Senecio rowleyanus

A friend gave us a plant of Senecio rowleyanus (String of beads) recently, and it has been thriving in the sun on our front windowsill.


This plant grows wild in arid habitats, and has spherical leaves to reduce its surface area and help to conserve moisture. (Well... they should be spherical, but apparently I've not been giving mine enough water.) The centre of the leaf contains special transparent cells for storing water. However, this leaf shape is a disadvantage when it comes to photosynthesis, so it has made yet another rather curious adaption. Each leaf has a narrow band of transparent tissue, and this lets light in like a window. The leaf is then able to photosynthesize from the inside as well as from the outside.

Cross section through a leaf:

Soon after it arrived, our plant also produced a rather bizarre flower. Although belonging to the daisy family, this flower has only disc florets and no ray florets and looks more like a little brush than a daisy.

See also:

Senecios with windows in their leaves

Elliott Carter 100

...and don’t forget the American composer, Elliott Carter, who was born on 11th December 1908, one day after Olivier Messiaen. What is more, he is still alive to celebrate his centenary, and still composing prolifically.

Find out more at his centenary website

Events in the UK

Listen to his music - listen to this today! It will be gone in 3 days

Broadcasts

Olivier Messiaen 100

There are many websites and books where you can find out about the composer Olivier Messiaen (1908-1992). For something a little different, I will recall how I met him in the church of La Trinité in Paris on 29th December, 1974, soon after I had left university where I had specialised in his music.

As I entered the church, I was met by the most glorious blaze of organ sound - full organ in the style of very resplendent Bach. What a tremendous welcome to La Trinité! When the mass I was attending had finished, a helpful lady was insistent that I should meet the organist and went to ask a priest where I should wait. The priest said that the organist would be "longtemps." There were some others waiting – four organ students from Vienna. One of them had met Messiaen before and the others also wanted to meet him.

Messiaen certainly was "longtemps." The others were about to leave, thinking they must have missed him. It was 20 to 25 minutes after he had stopped playing when there was the sound of a key turning somewhere above us. We argued about who was going to speak first. None of us wanted to, especially in French!

Suddenly the door opened and Messiaen’s wife, the pianist Yvonne Loriod, appeared. When she saw us, she smiled and stood back for her husband to appear. We were all quite overcome and struck dumb by the sight of him, but he paused as if waiting for us to speak. In the end it was I that broke the silence, and then the others joined in. Messiaen seemed interested in us, kind and friendly, and I apologised for my bad French, explaining that I was English. He asked if we were all English, so we explained our various nationalities. Messiaen enthused about the organ at La Trinité, saying what a magnificent instrument it was, and gave us a brief history of the instrument which I didn't quite grasp since he spoke only in French. He spoke of it with great warmth, affection and quiet enthusiasm. I mentioned that I knew the organist Gillian Weir and Messiaen immediately began to enthuse about her, saying what a magnificent organist she was. Was she really mon "amie?" He had a rather soft, musical voice and seemed very kindly, but also business-like and obviously didn't want to hang around for too long, though he wasn't in a hurry either. Then he turned, shook hands with me and said "Merci" really warmly, and did the same with a couple of the others. He went to join Yvonne Loriod who was already in their car, and they drove off, while we, in a state of euphoria, hardly knew where we went.

Messiaen, one of the greatest composers of the 20th century, must have had visitors like this regularly, yet he was gracious enough to spend time with us and take a friendly interest, even though we were total strangers.

Listen to some Messiaen today:

BBC broadcasts

Naji Hakim plays Messiaen's "Dieu parmi nous" on the organ at La Trinité (YouTube)

Some other particularly interesting videos of Messiaen on YouTube:

Messiaen teaches his students about Debussy and Colour

Messiaen on Birds 1

Messiaen on Birds 2

Olivier Messiaen and the Organ

Websites about Messiaen:

Olivier Messiaen News and Concerts

Boston University Messiaen Project

Highland cows

Today, while out walking, I met a herd of these rather special cows quite high up on a hillside.

I didn't want to get too near to those horns though!

The frosty air made this one look as if she was breathing out fire like a dragon.

Ice spike

Last night we had a very hard frost, so this morning I went outside to break the ice in the paint tray that we use as a bird bath.

In the middle of the tray was a remarkable ice spike, which measured 53mm in height.

After finding another tray that I could use for the birds, I went to fetch my camera. After taking the first picture, the sun rose, and I took this second picture when the rising sun lit up the spike.

There are more ice spikes on our website and you can read more on the website of the Physics Department of the University of Toronto.