UM football & flora

Among the tailgate party-throwing, RV-toting game day participants, it's easy to remain anonymous in the crowd. It was a fantastic pre-autumn day, so I decided to walk a bit along the river and take pictures.

1. Here, the (in)famous Mt. Sentinel with the tents, BBQ smoke and Grizzly stadium in the foreground. Last week a few of us MFA folk decided, as writers, we were entitled to make it up the backside of Mt. Sentinel and down the front. 4 hours later we'd survived, renewing our (and humankind's) misguided instinct to proclaim that we'd "conquered" something; a dangerous euphoria. Nice view from the top, though.
Halfway along the trip up the backside, when it seemed that any moment we'd be reaching the zenith, we all proclaimed our desire for a vendor cart at the top -- providing us with slushies. And perhaps a unicorn, Pegasus or equally magical creature to take us down the mountain. And in retrospect I see now we are all completely insane.




2. Along the river's walking bridge, I came upon this beautiful display of responsible symmetrical drinking. How fantastic, for someone to be drinking out on a walking bridge and leave their empties in such a row as this, overlooking the water. I presume it was one individual, as how could you trust a group of drunks to order their cans in this way? If you're going to "litter" all you have to do is make it artful and linear.








3. And, finally, we have Maverick, Jr. I've needed a house plant, something green, that I will have to attend to, at least occasionally. At the farmer's market one booth had an array of various bulbous, outcast and misfit plants. A particular grouping was a little pebble-looking nugget, out of which grew an equally unassuming flower; this, named along the lines of "stone flower". Also some knobby, aloe-family plants grew in planters, cascading down the table. And finally, some cacti looking terribly too moist. But what do I know about cacti?

Also wonderful about my new plant: the name. Labeled "Son of Maverick", it sounds so renegade. I don't know anything about the possible taxonomy choices for cacti, so perhaps some "Maverick" lineage persists within this single cactus (can you take cuttings and create a separate cactus plant?) I still think Mav will feel at home in my sparse, flower-less abode. That is, of course, assuming plants "feel" anything beyond the obvious responses to "feeling" sunlight and water. But I like to think my attachment is reciprocated.