No climate is perfect to grow everything. When Mother Nature was young, she allowed those organisms to live which could survive the climate into which they were born. Over eons, both the climate and these organisms continued to change and we have the living earth we inhabit today.

I can just get it off my chest. I am a bird lover. I can’t begin at this late age to learn their scientific nomenclature, but I do know a few common names. I get a thrill when a pair of bluebirds bathes at the birdbath outside of my office window. I bought a small concrete one in memory of my mother. Hanging just above it in the crepe myrtle is a suet feeder. It is a challenge sometimes to identify the birds because of back lighting, so sometimes I need to cut off the lights and grab my field glasses.  

At various points during the year, I can predict with some certainty that a flurry of questions will come my way about some particularly unusual flower or a striking plant that the questioner must find out what it is. The questions often come from visitors to the area, but not infrequently it is locals who have only recently determined to find out what this plant is, perhaps something they’ve only recently noticed.