Plant Porn on the Grassy Balds

It's getting harder for me to keep this blog constant. Now I have to go to the coffee house to blog, and people keep coming up to me and talking to me... All is good conversation, and really nice people, but at the same time... It's harder for me to keep ya'll posted. And I can't find my camera charger!!! 

I SWEAR today I saw 3 ... THREE people picking up dead cicadas... AND there was an installation on the wall of one of the buildings.... made up of DEAD CICADAS! Proof that my gross idea was really not that original ... really!

                               

We went hiking on Roan Mountain today... 

The class of anxious nature freaks piled in the van... they are all really nice.... they crack me up constantly (unintentionally), but still they make me smile. 

K is a botanist... and REALLY excited about nature and plants. He has a hat with dragonfly pins on it, and wears necklaces with dragonflies and turtles... his glasses are colorfully rimmed. He is extremely nice. It took FOREVER to walk from the car, through the forest to the Grass Balds on Roan, because we stopped he told us about EVERY plant and tree and bug. It took two hours to walk a mile.

But it definitely provided me with a lot of funny material. When he would talk about the male and female parts of plants... it was awkward... like he was talking about plant porn. Me and some of the other students were cracking up like middle schoolers (just like the first day of glass blowing) at the clean-yet-dirty terms.

We looked at the spittle beetle for a long time. Then they wanted to pass it around. And of course I was the first one they tried to hand it to... I jumped and said, "no, that's okay," and RJ and crew started laughing.

The woman who was passed the beetle (and accepted), was told to spit on it - to keep it safe and comfy while it crawled on her hand... She's probably in her mid 70's and talks loudly and exclaimed, "Oh, LOOK! I think he's making a deposit!" 

When we got out on the Grassy Balds (that's what the rocky tops of the mountains are called) we learned more about plant sex... and plants... The view was INCREDIBLE! We sketched the view... which sounds much more glamourous than it really is. We had bees flying all around us... and all sorts of bugs... I was getting buzzed by sweat bees and was jumping around a little too much to sit still... then we headed back. It was a beautiful day... the sun was out and I actually got a little sunburned (and now have a nice farmer's tan).

Man, I have SO much more to say... but I'll have to write later when I have more time and I'm not distracted.

mmmm.... cicadas...