Is it pathetic to admit that some days the thing I look forward to more than anything is a particular patch of weeds growing beside the highway on my drive home from work?
After a day involving too much administrative claptrap, a long but productive meeting, and an infuriating encounter with a person whose idea of an apology is "I'm sorry you feel that way," I was driving home wanting to punch someone when I passed a mullein patch and saw that the weeds had started blooming.
Elsewhere mullein may be a medicinal plant cultivated for its power to attract pollinators, but around here it's considered a weed that flourishes accidentally in sunny spots that the highway mowers can't reach. A volunteer promoting health, attracting pollinators, and providing beauty--what's not to love?
I know the spots along my commute where mullein grows best and I look forward to the blooms every summer, my eyes searching the shoulder for yellow when they ought to be fixed on the road. Yesterday my husband and I were on our way home when I pointed out a cluster of blooming mullein, maybe six or eight plants in all, and he said, "We've got more than that growing just uphill from the house."
Well I didn't know that because my bum knee has been resisting hilly walks, but it's feeling significantly better after a cortisone shot so when we got home I walked right up the hill to the spot in question. A few years ago we'd had a massive dying tree cut down there, a process that had obliterated the few mullein stalks growing nearby--temporarily. Bringing more sunshine into the area has resulted in a mullein boom--close to 20 stalks rising up and starting to bloom.
One definition of weed is a plant to which we say We'd prefer your absence, but I'm not complaining about a bumper crop of mullein bringing beauty into my back yard. They make me want to squeeze out some doggerel, but what rhymes with mullein?
I can't be sullen
around a mullein.
Its fuzzy leaves
are never dull. In
woods where there's
rarely a lull in
songs of birds,
where trees are fallen,
just uphill from
a creek that's swollen,
I can't be sullen
around a mullein.
So okay, it's weedy but at least I tried. Who else will give it a shot?
3 comments:
"I see nuzzink," said Sergeant Schultz.
"You men, zere's no escaping Camp Mullein,"
added Colonel Clink, "it rhymes with wine
and is as true as thyme, I think."
Which means what?
That that was that,
back then,
in the afternoon before Zoom,
when T.V. was blooming.
I had to look up what the word mullein meant...but that only made me enjoy the pictures more. Thanks for bringing a bright spot to my day.
A feeble(ish) attempt.
Just read a piece of writin’
Wasn’t too excitin’ or even too invitin’
About a plant called mullein
Which made me do some mullin’.
So mullin’ over mullein is thinkin’ bout a weed
And mullin’ over mullein is wastin’ time indeed,
But you’ve caught me doin’ nothin,
with lots and lots of time.
So i’m lookin’ for some wisdom
By contemplating plants
Findin’ power in a flower,
Seein’’ silly in a lily.
But the best part of my day,
Is still mullin’ over mullein.
Seein’ serenity in a weed.
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