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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."
Two days ago while photographing borage in the early morning light, a "dancing" Lamb's Quarters plant attracted my attention so a quick trip inside to get a camera capable of taking a video and we captured the movement on film. But what was happening?
Checked again that evening, and again first thing yesterday ... even again last night ... nothing. Not a twitch.
Early this morning ...
Surprise
The stage director is back on the job and the dancing has begun again. This time in the small plants immediately to the right. Capture it on film and then look more closely. The movement two days ago seemed to be related somehow to the dead leaf of the garlic plant to the left of the plant. The movement this morning seems to be related to the garlic plant to the right of the plants.
Closer inspection shows that the bottom leaves of the garlic plants that have already died are being tugged underground. A marionette manipulator is at work.
It started to rain again this morning, but as soon as the rain lets up a little bit of excavation work is going to be going on in our garlic patch to see who the culprit is.
Here are the two short video clips from today:
And here's a photo of the plant behind the two mentioned above. The dead leaf also appears to have been pulled underground.
Early morning rain again ... and this little fellow got smart ... he's using a borage flower as an umbrella : )
We have been most fortunate to have spent many many spring days wandering the Tuscan countryside.
We particularly like Val d'Orcia and there's good reason UNESCO declared it a world heritage site.
"... an exceptional reflection of the way the landscape was rewritten in Renaissance times ... to create an aesthetically pleasing picture"
Our favourite time to arrive is in the very early spring before the leaves appear on the trees.
Typically it's still cool and rainy and we have the country roads to ourselves.
With the arrival of the leaves comes also the call of the cuckoos,
the strutting of the colourful courting pheasants, and
... borage ...
we see it everywhere on our travels.
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Here at home borage self seeds in our garden and comes back year after year
bringing with it wonderful memories of a place we love.
And this is our borage ... companions to the "dancing plant".
You'll have to read the previous post to know who that is.
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And along with the borage is some other loveliness that captured our attention today.
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Things often don't go the way you plan them, do they?
This morning I had images of borage amongst the vines in Tuscany to share and so I went outside to capture the image of the pink borage I photographed last night in the garden to add to the collection. Thought it would be a better image with the early morning dew on it.
It's quiet, not a breath of wind, and very early ... even the birds seem to have slept in this morning. I see something move out of the corner of my eye and think "I must have disturbed a large insect". Zoom in to capture that pink borage ... hardly any dew this morning ... never mind. Still be a nice image. Oh oh ... the movement again. Same place. Huh? So I turn and give the spot my full attention. Huh? Shake my head. Look more closely. Huh?
Quick trip inside to get my camera that allows me to video the action. And then a quick tutorial on how to get a video onto ATP. And here is what I saw. Never seen anything like it before. Any ideas?
The clip is about a minute in length to give an idea of the activity which was consistently varied.
