Story of Flowers: this gorgeous botanical animation will make your day.

I'm a huge fan of vintage botanical drawings. This is distinctly different, but also stunningly beautiful.

Watch full screen:

Per youtube:

The animation was developed for kids to show the life cycle of flowers.

Many different flowers are growing beautifully and strongly in this world. Taking their roots in the earth, sprouting, blooming, pollination by birds and insects, living on in spite of rain, wind and storms. They pass on the baton of life, rebirth and decay. Everything is so in a continuous, endless cycle. This is the story and message of this animation.

Friday links

July 26 is Brave New World author Aldous Huxley's birthday: here's a brief bio, audio of him narrating Brave New World, a 1949 letter from Huxley to Orwell and a Huxley vs Orwell infographic.

Why is airport food so expensive? The reasons you pay a massive markup on a water bottle are more complex than you might think.

These Sisters will make your Evil Siblings look like Angels.

Birthdays this weekend include free-market economist Milton Friedman's (July 27): here are some favorite quotes and short videos, and Beatrix Potter's (July 28): in addition to Peter Rabbit et al, she produced some gorgeous botanical drawings.

The house from The Goonies gets so many fan visits (around 1200 per day), the owner has tried to stop them coming by covering the house in a blue tarp.

Why It May Make Sense to Draw Eyes on Cows’ Butts.

ICYMI, most recent links are here, and include the Apollo 11 anniversary, early blacklisting in Hollywood, a laser that identifies people from a distance by heartbeat, and the anniversary of the 20th of July plot (the unsuccessful bomb attempt by insiders to kill Hitler in 1944).

Beatrix Potter's birthday

Once upon a time there were four little rabbits, and their names were - Flopsy, Mopsy, Cottontail, and Peter.

~ Beatrix Potter (wiki), The Tale of Peter Rabbit

Don't go near Mr. McGregor's garden: your father had an accident there, he was put into a pie by Mrs. McGregor. 

~ Ibid. 

Thank goodness I was never sent to school; it would have rubbed off some of the originality.

~ Potter, attributed

And the best quote ever on why you should ply your children (and grandchildren!) with good books throughout their childhoods:

For quiet, solitary and observant children create their own world and live in it, nourishing their imaginations on the material at hand.

In the UK, stamps depicting Beatrix Potter's creations
were released on the 150th anniversary of her birth.

July 28 is the anniversary of the birth of the English writer and illustrator of children's books, Beatrix Potter (wiki) (1866-1943). Most familiar as the author of The Tale of Peter Rabbit (1902) and The Tailor of Gloucester (1903), Beatrix Potter was born in London and despite having no formal artistic training, illustrated all her books with simple, unassuming watercolors, while creating the characters of Peter Rabbit, Benjamin Bunny, the hedgehog Mrs. Tiggy-Winkle, and others.  

After 1927, she wrote very little but became a farmer and sheep-breeder in the north of England. From the age of 15 until she was past 30, Potter kept a journal in a secret code that was not broken until 20 years after her death. 

Here's a brief documentary on Potter's life:

She also produced a series of gorgeous, scientifically accurate paintings of various types of fungi, as discussed and illustrated in Linda Lear’s highly regarded Beatrix Potter: A Life in Nature:

Flammulina velutipes (Armitt Museum and Library)

Strobilomyces strobilaceus (Armitt Museum and Library)

Hydrocybe coccinea (Armitt Museum and Library)

Related links:

Recommended reading: Beatrix Potter's Gardening Life: The Plants and Places That Inspired the Classic Children's Tales.

The Tale of Kitty-in-Boots, a new story written by Beatrix Potter more than 100 years ago, featuring Peter Rabbit, was published in 2016 for the first time. She had done only one illustration for the story, so that task has been taken over by others: 

She sent the story to her publisher in 1914, saying it was about "a well-behaved prime black Kitty cat, who leads rather a double life".

The Tale of Kitty-in-Boots also features an appearance from an "older, slower" version of Peter Rabbit.

Beatrix Potter Based Peter Rabbit On Her Pothead Bunny. 

The Economist had an interesting article on her in 2007.

Here's an article on her mushroom illustrations, with several excellent examples.

How do trees survive winter?

Trees go through a process similar to hibernation called dormancy, and that's what keeps them alive during the winter. Dormancy is like hibernation in that everything within the plant slows down. Metabolism, energy consumption, growth and so on. The first part of dormancy is when trees lose their leaves.

Dormancy is like hibernation in that everything within the plant slows down. Metabolism, energy consumption, growth and so on. The first part of dormancy is when trees lose their leaves. They don't make food in the winter, so they have no use for masses of leaves that would require energy to maintain.

This brief video explains it well:

More at The Guardian.