Wednesday, May 19, 2010

Mystery Flowers


Here are some more mystery flowers that I found in the field behind our apartment. Anybody know what they are?

Speaking of nature, every time I hear any news about the oil spill in the Gulf, my stomach turns. I just can't stand to think about it. Newsweek ran a photo of bottlenose dolphins swimming beneath the slick that still haunts me -- and today I read an article about the spill decimating the population of endangered Kemp's Ridley sea turtles. I suspect we haven't even begun to understand the devastation that's to come.

I hear tar balls are already washing up in Key West and there's some concern the spill will loop out of the Gulf and into the Atlantic Ocean. If it hits the already-stressed coral reefs off the Keys, will they ever recover?

Of course BP and Halliburton should PAY -- they must face some consequences for this catastrophe. But I hope it reminds all of us of our role in the global energy marketplace and the need to be careful consumers. We're all part of the system that has put the Gulf in jeopardy.

7 comments:

Lorianne said...

The flowers are bittersweet nightshade. They'll ripen into poisonous red berries, so don't sample any, please. :-)

Wanderer said...

Pretty plant.
Bittersweet Nightshade is a pretty cool name.
The oil spill is very sickening.

Steve Reed said...

Yikes! Thanks, Lorianne!

Barbara said...

The thought of all that wonderful marine life gagging on oil is enough to make me sick. When it was in Alaska, I didn't pay enough attention. But now that it threatens my beaches, I'm ready to declare war on the oil companies. I wish we could just put them all out of business and use some alternative form of energy. Sigh...

Reya Mellicker said...

I agree that we're all a part of it, but oh god it makes me so sad every time I read anything about it.

xx

Betty said...

It's so horrible, what's happening with the oil spill. Thank you for posting that. It's so much easier to ignore things that are too big for us to deal with.

Merle Sneed said...

We all mourn for the victims of these spills, but as a nation we are content to demand the production of more oil.

We want Utopia so long as it doesn't cost us much in money or inconvenience.