Month: March 2026
-
Plumage
Feather grows much like our hair: a meticulously constructed mass of dead protein, called beta-keratin, pushed out from a follicle in the living skin. An analogy for feather is like a tree – its trunk, a hollow central shaft, is called a rachis, numerous branches stemmed from the rachis are called barbs, and from the…
-
Oranges and Lemons of St. Clement’s
Oranges and Lemons of St. Clement’s is a traditional English nursery rhyme which references the bells of several churches within the vicinity of the City of London. It is also a children’s singing game, in which two children place their hands together to form an arch to symbolize the arch of sanctuary while the others…
-
Dance the Orange
Yonder stands the orange treeShowing off its fruits to me,Gleaming teardrops lovers shedStained by passion’s heartbreak red. Balls of agate carmine-brightHung on boughs of chrysolite,Sent a-spinning from the treesBy the mallet of the breeze. Now I kiss them, now inhale;Thus my senses I regaleWith their cheeks’ so tender bloomAnd the sweets of their perfume.– Ibn…
-
Citrus
Twenty-five millions years ago, when the Indian subcontinent collided into the Eurasian plate to seal the remaining Tethys Ocean gap while thrusting the Himalayas skyward, began the spread of the citrus genus to East Asia. Its cultivation first expanded eastward into Micronesia and Polynesia by Austronesian voyagers between 3000 and 1500 BC. It traveled westward…
hardlyplaying.blog 