauty upon us.

And while I honestly feel as though it’s growing noticeably bigger this year than it ever has any other year, there’s yet another reason why I feel this particular bleeding heart plant is responding to the appreciation and attention I’m lavishing upon it. That other reason is the white bleeding heart plant that’s only four or so feet away from the red one. I’ve been paying but a fraction of the attention I’ve paid to the red bleeding hearts to the white ones. And quite honestly? That plant is not thriving, at least not even close to how well the red one is doing. It’s doing ok, but the difference between the two plants is stark.

I’ll take a photo tomorrow of the white plant for comparison sake tomorrow.

Not So Subtle Dig

The other example of sentience in our household today was something I observed in our bathroom, where we keep our cats’ litterbox.  In fact, when I saw it and the reality of what I was looking at sunk in, I had to check with Karl. I thought for sure he’d done it as a joke or something.

But no.

One of our three cats was either sarcastically sending a message that the box was not cleaned out satisfactorily or s/he was snidely being helpful. We’re pretty sure it was Tigger. Precious is too paranoid to take that much time aiming a poop. Cletus would rather fling his or leave it on our pillow (not that he’s ever done either of these things – I just have a feeling his sentience would more likely express itself in one of those ways). Tigger is the only one who would politely, if passive aggressively, express either displeasure or a sense of humor in that manner.

Either way – the careful placement of the beast’s solid waste directly onto the scooper was a marvel of both adept rear placement and not-so-subtle snarky sentience.

Yep. These are some of the weird things I occasionally contemplate.

You have to admire the aim involved… Photo: L. Weikel

(T-213)

Flourishing – Day 890

Posted on by Lisa Weikel Leave a comment
Lamprocapnos spectabilis; aka Bleeding Hearts – Photo: L. Weikel

Flourishing

22 Days Ago – Photo: L. Weikel

On March 28th of this year I wrote a post about the spiky looking sprouts emerging from the earth that I knew would eventually yield blooms that resemble bleeding hearts. I included a photo of the plant and mentioned that it would be fun to pay attention to how much it would change and how long it would take those changes to manifest. I posted an update on the growth status twelve days later. And now, 22 days along, I present you with a flourishing Lamprocapnos spectabilis.

It’s amazing to me just how quickly this plant has burst onto the scene of my garden. I’m glad I documented the scraggly initial emergence, and then its gawky adolescence. Watching this transformation over the past three weeks renews my awe over the utter magic that Mother Earth surrounds us with day after day.

Twelve Days Later – Photo: L. Weikel

Appreciating the Details

It’s so easy to get caught up in our day to day lives and forget to pay attention to what’s unfolding before our very eyes. I realize I do it all time, in spite of my intention to savor the present moments that comprise our lives. Ah, the road to hell.

But hey. Every once in a while I manage to bring my awareness right down to the nitty gritty and witness something amazing – like the explosion of growth shown here. Or the dozen or so goldfinches descending upon our feeders. Or the sun salutations a tulip did today in our garden.

I’ll share the tulip photos tomorrow, perhaps. Unless there’s something more pressing to discuss. I have such feelings over the potential for a new beginning to take root in our country if there’s a verdict in the Chauvin trial that brings accountability. But maybe that’s a topic for another day. Perhaps, if we’re lucky, we’ll discover deep-rooted change is finally flourishing and a whole new wave of awareness and equality will take root throughout our country.

Nine Days Later – Flourishing – Photo: L. Weikel

(T-221)

Recent Posts – Day 879

Posted on by Lisa Weikel Leave a comment
Lamprocapnos spectabilis – Photo: L. Weikel

Recent Posts

Bleeding Hearts

There are a couple of things I could write about tonight, but none of them are lighting my fingers on fire. Instead, I thought I might provide an update on a couple of recent posts because, you know: continuity.

About twelve days ago I wrote a post about the Lamprocapnos spectabilis (aka Dicentra spectabilis) that was sprouting in one of our gardens. Naturally, I took a photo of it and included it in the post (but also see below). I’ve taken another photo of the flourishing bleeding heart plant and provide that here for comparison (see above).

Twelve days ago – Photo: L. Weikel

In 12 short days, the nascent shoots just poking their heads through the dirt have been joined by several more – and all of them together are clamoring to reach the sun like a litter of kittens tumbling over themselves for a plate of milk.

While the growth has been dramatic, I’m starting to wonder about myself. Obviously I was bowled over the past couple of years when I would ‘suddenly’ realize the plant had flourished and was yielding gobs of blossoms. Equally as obvious is the fact that I must’ve been depressingly oblivious to my Lamprocapnos spectabilis to think they enjoyed some particularly rapid garden evolution.

It’s been 12 days after all. Yes, the plant is thriving. No, it’s not especially more compelling than the mad growth of everything right now, to be honest. Springtime is an extravaganza of growth bursting the seams of all the constructs, not just a few. Nevertheless, I’m asking the Bleeding Hearts to lead the way.

Mailbox Mayhem

While I have nothing to report as far as the apprehension of the person who vandalized our local police force’s pride and joy speed awareness tool, I can report some new about he who mowed down our mailbox.

And yes, it is a ‘he.’

Word on the street (more like the road, but we’ll go with the more common vernacular) is that ‘the guy was caught.’ While I’ve not independently verified the truth of this countryside gossip, it’s being said that the perpetrator was a young man who was extremely angry over his girlfriend breaking up with him. In fact, his anger was so great that he jumped into his truck and proceeded to smash at least 13 mailboxes all around our township.

Not only did he do thousands of dollars worth of damage to his truck, the scuttlebutt is that he’ll also be reimbursing each of us who lost a mailbox the sum of $75.  That adds up quickly.

It doesn’t reimburse us for the time and hassle we’re experiencing just in getting another hole dug and a new pole and box set and mounted. But I’ll admit to feeling a smidge of satisfaction that he’s going to have to pay us at least something in restitution. Then again – I’ll believe it when I see it.

I hope he gets some help learning to deal more productively with his feelings. It sure was an expensive lesson. He did make one thing abundantly clear: it seems likely his girlfriend was sound in her judgment.

(T-232)

Progression – Day 867

Posted on by Lisa Weikel Leave a comment
Sprouts – Photo: L. Weikel

Progression

A couple weeks ago (or maybe it was only days, time’s been so skewed for me lately), I mused over the possibility of taking photos of the buds coming up out of the ground. I’m pretty sure I specifically made reference to documenting the progression of either the crocuses (croci? crocae?) or daffodils, or maybe even both.

But instead of either of these traditional harbingers of spring, I’m choosing a more unique and perhaps slightly less stereotypical spring blossom to track: Lamprocapnos spectabilis (aka Dicentra spectabilis) or Bleeding Heart.

I’ve been surprised the past couple of years by how this plant seems to almost magically appear, fully formed, overnight. I’m certain my surprise at its dramatic arrival into my awareness is a result of my lack of attention. So I’m seeking to bring more attention to my Bleeding Heart plant this year, and part of my efforts will include documenting the progression of its growth.

Learn Something New

I distinctly remember my mother introducing me to this particular flowering plant when we were weeding behind the stone farmhouse in which I grew up. The garden we had always felt so wild, planted as it was on a small hillside with old mortar and stone walls lining the perimeter. There were snakes and worms and voles and moles in that garden. Bees and salamanders. And among the flowers were the bleeding hearts.

I can’t remember the words my mother used but I can remember the awe I felt when looking at the blossoms and wondering how amazing it was that a plant could so obviously resemble a heart splitting and releasing a single drop of precious blood. It bordered on the magical that a plant could mimic something so human.

Ever since then, I’ve always associated these flowers with my mother. I don’t know why. She taught me the names of lots of things; why do these, as well as the scent of lilacs, always bring her back to me so vividly?

When looking these flowers up (so I could know their proper name), I discovered that the blossom, when turned upside down, resembles something quite different than a bleeding heart, and hence is the basis of its ‘other’ name.

While you can certainly look it up yourself, I’m going to wait until my little sprouts grow up and let them reveal their other name to us themselves.

(T-244)