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As well as documenting this here in our blog, it's also been part of a thread over in the All Things Gardening forum under the heading "What is happening here?".
We've had some interesting discussions there for the past couple of days ... some of the thoughts that others had:
* That little plant is dancing to the beat of its own drummer!
* ... maybe the dead stem / brown leaf drying out irregularly, and having brief contractions?
* The plant yawning and stretching?
* Did you ever read the novel or see the movie "Day of the Triffids"?
* "Tommy Termite" ??
* It's a vole! It's a mole! No, it's an underground Sasquatch - quietly building unseen tunnels and devouring garlic as he goes. No one can see him, no one can hear him, but oh my, the garlic-y stench he leaves behind.
* You could play some music for it...and see if it moves more to that!
* I'm wondering if it could be a pocket gopher, (named Sasquatch, of course)
The dead leaf also appears to have been pulled underground...
That's where we left off on yesterday's blog.
So what happens now to bring this story to an end?
Well, the dancing plants stopped when the rains came ... heavy torrential rain for hours.
Here's the video of the rain.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aeoYL0uAjaw
It went on and on for a good part of the day.
When the skies cleared after supper we went out to inspect the damage. As we sloshed our way through the sodden garden we see all the newly opened day lilies beaten to shreds, and the daisies, milkweeds, and flowering sages are all bowed to the ground by the rain. Just too much of a good thing for them. The hostas on the other hand are standing proud and tall, the new trees look happy with a burst of new growth, as are the morning glory and bean vines. There's a freshness in the evening air and there are little "putti clouds" up there in the pale blue evening sky. Putti clouds? That's how we describe those pink tinged fluffy clouds you see in the background of many putti paintings ... it takes us back in thought to Tuscany and Leonardo's world.
But back to the garden ... what's this we see here? The lamb's quarter plant is really putting on a grand show.
Moving dramatically.
The time has come to introduce ourselves to this mysterious marionette manipulator.
With our newly acquired Canon camcorder ... yes, really! Despite the fact that we have a really good camcorder (but old tape technology so it's a pain to edit), and many good Nikon and Canon cameras between us, we couldn't capture the images well enough to satisfy ourselves. So while the rain kept us out of the garden yesterday we did some research and then went and bought ourselves this nifty little camcorder. And in a minute you'll see why we are very happy with it.
We carefully removed a couple of the small weeds that were close to the lamb's quarter plant, then we positioned ourselves and waited, and waited, and waited. We got bitten by mosquitoes and were starting to feel as if our weeding activity had chased away the actor.
Suddenly the action began and success ... we captured it on film.
All seven minutes of it including our surprised comments.
Can you guess what it is before you view the video?
We were surprised!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VMKy95ZGEeM
Can't help but finish with this quote from Sharon:
"No one can see him, no one can hear him, but oh my, the garlic-y stench he leaves behind."
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