Titan Arum and Beautiful Weather . . .

So either Blogger is just going downhill or I am losing my blogging skills. I can't seem to keep pictures in the order I want them, even if I put them in order to load them. Anyone that can tutor me would be welcome . . . !
Anyhow, we found out that the Cornell Agriculture department had a Titan Arum blooming. This is a pretty cool thing because: It only blooms for 48 hours, there have only been 140 bloomings (cultivated, of course) in recorded history, and it apparently smells horrible when it blooms because that is how it attracts its pollinators (carrion flies), therefore it's nicknamed the "Corpse Flower" because it smells like, well, a corpse. So, we had to go check it out. Clearly Jackson didn't think it was all that cool.

This is the inside. Deep down where you see the yellow dots are where it is pollinated. Cornell got this as a seed 9 years ago and this is the first time it has flowered. When we went to see it, the smell was not as bad because apparently the smell is worst within the first 24 hours of blooming, then the smell starts to dissipate. However I still got enough of a whiff to realize how stinky it is!

On a different note, it has been the strangest winter here. Hardly any snow, a few cold weeks, but now we seem to be experiencing spring. About 2 months early. All weekend it was in the 80s, and this week is supposed to be similar.

Jude had a fabulous time sitting outside on a blanket, eating dirt, grass, and sticks. Great parenting, I know! But it was so fun watching him explore. I keep waiting, though, for the great blizzard which we haven't had and which I'm afraid is certain to happen one of these weeks before we have really "earned" spring and summer. We'll see . . . !

And, in the wrong order of course, our last corpse flower picture. The tall center leaf can grow up to 12 feet. The native location for it is the rainforests of Indonesia, so if you're ever there, maybe you can find a few of these. By the smell of course . . . !