It is called kudzu. On the trip home I decided to google it and found out some funny stuff. Kudzu is not native to the south. It is from Japan but was introduced in the early 1900's and used for erosion control, animal grazing, and to beautify (like to hide power poles). The stuff got way out of hand because the south is a great environment for it to grow in and in the 70's it was declared by the us government to be a weed.
This plant can grow up to a foot an hour. The legend goes that in Georgia you must keep your windows closed at night to keep the kudzu from coming in. They can't find anything to kill it. If you leave a car or house, or anything for that matter, unattended for too long the kudzu will eventually cover it. We have some here in Louisiana but not like in Georgia and Alabama. Despite the fact that it is beautiful, it is a nuisance. But there are many recipes out there that use the leaves and the flowers. It is very nutritious. Interesting!
This picture shows the beautiful foliage along the freeways. Also, if you look way down the road you can see some haziness and the car lights. That haziness is an instant downpour. We ran into several of these coming home and had to slam on our brakes. We could barely see in front of us.
Jacob took this picture of the stormy sky. He is becoming quite the photographer.
Here is a picture he took of his toy that we bought him because Burger King was all out of kid's meal toys (of course they were the coveted transformers). We are looking at the ball's smile. This green guy that Jacob dubbed "sea urchin anemone" (because he was spiky and soft) kept him entertained for much of the trip home. It was the best $1.50 I ever spent.
Here is another picture Jacob took of me on the ride home. After he took it he went, "Awwwww!!"
No comments:
Post a Comment