Twisting fate
What is better might be the way that a native passion flower vine (Passiflora sumthinorutta) with juicy seeds spreads its generations so quickly. The corkscrew passion vine is what the native plant store called it. It had overtaken the rotting husk of a Brazilian Pepper bush that was zapped with herbicide. The pepper trunks lurk for years after such a treatment. Standing husks of starved fiber. This vine made its way up the long stem and then gathered at the top. It has been growing for more than a year or two, given its size, but only now, this week, I notice its presence. Nature is like that. Hiding things in plain view. Propagating prolifically, crowding the ground before you even know a seed has fallen. The offspring of this plant now pops up all around this area, under palm trees, amidst sprouting dog fennel, under towering oaks. It must be a delicious, or at least tempting, fruit. Under trees implies that birds like it. These fruit are not yet ripe, but I believe they will be before summer arrives. And more of the elegant vine will populate the Hammock.

We must always hope that politics are like that, too. Silent husks of dead or killed material covered quietly in a native vine. The opposite of problems hiding in plain site. It is nice to feel that someone is at the wheel and tellingly shameful how unwillingly the fear mongers depart. Yelling louder and louder as they become increasingly less relevant. These changes have promising futures, we look on them like the corkscrew vines, welcome members of our restoration community.