On a recent evening walk, I found the glow of
dandelion seedheads, or "clocks," illuminated by the setting sun, quite magical. My son, like many children, loves to blow the dandelion clocks. Adults, on the other hand, tend to consider dandelion clocks an eyesore and shudder at the thought of those countless seed parachutes wafting over their lawns. I remember my mother teaching my brother and me to "tell the time" by counting the blows it took until the seeds were all blown away. There is still something compelling about those weightless, silky orbs, if we take the time to notice.
2 comments:
I've never heard of them called "clocks", but I too have noticed they can be quite striking when the light is right.
At one time or other every kid collects a boquet of the yellow flowers.
When do we learn that the "pretty flowers" are weeds?
I wasn't sure if "clocks" might be an English thing (my parents were English), but when I looked up dandelions on Wikipedia, that seemed to be the standard name for the seedheads. But I don't think I've ever heard anyone besides my mother call them that!
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