The Dewdrop World

Tokyo Blossoms--Launching Flowers

butterflies love flowers 蝶恋花

 

 

醉花陰ー重陽　

薄霧濃雲愁永晝，瑞腦消金獸。
佳節又重陽，玉枕紗櫥，半夜涼初透。

東籬把酒黃昏後，有暗香盈袖。
莫道不消魂，簾卷西風，人比黃花瘦

Drinking Wine in the Shawdow of the Flowers-- the Chrysanthemum Festival

Wispy mist and thick clouds
The afternoon stretches on, endlessly in sadness
Sweet incense rises from a golden brazier
On this auspicious festival day—Chongyang.
As evening fall, the chills slips in
Through silken curtains to my little jade pillow

Sipping wine that evening—there by the eastern fence
The fragrance of the chrysanthemums filling up my sleeves, secretely, quietly
How can I not be distraught?
The autumn wind fills the curtains
I have grown thinner than the chrysanthemums.

 

 

Li Qingzhao--longing for her husband who was faraway on business, spent the day in bed-- drinking wine and composing poems, in the shadow of the flowers by the eastern fence (採菊東籬下).

Sending him the poem, it is said that when he read it, so impressed was he that he vowed to not leave his room until he had composed a poem back of equal perfection. Refusing all food and all visitors for three days, he composed poem after poem. Later, he would incorporate her words with words of his own in a poem that a friend would remark about, "there are only three good lines in this one" (and those three good lines were, of course, the ones he had borrowed from his wife's masterpiece!)

She was the greatest poetess in Chinese history. And like all great poets, she sought to refine her emotions in elegant and edifying metaphors about nature. Lady Li loved flowers and by situating her emotions in seasonal images, personal emotions were therby refined and made universal. But at the same time, she saw things in the flowers themselves that were admirable and worthy of emulation; for not only are flowers beautiful and joyous but they also symbolize strength and nobility of character-- attributes that we can all learn from. Or, in the words of my ikebana teacher, when a flower blooms, it either blooms in its fullest capacity and with all its might, or it’s a dud.

No half measures for flowers.  --with Ting-Jen

Interesting article on emotion, nature and japanese Buddhism--here. Photo and video by the Great Ninagawa Mika

TED Talks-Gratitude and Flowers too

**

Be like a flower,  from Sri Aurobindo's The Spiritual Significance of Flowers

Be like a flower. One must try to become like a flower: open, frank, equal, generous and kind. Do you know what it means?
A flower is open to all that surrounds it: Nature, light, the rays of the sun, the wind, etc. It exerts a spontaneous influence on all that is around it. It radiates a joy and a beauty.
It is frank: it hides nothing of its beauty, and lets it flow frankly out of itself. What is within, what is in its depths, it lets it come out so that everyone can see it.
It is equal: it has no preference. Everyone can enjoy its beauty and its perfume, without rivalry. It is equal and the same for everybody. There is no difference, or anything whatsoever.
Then generous: without reserve or restriction, how it gives the mysterious beauty and the very own perfume of Nature. It sacrifices itself entirely for our pleasure, even its life it sacrifices to express this beauty and the secret of the things
gathered within itself.
And then, kind: it has such a tenderness, it is so sweet, so close to us, so loving. Its presence fills us with joy. It is always cheerful and happy.
Happy is he who can exchange his qualities with the real qualities of the flowers. Try to cultivate in yourself their refined qualities

  

Buson loves Peonies

About to bloom,
And exhale a rainbow,
The peony!
– Buson

虹を吐てひらかんとする牡丹かな

 

飯椀に一杯ぎりの牡丹哉　蕪村

 

牡丹散て打かさなりぬ二三片

Cuteness Attack!

All those "Fowl Shrieks" paid off! (Newspaper people sure love puns... )

I am so in love with the babies!! Beautiful beaks and those clumsy big feet... But how did they ever get such ugly feet? Little deer babies...

Easter is a Peacock at Vox Nova

Dark-eyed Junco

Dark-eyed Junco, a member of the sparrow family.

Male Dark-eyed Juncos sing an even, musical trill of 7-23 notes that lasts up to 2 seconds. It’s similar to the songs of both the Chipping Sparrow and the Pine Warbler, and is loud enough to be heard from several hundred feet away. Both sexes sing a much quieter song as well, a series of whistles, trills, and warbles that may sound like an American Goldfinch. This song typically doesn’t carry any farther than about 40 feet.

CALLS
Juncos have a high, short chip note that they often give in rapid succession when they fly and more slowly as they forage; the note may encourage other juncos to follow. A sharp but musical kew seems to indicate aggression and encourages two birds to move apart; it’s usually given by the dominant bird. You may also hear juncos give a high, fast twittering call of 6–19 notes during altercations or as birds flush.

A Bewick's Wren

 

Heard in early April in our yard, identified with help from Pasadena Audubon Society. 

John Rodgers says:

The whole recording is of a Bewick's Wren! Its vocalizations often include a repetitive single high-pitched note as well as a more varied series of whistles like you've recorded here.

In his 1889 Ornithology of Illinois, Robert Ridgway attested that “No bird more deserves the protection of man than Bewick’s Wren. He does not need man’s encouragement, for he comes of his own accord and installs himself as a member of the community, wherever it suits his taste. He is found about the cowshed and barn along with the Pewee and Barn Swallow; he investigates the pig-sty; then explores the garden fence, and finally mounts to the roof and pours forth one of the sweetest songs that ever was heard.”

 

 

Beginning of Spring

First appeared in River Teeth Journal's Beautiful Things, on March 30, 2020

++

The Chinese calendar had it right. Insisting that spring begins in February is to begin a season at the beginning, when the season is only just awakening, a quiet stirring.

Spring begins as the east wind melts the ice, when insects begin trembling, quivering, shivering. In Tokyo, it begins when the nightingales sing:

––ho-hokekyo––ho-hokekyo

Chanting a thousand times a day, like a Buddhist sutra. The beginning of spring is cold. Plum blossoms covered in snow shimmer by moonlight.

In Pasadena, it is the bulbuls that sing the beginning of spring, sweetly on cold mornings. Sometimes mornings in February bring the parrots, squawking maniacally in the trees or as they move across the sky in gigantic flocks. At night, peacocks shrieking in the palm trees can be heard for miles:

"Spring is here, Spring is here!"

And, “Oh how charming it is when the dandelions appear in the second month,” Lady Sei Shonagon might say. Dandelions blanketing my neighbor's lawn, I think, "Isn't it charming?" Then with the third, fourth, fifth flush of oranges, comes the goldfinches. Like fluttering golden chunks of sunshine, little piggies flying, I watch them feasting at the bird-feeder out my kitchen window.

This is the world awakening:

Spring is here, spring is here.

 

Photo by Michael Murphy courtesy of Unsplash

Worm Moon of March

Spring begins as the east wind melts the ice, when insects begin trembling, quivering, shivering...

According to the ancient Chinese calendar, the season beginning on March 5th, is called Keichitsu (啓蟄): March 5, signifying the awakening of hibernating insects. As things begin to thaw, all kinds of insects begin to emerge in the soil... including worms.

And this is why the moon is referred to in the north of Europe as the Worm Moon of March. Occurring close to the spring equinox the full moon of March is often a super moon. This is also a time of peach blossoms, swallows begin singing and other wonders...  

Here, our little flying piggies are back in huge numbers. Both feeders are totally maxed out and they are eating us out of house and home. 

Peacocks of Pasadena

[A shorter version was published of this in the Pasadena Star on February 23, 2020]

PUBLISHED: February 22, 2020 at 6:28 a.m. | UPDATED: February 22, 2020 at 6:28 a.m.

It happened when the the king of the demons left his golden abode on the island of Lanka in order to invade heaven. A surprise attack, all the gods fled in terror. One god named Indra-- known as the god with a thousand eyes -- took refuge under the wings of a peacock. In those days, peacocks were dull and colorless creatures. In gratitude for this protection, Indra granted the peacock the blessing of a thousand beautiful blue-green eyes of his own --for which to adorn his unusually long tail. With the power to kill poisonous snakes and serpents, the peacock has been venerated in India from very ancient times as a symbol of renewed life and rebirth. Serving as the mount of the Kartikeya, eldest son of Siva and commander of the army of the gods; is it the peacock alone who does double duty in the pantheon of gods? For the peacock also serves as the vehicle of Kama, the god of love and desire, and sometimes mount of Saraswati, goddess of wisdom. 

Perhaps because of the famed  --and mysteriously misplaced-- Peacock Throne of the Mughal kings or perhaps because of how often one can happen upon a peacock whilst strolling in a Persian-style garden, I had always associated the national bird of India with the north. But, according to a charming essay by P. Thankappan Nair, peacocks are originally native to southern India, where since time immemorial been a harbinger of the coming rains. Bringing relief from mounting days of great heat, the monsoon brings with it the blessings of renewed life and fertility. Likened to union of lovers, the ancients saw the rains as the coming together of heaven and earth. In European alchemy, the peacock is also a symbol of union and the harmonious integration of opposites. So during the time of great heat, the plaintive cawing of the peacock--dancing bird in the rains-- heralds the blessings to come. 

And, wow, they are loud! During mating season, their shrieking could wake the dead! And, more, what are they doing roaming the streets of Pasadena, California? Have you ever heard of the parrots of Pasadena? Well, if they are not loud enough, we also have peacocks!

For me, it was definitely NOT love at first sight. In fact, I took to complaining bitterly about our neighborhood peacocks. Their nightly shrieking during mating season had me up night after night. And I need my beauty sleep! I was initially surprised that no one had started an online petition to get rid of them-- as had happened in this village in Durham County, England, where the population was similarly kept awake at night and terrorized by a party of peacocks. I will even admit, I laughed when one of the beleaguered villagers wondered about how they might taste!

"I've never heard of roasted peacock, have you? "

Complaints in Durham included sleep deprivation, peacock poop and damage to cars--and I thought, we have all that! But my neighbors were surprisingly patient, "The kids just love them..." they reminded me. Two neighbors had even been seen feeding them. 

I just hated them--that is, until I finally saw the males in action. 

"My Lords and Peacocks" said King George III. 

The first time I saw King George (he is my favorite), he was gazing at himself in the reflection of a very clean and shiny BMW down the street. He just stood there staring at himself... At first I thought he was admiring how pretty he was (I could hardly blame him, to be honest) but then he began pecking the door of the car. Okay, so this is why people in our neighborhood are complaining about "tiny dents" in their cars. (That's what you get for having such a clean car?)

Watching him, I realized he was pecking at his own reflection, because he thought that it was another bird!

Ok, maybe he isn't the smartest. But what a specimen he is. Look at his sapphire neck--deep blue like the heavenly firmament in a illuminated manuscript. And that elegant crest, like the crown of an emperor. And how about his outside train feathers trailing behind him, speckled like a cobra. I wish you could see him in flight--just an orange streak of his under feathers streaming by you. Oh my God, was I falling in love?

It was about this time that my friend Sally told me about Flannery O'Connor's peacocks. Did you know Flannery O'Connor lived on a farm she named Andalusia, where she had forty beaks to feed? She loved her peacocks, calling them the king of the birds. This wonderful infatuation began when she was five--captured on film with chickens--and it developed from there. No matter how her family complained, she remained firm in her devotion.

Reading her essays in Mystery and Manners, I quickly realized that when it comes to peacocks, the Anglo tradition is really very different from the Indian one. Whereas the Indian tradition views them as symbols of love and beauty; in the anglo tradition, we tend to associate peacocks with vanity and pride. This notion stretches all the way back to Aristotle, who remarked that, "Some animals are jealous and vain like a peacock." I used to feel the same about peacocks--that is, until a party of peacocks (five females and three males) moved in to our neighborhood last year. And you know what? The more I watch our peacocks here in Pasadena, the more I am sure that the Indian tradition has it right. They are wondrous and enchanting. Especially when the males display and dance underneath an iridescent galaxy of radiating suns (like Indra's Net?) in the brilliant California sunshine. Turning round and round, displaying their "underpants" (as Flannery describes it) shaking and rattling their quills--they are more beautiful than a rainbow when they dance. And yet looking around, the peahens always seem utterly nonplussed.

Been there, done that...?

And, reading Flannery O'Connor I see that I am not the first person to have been surprised by their hideously ugly feet! Scrawny chicken legs and that God-awful shrieking--ke ka ke ka ke ka -- over and over as their turn round and round, rattling their quills like lunatics. 

Oh, my beauty, how did you lose your golden voice? And where did you get those chicken feet?

A devout catholic, Flannery O'Connor was well-aware that in the Christian tradition as well, the peacock is a symbol of eternal life and the resurrection. The ancient Romans believed that peacock flesh would never rot. Augustine of Hippo would later test this in Carthage, noting that, “A year later, it was still the same, except that it was a little more shriveled, and drier.” Because they molt in autumn with their feathers coming back in the spring, peacocks came to represent resurrection and the Reborn God. Spring. And Easter. A friend on Facebook drew a marvelous picture of a Pesach Peacock! "The splendor of Easter and beautiful vision," says another friends. This is why you you can spot them in Christian artwork from mosaics and reliefs in the basilica of San Marco to depictions in Renaissance paintings by Antonello to Fra Angelico and Fra Filippo Lippi. And just like in ancient India, Europeans of the Middle Ages also believed that peacocks could kill poisonous serpents. 

“You shall know the truth,” said Flannery O'Connor, “And the truth shall make you odd.” 

This is one of my favorite quotes by Flannery O'Connor. And she was odd. But peacocks are odd too. So it seemed like a match made in heaven, when I learned that guarding the gates of paradise at her Georgian farm named Andalusia was a hoard of peacocks--so numerous she didn't dare count them; for a she explained, “I intend to stand firm and let the peacocks multiply," she said, ending her essay "The King of the Birds" saying, "For I am sure that, in the end, the last word will be theirs.” And so it should be.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Pasadena peacocks: Fowl shrieks from a union of lovers

[Published in the Pasadena Star on February 23, 2020]

PUBLISHED: February 22, 2020 at 6:28 a.m. | UPDATED: February 22, 2020 at 6:28 a.m.
All the trouble started when the king of the demons left his golden abode on the island of Lanka to invade heaven. A surprise attack — all the gods fled in terror. Indra, known as the “god with a thousand eyes,” took refuge under the wings of a peacock. In those days, peacocks were dull and colorless creatures. But the peacock was just the ticket. And in gratitude for this protection, Indra granted the peacock the blessing of a thousand beautiful blue-green eyes of his own to adorn his unusually long tail.

The national bird of India, peacocks have long been seen as a harbinger of the coming rains. Bringing relief from those unbearable days of mounting heat, the monsoon carries the blessings of renewed life and fertility. Likened to a union of lovers, the ancients saw the rains as the coming together of heaven and earth.

But, wow, peacocks are loud! During mating season, their shrieks can wake the dead! Beautiful and loud. But what are they doing roaming the streets of Pasadena? For me, it was definitely not love at first sight. In fact, I complained bitterly about our neighborhood “muster.” Their fingernails-on-the-blackboard mating calls had me up night after night. And I need my beauty sleep! I was initially surprised that no one had started an online petition to get rid of them, as had happened in one village in Durham County, England, where the population was similarly kept awake at night and terrorized by a pride of peacocks. I will even admit I laughed when one of the beleaguered villagers wondered about how they might taste!

“I’ve never heard of roasted peacock, have you?”

Complaints in Durham included sleep deprivation, peacock poop and damage to cars — and we have all that! But my neighbors were surprisingly patient, “The kids just love them,” they said. Two neighbors had even been seen surreptitiously feeding them.

I just hated them — until I finally saw the males in action.

“My Lords and Peacocks” said King George III.

The first time I saw King George (my current favorite), he was gazing at himself in the reflection of a very clean and shiny BMW down the street. At first, I thought he was admiring how pretty he was. I could hardly blame him. But then he began pecking the door of the car. So this is why people in our neighborhood are complaining about “tiny dents” in their cars. That’s what you get for having such a clean car?

Watching him, I realized he was pecking at his own reflection, because he thought that it was another bird!

OK, maybe he isn’t the brightest. But what a specimen. With his shimmering sapphire neck — that blue is like the heavenly firmament in a medieval illuminated manuscript. And his elegant crest? It’s like the crown of an emperor. Then there is the pièce de résistance: his train. His walking-around feathers, speckled like a cobra, vanish in flight as the blinding orange streak of his under feathers stream by you. Oh my God, am I falling in love?

Like the parrots here, there is a human story behind why we have roaming parties of peacocks in Pasadena. It all started when a certain Lucky Baldwin traveled out west from Ohio, in search of riches. And he found them too —mainly in his investments in mining stocks and land. Friends with Wyatt Earp, he loved racehorses and imported peacocks from India to his large ranch in Arcadia, where they roamed free. Why peacocks? Well, they kill snakes and are better guards than watchdogs, he reported.
“You shall know the truth,” wrote Flannery O’Connor, “And the truth shall make you odd.”

Flannery was odd. Her peacocks, too. Guarding the gates of paradise at her Georgia farm was an ostentation (yes, that’s the word!) of peacocks. “I intend to stand firm and let the peacocks multiply,” she wrote.“For I am sure that, in the end, the last word will be theirs.” And so it should be.

Leanne Ogasawara writes a monthly column at the arts and science blog 3 quarks daily.