Fragile

COME AND GO: These unusual beauties appeared in our garden over the past couple of days. I know their appearance is fleeting, and to appreciate them for the too-short time they're around.

When I look at something like this, I can't help but wonder why it exists. It's so delicate - how is it that it evolved in this way? How did they come to be, and why are they so different than sturdier flowers?What advantage does this structure and appearance give them from an evolutionary standpoint? 

It just so happened that someone posted about this particular flower in a Seattle Backyard Gardening group I'm a part of on Facebook. I learned it's Centaurea montana, a species of Centaurea endemic to Europe. Per Wikipedia, "It is widespread and common in the more southerly mountain ranges of Europe, but is rarer in the north. It escapes from gardens readily, and has thereby become established in the British Isles, Scandinavia and North America."

And can we talk about irises? What's up with them? They're so weird. I mean, look at this thing.

It's ridiculously showy on the inside, which is often almost entirely shrouded in huge, papery petals that curl in crazy ways.  

The iris above almost looks like a little butterfly inside a bigger butterfly.

The white iris is kind of a mess, petals every-which-way for a handful of days before they start looking past their prime. (Actually, they're not all petals. I learned today that irises .have six 'lobes.' The three inner lobes are petals, while the three outer lobes are sepals.)

ON AGAIN: Last night I blogged that we were sad Gage Art Academy's complimentary Art to Go classes were kaput. 

This morning, I spied a Facebook announcement that the classes were being extended. There is a full calendar of classes for the month of May! I signed Annabelle up for all eight. She'll be painting twice a week for another month, so yay for that!

Today's class was a how-to-paint-feathers session.

I couldn't help but suggest that Annabelle use blues and greens as a nod to the Seahawks.

I thought even her blotchy napkin was pretty.

I thought all of her creations were really pretty.

A fine feathered painting!

CANDY CLEAN: So if you can't find hand sanitizer anywhere, where do you look? A candy company (IT'SUGAR), of course. Not sure how I even came across it (likely a pop up ad on the Internet), but I spied these little personal hand sanitizers for sale for a good price a couple weeks back. Today, they were delivered. The packaging sure is sweet. The kids and I took the tops off and took a whiff. That was a bit disappointing. It just smelled like hand sanitizer - that unmistakable, overwhelming alcohol scent. 

However, a bit later, Annabelle reported that she actually used some of the Smarties sanitizer, and that after the alcohol flashed off, she could detect a Smarties scent.

CRUSHED: Can we all agree that 2020 has pretty much been a Dumpster fire? It seems like a tsunami of bad news swirls around us, and it can be totally overwhelming.

We made a donation to the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline today. They do important work. 1-800-273-TALK (8255).