Symphony in Orange Minor . . .

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Just from this first image, can you identify the subject matter here, without looking further down ?
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For the anatomically minded among you (who can't help but be a little fascinated by anatomy, when confronted with the marvellously intricate workings of the natural world, including our bodies ?) the finely filigreed lace work of this structure may conjure up memories of distant biology classes, fractals, and all the studies of the most incredible designs that Mother Nature pulls out of her seemingly infinitely wondrous bag of tricks. And no, it is not a tomato behind a dried out leaf.
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Is it clearer now ?
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The wonders that surround us never fail to floor me. Just take the human eye, for example. Compared to the human eye, even the finest of digital cameras with their millions of pixels and an assortment of lenses from fisheye wide angles to super telephotos and everything in between, still cannot compare to what the human eye can capture. And in such a small package too. The lens opening and thickness of the pupil is tiny compared to the lens on any camera, and the retina with its most amazing array of color and light sensibility is still far superior to any film or digital sensor, not to mention the visual processing areas of our brain which leave the software in a camera back in the stone age. How lucky we are to have such wonders already pre-installed as standard equipment at birth, they don't even have to be ordered as options.
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Yes, these are the fruit of chinese lantern plants. (Physalis alkekengi) They showed up unannounced in our garden last year for the first time, maybe the gift of a passing bird (?), and this year there were even more than last year, so I guess they multiply themselves. Last December I did a couple of posts about them, here, and here. This past weekend I was poking about in the garden, and saw that this year's crop had already ripened, many had gone beyond ripe, and were already showing their skeletal structures. So it was well time to harvest them.
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What better favorite plant to decorate a blog called the Magic Lantern Show ? As I delved deeper underneath their wide leaves, I found more and more lanterns in all states of ripeness, many with their fruits visible within, some empty, though with no sign of possible exit for the fruits, leaving me wondering if they had been eaten by gluttonous little scavengers ? Apparently the fruits are good to eat, richer in vitamin C than lemons, according to one website I read today, and full of other therapeutic herbal qualities. If they are not only fun to look at but healthful as well, I may have to plant more of them !
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An autumn breeze blew in a cluster of red leaves around the lanterns that had piled up outside.
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Here they are back in August already well formed, but in varying degrees of advancement. Who knows what mysterious laws govern the transformation from green to gold to rich orange while the fruit seeds develop within ? Who wrote the notes that form the pages of that long slow symphony in orange minor ?
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Finally at the end of an afternoon spent contemplating their mysteries, they whispered to me, "Take us inside, place us in a safe place, enjoy our beauty through the coming winter..." What could I do but obey them ?
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So they have now taken up residence in pottery platter on our coffee table where one can sit and ponder over them regardless of the weather out of doors, where their fine lace forms will perhaps last longer than had they fallen to the ground in the autumn rains, and withered under winter snows.
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As I sat and watched them this November evening, my eyes became unfocused while listening to the soft strains of their gentle orange ballad, and a flowing orange dream took possession of my drifting mind.
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Orange winds blew me further out upon an orange sea . . . where orange waves lapped merrily. ("Merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily, life is but a dream"?)
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May your autumn days be graced with luminous orange bliss. (for those of you in the southern hemisphere, where Spring is well along now, replace "autumn" with "Spring", and gloat a little :-)
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