Eggplants and Butterflies

Fifty years on…

Harold: Never thought I'd see this place again. Almost no change. Look - the house still stands. Akiya now, huh?
Hiroshi: No one wanted it. The younger people have left. The old ones stayed, but they are fewer every year.
Harold: Same names. Hando. Ikeda. I used to greet them every morning. Eggplants! I used to grow eggplants in this very garden.
Hiroshi: Hando’s grandson plants them every spring. He doesn’t know why—just knew eggplants always grew here.
Harold: This was my place, my rhythm. Wake up, water the garden, drink tea in the quiet. And the butterflies. They still look the same. Generations on.
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Voice-over
Hiroshi remarks that there are so few people now. Cities pull them away.

Stick Library

Out walking in the wetlands…
Antonia: Stick Library? What’s that supposed to mean?
Gelsomina: Sticks you can borrow for hiking? For those who forget to bring their fancy walking sticks.
Antonia: Pooh sticks? 
Gelsomina: Possibly. There’s a bridge.
Antonia: Or maybe for a game like a scavenger hunt?
Gelsomina: Na. I got it. Listen. It’s for dogs. Owners can borrow sticks to throw for their dogs.
Antonia: For play fetch. Makes sense. A stick library for dogs!
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Voice-over

There are such places. Word is spreading.

Oranges falling too early

Under a loggia...

Selected to ripen...

Mike: The oranges on the tree are all turning yellow.

Molly: Good.

Mike: Not good. It’s way too early to ripen.

Molly: Trees shed a few of their crop so the yield will be healthier.

Mike: Whew. I thought the tree was dying.

 

Voice-over

It's normal for all types of citrus trees to drop some immature fruit before most ripen. This self-thinning is nature's way of making sure the tree does not become too overburdened with fruit. It’s like editing. Even healthy words can be pruned so the really good ones are left to shine.

Wildlife in Tokyo

A parallel universe…

Kevin: Badgers living along the rail tracks, a new litter every year as the youngsters move on, never to be seen again.

Naomi: What’s fascinating is the hunting. People might flinch from rats but rats learn to beware of the owl.

Kevin: And the hawks. They circle above then swoop on migratory birds roosting in Shibuya trees.

Naomi: The opportunists. Racoons eating food put out for cats.

Kevin: The species that have no enemies. So many varieties of ladybirds unpalatable to birds and even praying mantises.

Naomi: And then there’s the food chains. The insects eaten by a yamamori gecko and the gecko eaten by a giant mantis and the mantis eaten by a frog.

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Voice-over

Fascinating. Tokyo-Yokohama area is a megalopolis. It’s 37 million people. An animal census might reveal some surprising wildlife numbers, too.

Blind man in a scented garden

In a plum garden...

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Hearing can be seeing

Son: This is a white blossom. Smell it?

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Blind father: The fragrance has a purple tinge.

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Son: A pink blossom. Touch it.

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Blind father: Soft, like a young cheek.

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Son: And the concert is beginning.

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Blind father: Ah. I hear a koto. Tastes like spring water.

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Voice-over

With age the senses fade. Sometimes one sense disappears completely. The other senses, and memory, assist.

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Butterfly tree

The tree fell down and was tied up again...

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Milkweed aka swan plant

Elizabeth: Why don’t you just pull it out? It’s such a raggedy growth, not pretty at all.

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Victoria: I know, but it’s the only food the monarch butterflies eat.

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Elizabeth: Can’t they eat something else?

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Victoria: They like the swan plant, it’s got toxins, scares off the predators.

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Elizabeth: Where do they go in winter?

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Victoria: Good question. Some do migrate. Fly from Eastern U.S. to Mexico. Some take three or four generations. In New Zealand there aren't such distances but some say that monarchs overwinter in Christchurch or Tauranga.

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Voice-over

Monarch butterflies. Brilliant introduced species to New Zealand, a land rather poorly inhabited by colorful winged insects. And yes, the swan plants bought from the nursery in small pots do look better formed, but an aged tree is a protectorate of multiple caterpillars.

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Gaudi vs Le Corbusier

When Antoni met Charles-Édouard…

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Gaudi: There are no straight lines or sharp corners in nature.

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Le Corbusier: A house is a machine for living in. Form follows function. The quickest way from A to B is a straight line. A machine has straight lines.

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Gaudi: It may look like a straight line but there are many corners on the roads to Rome.

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Le Corbusier: Putting it another way, does not this post hold up the wisteria?

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Gaudi: Which is more beautiful: the post or the wisteria?

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Voice-over

There may be no definitive answer here but you might conclude that Gaudi is the wisteria and Le Corbusier was the post?

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Butterfly Wreck

A small tragedy. 

See it? Hanging onto the leaf? A butterfly wreck. And here’s part of a wing. Bird strike I think.

What makes you blame a bird?

Cats can’t climb up there. My hypothesis is that the butterfly was feeding on the flowers, and a bird swooped, but didn’t like the taste. Monarch caterpillars eat milkweed, very alkali. Predators don’t like the taste.

Didn’t help that one.

No, the attacker didn’t like the taste, spat him out, but by that time the damage had been done. Death of a butterfly.

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Voice-over

A small tragedy in nature. Pity the butterfly was mistaken for food.  A death in vain. Needless. Not easy persuading everyone that the decline in beautiful species is bad for the planet.

Some butterflies escape with only damaged wings. These can be repaired. There is an instructive video showing how to repair monarch butterfly wings at live monarch.

Not everyone feels butterflies are inconsequential fluttering ephemera. Some attach symbolic significance to them. Others regard them as important scientific phenomena. 

Long live monarchs! Butterflies that is!
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