—at least I think this is a wild grape. It’s something wild: a vine-bearing plant that bears grape-shaped fruits that aren’t exactly ripe, yet. Or they are ripe, and simply inedible. At any rate, this is a close up shot of what I have come to recognize as the spooky part of this plant. The spooky-factor is due to a strange coincidence. I’ve long been interested in plants that utilize holdfasts when it comes to supporting climbing vines. I find such structures to be endlessly fascinating, and deliciously spooky in that B-move science fictional way, preferably with a theramin playing in the soundtrack, or better yet, a soundtrack by Bernard Hermann, or even Jerry Goldsmith, from his Omen period. If Jerry Goldsmith was able to do creepy things with a choir (such as emulate the growls of demonic dogs) I’m quite sure that he could also conjure the sound of alien pseudo-grapes, patiently taking over the world, by simply growing everywhere and getting people addicted to their very tasty, mind-controlling fruits. I don’t think this particular plant was interested in taking over very much of anything. It was simply growing, though it was in the process of taking over a pickup truck that had been sitting, rather incongruously, in a parking lot of all places, for a very long time. Corey and I saw the truck, and I was immediately drawn to the vines creeping over it, while Corey was immediately drawn to the make, model, production year, and condition of the truck. As I saw vines, I immediately searched for holdfasts. I found them. Lots and lots of them. I was struck by how a few of them resembled hands. They made me think of the hands of the Martians in the George Pal production of War of the Worlds, the definitive (if inaccurate) version of the H.G. Wells classic. Though the later, Speilberg version boasted wonderful Martian walking machines, and some deliciously creepy scenes of clothing drifting through the air, the movie didn’t live up to the original novel, or the deliciously fun George Pal film, featuring the same Martian machines, moving about on three electromagnetic legs while zapping everything in sight with gooseneck ray-guns, the likes of which. In the end of the George Pal version of the story, when the Martians are killed off by bacteria and other little things native to earth, we are treated to the view of a dead Martian…well…not really…just a dead Martian’s arm with three scuction-cupped fingers (and, strangely, no opposable thumbs!) I thought of George Pal’s Martians when I saw the holdfasts of a particular plant, colonizing a dead truck: I laughed at the realization that this particular holdfast structure resembles (at least slightly) the hand of a George Pal-style Martian, only with too many fingers and a thumb. I wanted to hear background music by Bernard Hermann or Jerry Goldsmith, but alas, both maestros are no longer with us, and so I contented myself with a macro photograph, with a flash. I love the use of a flash during broad daylight. Things darken so wonderfully, and for once, the holdfast structure of a wild grape vine looks just as spooky as something that I’m itching to write about. As always, thank you for viewing, reading, and commenting, and I hope you’re all having a great week.