As I've mentioned here before, I love the idea behind how vines work.
They grip on to something else, anything else, around them and grow. They aren't picky about the object, it could be anything -- natural or not.
Not too surprisingly, there's some benefits to having vines along a house wall, for example. The leaves cover the surface area of the brick or stone wall, absorbing most of the light energy directed at it. This happens only in the summer (with some execptions) as leaves generally die off for the winter. So, less of the sun's radiation on your walls equals less heat getting into the house, equals less need for air conditioning. (There are some downsides too -- you do need a confidently sturdy mortar job, or else the aerial roots will slowly eat away at cracks and crevices in the brick.)
I'm often amazed at how thick vines can get, particularly ones that are seen along the Bruce Trail. I'll have some photos of those up soon -- but trust me, they're huge. As thick as my arm, and more.
In the case of these photos, they are latching not only to non-natural object, but part of a human-constructed network of electricy. There's something about two worlds here connecting -- the natural-nature and the human-constructed-nature -- that caught my eye.
I've been mulling around in my brain about someday putting together an art project that somehow combines my interests in plants and botany with computers and electronics, perhaps building something out of old laptop parts that is both natural and constructed. Something alive in the organic sense, and in the electronic sense. The heat generated by a motherboard would be great for keeping soil warm, but would need some ventilation, and somehow not get wet. There's a lot to work out in the idea.
The vines remind me of that project idea. There's something about them that tells me that there's an idea I can take from them to apply to that project idea, but I'm not sure what that idea is yet. It may be a few years!
These are far from being my only photos of vines. More to come in future installments, certainly.
(These photos were taken in Hamilton, Ontario.)
