LIZARDS LIKE MUSIC, TOO

ROSES

The lizard clan is diverse and fascinating–also, some members are very sentimental and love to be sung to. I found this out one day by chance when I was meandering about and singing to myself in a stand of tall Mentzelia laevicaulis, well bedecked with its big gistening water-lily-like blooms of soft ;primrose yellow. This Mentzalia grows only in gravelly places which catch the maximum of sun; lizards also like such places. As I sang, two very unlike specimens came out from under the stones. One (the more musical–or perhaps unmusical–of the two) was over a foot long and incredibly beautiful with a bold tan armadillo-like design worked on his mustard-yellow body. He resolutely advanced and together we sat on a rock. I stopped my noise and he made preparations to leave. I began it again and he stepped on to my knee. He showed an enormous capacity for large doses of song, closing his eyes in absurd abandon and opening them whenever I shut up, his eyelids sliding back to reveal pleading orbs. This went on for some time till I finally had to tell him that I must go about my business, and as I placed him, limp from emotion, on the boulder, I pointed out to him that the music the rock wren yonder was making was much better than anything I could do. But his reproachful eyes followed me on my way.

–Lester Rowntree, Hardy Californians

 
THOUGH NOT CALIFORNIA NATIVES, ROSES GENERALLY LIKE IT HERE AS WELL.
HUNTINGTON GARDENS
SAN MARINO, CA

7 Replies to “LIZARDS LIKE MUSIC, TOO”

  1. Anonymous says: Reply

    Love this, Heather!!

  2. I love lizards – especially the Western Fence lizards we have here in L.A.

    There's one outside my apartment gate who always gives me the once-over when I pass by. They're very territorial.

    1. Ha Bill, The Secret Life of Lizards…I'm sure we have NO IDEA. Say hi to your resident friend for me…

  3. This was such a delightful piece of writing I wanted to more of the author. I was surprised to learn this botanist's full name: Lester Gertrude Ellen Rowntree, nee Gertrude Ellen Lester. Originally from England's Lakes District, her family moved to the U.S. when she was ten.
    She was an avid and well-published horticulturalist/botanist who also ran a seed business out of her home!

  4. This was such a delightful piece of writing I wanted to more of the author. I was surprised to learn this botanist's full name: Lester Gertrude Ellen Rowntree, nee Gertrude Ellen Lester. Originally from England's Lakes District, her family moved to the U.S. when she was ten.
    She was an avid and well-published horticulturalist/botanist who also ran a seed business out of her home!

    1. Hi Dru! Well that is fascinating and there's a whole slew of these loner botanist women who wandered the Cal deserts and mountains in the early to mid 1900s–Mary Beal, Mary de Decker are a couple of others, and there's also a wonderful book, White Heart of Mojave, by Edna Brush Perkins about a road trip she took through Death Valley with her pal Charlotte. They weren't botanists but they were intrepid upper-middle-class travelers from back East in the days when there was still no real road through Death Valley…Good to hear from you!! I was just back in Pittsburgh, lovely visit–

I WELCOME YOUR COMMENTS!