A couple of folks have asked me off-blog if I’m okay in the wake of my post last Monday when I wrote, “I’m wound up, worried, and sad about a bunch of things I can’t write about here.” I’m sorry I tripped some alarms. There were several students of mine involved in deep, severe crises last week. They pushed most other thoughts out of my head. I couldn’t find a way to talk about their various plights publicly while maintaining their privacy and confidentiality. Their stories point to some broad social problems, so they’ll probably inspire me to write about them in some way, maybe just with a time lag to shroud identities.
Anyway, I am okay. Overworked and overtired, but okay.
And I has a moonflower. In fact, I have heaps of them. They’re five to six inches in diameter. They open in the evenings and close during the day – the opposite of morning glories, with whom they share heart-shaped foliage.
How could I not be okay?
Patron cat of Kittywampus (1985-2001)
So that’s what those are! We have these (or something very similar) growing behind our house. The plants are huge and I actually had to cut them back so that I could close the back door.
We just moved into our house this summer and I’m totally not a plant person, but even my master gardener neighbor didn’t know what they were called.
I usually seem to catch them when they are wilted, but they are a thing of beauty when fully open and blooming.
Hi Jess! I’m envious that these are apparently reseeding for you. Morning glories do that like crazy for me – oh, do they ever! But moonflowers have seemed more reticent.
And yes, the vines are mammoth. One of ours is at least 15 feet tall and still climbing – going where only squirrels dare to tread.