Share, Learn, Listen, Lead

Make a flower bubble-pipe

At breakfast, we looked out the window and discovered that the wild crossvine had bloomed (Bignonia capreolata). Every spring it crawls up through the evil winter creeper (a euonymous that would encase the house if I let it) and over the redneck wire fence that divides our property from the neighbors'. We abandoned our gluten-free, Marmite-covered toast and ran outside to see it.

Crossvine is a wonder of a plant. It's native, it's gorgeous, the leaves are evergreen, and the trumpet-shaped blossoms are hummingbird magnets. And, it is very well-behaved for a sprawler. The vine climbs by polite tendrils that do not suck the mortar from your bricks nor the paint from your clapboard. If it is discovered growing somewhere it oughtn't be, it will allow itself to be gently plucked away. Compare this with English ivy or Virginia Creeper and you will understand why I use the word polite.

We admired the blooms, took some pictures, and then picked a few to use as bubble pipes. The wide end—like a trumpet bell—is the part you stick into bubble liquid. The other end is the mouthpiece. Just pull the stem straight out, and the resulting hole is the perfect aperture. Dip in bubble stuff (dish soap, water, glycerin), just enough to make a film over the wide end, and blow. Bubble pipe.

To read the rest of this post, do visit: Nature's Classroom: Blow Bubbles with Flowers at my site Bible Belt Balabusta. In it, I frame the activity in an earth-based Judaism sort of way, but the values are universal.