The Elves of Nature
This Monday morning I am sitting in my office wondering about how to begin my week. It is another clear-sky morning here in San Diego with an anticipated high of 71 degrees. I see my weather app predicts twelve more days of sun, 70ish weather with 0% chance of rain. So, there is nothing to worry about weather-wise and I can get no guidance from the forecast since I am free to do whatever I want in this weather. As the sun rises up through the live oak tree on my patio knoll, it is hard not to notice the cactus garden that fills my view to the East. I also have my office TV on and have been watching the MSNBC live news review that is repeating much of the dramatic news I heard before going to bed last night. It promises to be another highly-charged political week with calls on Veep Pence to invoke the 25th Amendment, call-outs for and against the Big Tech actions of shutting down Trump on all social media, including pushing the Right-focused Parler app from the various platforms. Corporations are proactively managing their PR exposure by shutting down political donations and disconnecting wherever possible from Trump, like the PGA announcing the cancellation of the PGA tournament at Trump’s Bedminster club in 2022. It’s a wild time with plenty of contrary thoughts being expressed about what is righteous, what is overkill, what is right and what is wrong. But through this all, if I look to my right I get caught up in political backwash and if I look to my left I see the full bloom of nature at its best. This morning I choose nature over politics.
I understand that COVID is raging and has been all during the machinations of the past week. We are adding new infections at 300,000 per day and setting death records all over the place, especially here in California, where 30,000 people died yesterday from COVID-related causes. As the zoological side of nature kicks the shit out of humans, the botanical side carries on unfazed by it all. Remembering that this is my first full year living in California (my one year anniversary is on February 4th), I am still reveling at my observations of the changes nature out here throws my way. What I am seeing now are the agaves and aloes in full bloom, and it is amazing. Agaves send up a 6-8 foot spring-green stalk that forms a very tall flowering seed pinnacle that is perhaps 8 inched in diameter at its base and tapers off to a point. About 80% of the way up the stalk, it folds back down on itself creating an elfin-like top that looks right out of Middle Earth or Green Eggs and Ham. Meanwhile, I see a large aloe plant just beyond this blooming agave and it has four rust-red flowering seed stalks that are perhaps one foot tall and three inches in diaper at the base. These too taper upward, but stay upright since they are not nearly as long as the stalks on their sister agaves. What aloes lack in stalk scale, they make up for in vibrant, contrasting color.
This phenomenon of renewal that I am witnessing outside my office porch, is going on all across my property. If I were guessing, I would say that I have over fifty of these huge agave stalks on my small 2.5 acre property. There are many different varieties of agave and aloes all over the place, but aloes alone probably have 100 or more of those rust-red seed stalks is various clusters, including one aloe cluster by my front hillside that has perhaps fifty stalks on it alone. This creates a magnificent and colorful display when someone arrives at my house and starts up my driveway. It is unavoidably regal and noticeable.
And here’s the funny thing, this represents a lot of plant matter, physically large in size, and yet it appears out of nowhere overnight. I think my readers will agree that I am not oblivious to my surroundings. I do not let days and days go by and suddenly realize there is a change in the botany that surrounds me. I am acutely aware of how my garden is growing since I water parts of it every day. And what is watering other than staring at and noticing changes in plant matter? I attend to those things that I plant to make sure they are doing well. I attend to the things that tend to overgrow so that I can prune them as needed. I attend to the shape and status of my bonsai to be sure that they are getting the right balance of light, water and food. Therefore, I cannot image that I have just not noticed as these massive seed stalks have sprouted all around me bit by bit. Something else is going on. I almost want to put a time-lapse camera on one of these agaves or aloes so that I can prove to myself what exactly is happening when I am not watching. These appendages are taking shape overnight. It is easy to understand why, since ancient times, man has been surprised and in awe of natures ability to do things while he sleeps. It is not surprising that these mysteries of nature have become so vividly explained by the presence of overnight secret visitors, elves and fairies.
For those agave stalks to become as big as they are, they must be growing overnight at a pace that is actually visible by the naked human eye and not just with time-lapsed photography. It is hard to believe that over 10,000 years of human existence, no one has caught these plants in the act, shooting their stalks into the air under someone’s nose. Man has invented the only possible explanation that could make sense under the circumstances, that there are little creatures out there scurrying around in the underbrush and pushing these stalks into the air every time we avert our gaze. It is no wonder that every picture I have ever seen of an elf or a fairy has elements (hats, ears, etc.) that more than vaguely resemble these miracles of nature that succulents the world over produce.
I know from experience that these refreshing seed stalks are like flowers in that they last for as long as it takes bees and hummingbirds to suck in their nectar and transport these seeds to as far and wide as possible. Then, once they have cast their seed to the four winds and hopefully have given rise to another generation of agaves and aloes here and there, they shrivel as fast as they appeared and they shrink from sight. I am going to pay attention to these seed stalks this year and see if the elves remove them as quickly as they placed them. I suspect that elves are like me after dinner, they probably hope someone magically cleans up the mess that has served to sustain me. I will also read up on what good gardeners of succulents should do to best promote the health of their agave and aloe plants. It may just fall to me like it does to Kim after dinner to clean up and prepare for the next day of elfin shenanigans.