Just Say Cotoneaster

Day 248: "You say 'to-MA-to,' I say 'to-MAH-to.'" No, not really, but I do say "lichen" to rhyme with "kitchen" rather than "likin'" and I eat "sc-ONNs" rather than "sc-OHnes," and I have a "co-TONE-ee-aster" growing at the edge of my property. It is not a "cotton-easter." It has nothing to do with bunnies, their tails or baskets full of eggs and candy. I have a vague recollection of having planted it shortly after I moved here, and an even more vague memory of pulling it out and relocating it, although I can't be sure whether I replanted it or whether it took root where I threw it into the brush. I promptly forgot all about it until one day when its red berries attracted my eye, and I then spent some time trying to figure out what it was. How easily we forget! In any event, it seems to be happy where it is, and it's not spreading like Cotoneaster sometimes does. It can stay.

My Mystery Plant

Day 36: You've undoubtedly heard some variant of the phrase, "The cobbler's children have no shoes," which suggests that although a person is in a particular trade, neither they nor those closest to them benefit from it. Perhaps that explains why it has taken me thirty years to identify a plant growing at the edge of my yard, up against the brushy section which forms a boundary with the adjacent undeveloped property. Said shrubby growth regularly gets grazed by the lawnmower, but never fails to produce small leathery foliage which turns a lovely shade of red in the fall, as well as a modest display of round red berries. If I had given it more than a moment's thought, I would have realized it was a Cotoneaster (horizontalis, I believe) without having to search the internet. Here rises to the surface another of the Scottish/British pronunciations instilled in me in childhood. This is not a "cotton Easter" (presumed kin of the Velveteen Rabbit); it is a "cut-OH-nee-as-ter" (although certainly not related to any member of the Compositaceae). Appropriately, there are lichens nearby (a word which I insist rhymes with "kitchen," not the action implied by a thumbs-up symbol).