Life is an Addiction

I usually read a lot, but lately it seems like I've been doing a lot of experiential learning. When we were in Norway Kanutte accused me of being a field biologist as I lay on the ground taking notes about the plants and watching an inchworm a few millimeters in length traverse a piece of lichen. I guess I kind of became that somewhere along the way from geology to paleoecology to the modern remnants there of. Going into a forest I'll try to identify the trees and wonder what missing fauna used to propogate the seeds. This is especially true this time of year when all the hedgeapples (also called osage oranges) are falling from the trees here in Tennessee. They're huge. Must have been something huge that ate them! I'd really like to try steaming one like breadfruit and trying to eat it, but my more temperate self has thus far prevailed.

In Europe, Norway especially, you could eat everything. At least it seemed that way. Berries, especially blueberries, everywhere. I ate apples off trees all over the place, including one I snuck from a palace garden. I wonder how much of that is a function of human cultivation and how much is a byproduct of our ancestors being the ones who didn't get sick on the fruits of the forest and therefore lived.

I've also branched out to trying other new experiences, like attending my first real yoga class. I know, I've been practicing yoga on and off for years but I'd never been to a real class before. It was not disappointing and it was really interesting to do it with a group of people rather than alone. So many things are interesting to do with new people! This past weekend I went to the Yazoo release party for their Preservation Ale, hopped with hops grown right there in Bells Bend. It was a barn dance, a square dance, and I spent most of it with Zara as my partner. I feel like I must have square danced sometime between 1st grade PE and now, but I can't recollect doing so. Then on Sunday I ran a 6 miler with Bethany at a small airport abandoned after the flood of 2010.