Spiderwort

On display right now in our road ditch for the viewing pleasure of passers-by.........

SPIDERWORT!!

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The following info about "Spiderwort" is from the book Wildflowers of the Tallgrass Prairie of the Upper Midwest, by Sylvan T. Runkel and Dean M. Roosa, published by Iowa State University Press (1989):

------Other common names for Spiderwort: Blue Jackets, COW SLOBBERS!, Job's Tears, Widow Tears

------Scientific name: tradescantia ohiensis (The name "tradescantia" was given in honor of John Tradescant, gardener to Charles I, King of England in the early 17th century. "Ohiensis" means "or or from Ohio".)

------The flowers tend to open in the morning. When touched in the heat of the day, they shrivel to a fluid jelly that trickles like a tear.

------The plant was once thought to be a cure for spider bites.

------It is used in biology classes to study the movement of protoplasm in the hairs in the center of the flower.

------Flower color changes when exposed to nuclear or radioactive radiation.

------Melvin Gilmore wrote, in his book, Uses of Plants by the Indians of the Missouri River Region: "When a young Dakota brave is in love and when walking alone in the prairie and finding this flower in bloom, he sings a song to it in which he endows it with his sweetheart's characteristics and beauty." Part of the song may be translated as:

Wee little dewy flower

So blessed and so shy

You're dear to me, and

For my love for thee, I'd die

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I really like the name "Cow Slobbers"!! I must remember to tell Husband about that alternate name for Spiderwort!!

hhhhhhhhhhh

The following story is not related to Spiderwort, but happened just last Sunday. Its involves a dream and a car accident, so if that will bother or annoy you, you'd better surf somewhere else.

Sunday morning, right as I was waking up, I was in dream scene.........first I was at a business establishment in our nearby town, gazing at the grain elevator across the street. Then I was in the shed below the tall grain elevator, and I was standing next to a person on a gurney, and the person's head was encased in what appeared to be a block of cement. [Update - 5:00 p.m., 6/25/08: I decided to look up the meaning of the injured boy's first name.......it is "solid, enduring"........(like cement??!] I was with the person to give them comfort during this ordeal they were going through, and I was saying to someone, "This must be like a torture chamber for this person......to have their head all covered up like that."

Back to reality.......I filed the dream scene away in my mind and went about the usual Sunday activities. Around 6 p.m., one of my daughter's friends phoned to say that another good friend of theirs had just been in a serious car accident near here, and had to be cut from his car with the Jaws of Life, and airlifted to the hospital. We had no idea what sort of injuries he sustained......one always worries about the head and neck, though.

My daughter was at her job, but someone notified her there, and she went straightaway to the hospital. Later that night, she phoned home with details about the accident. The injured boy had apparently fallen asleep while driving home from a friend's house (this friend's family owns the business establishment in the beginning of the dream), went into the ditch and hit a culvert. The front half of the car ended up perpendicular down to the ground, pinning the boy's ankles. Probably he survived the crash because he had his seatbelt on and the airbag deployed. The steering wheel was pushed into the dash......the boy's face has many cuts and bruises, a broken nose and teeth......and, in fact, he's been pulling pieces of steering wheel material out from between his teeth! Also, just two weeks ago, he had junked his old, compact car (with no air bag) and bought this larger, newer vehicle!

At the scene, he was put in a neck brace, his badly broken ankles were stabilized, and he was loaded onto the helicopter (a type of "elevator", if you will). Both ankles were crushed, with one being an open fracture. He's fortunate his feet weren't just cut right off. One ankle was operated on on Sunday night, and the other on Monday. Both ankles have multiple plates, pins, and screws in them.

My daughter was with him all day Monday, too. They aren't going together, but they were very good friends all through high school, and were prom dates one year.

Anyway........if you have a few seconds, just breath a quick prayer for his recovery, which will be a long one. Much patience and good humor will be needed. My impression of this boy has always been that he's exceptionally good-natured and cheerful, and my daughter states that he's been true to form so far in the midst of this unfortunate ordeal, even cracking jokes as he was being loaded onto the helicopter, according to witnesses.

This boy was a standout cross-country and track runner in high school, and had just finished a successful first year of college running. It appears God may have other plans for him.

When I told my daughter about the dream, she told me that another friend (the one who had called me about the accident) had dreamed about a car wreck that morning, too.

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[Update - 6/26/08: The boy who had the car accident didn't fall asleep while driving......his front driver's side tire blew out, causing his car to veer across the oncoming lane and into the ditch.]