Over these many weeks, humans have been forced into an uncomfortably close study of our own species’ behavior. Observations haltingly stream in through the internet and the TV, through hurried forays into the sparse public square, and through sometimes painful introspection. We are finding what we’ve always known, that humans are petty and petulant, compulsively social, and surprisingly sublime.

Meanwhile, without our clueless interference, non-human animals have gone about their business as normal. The male bi-colored redwing blackbirds where I live are putting on the biggest and flashiest red patches I’ve seen in years. Good luck, guys!

And the Canada geese, which normally annoy me with their poop and their nasty moods have become adorable as they sashay in pairs down the road towards their new nests on the empty golf course. In a few weeks they will be justifiably nasty again, hissing as they protect their babies from me, a silly runner, just trying to shed my own cranky mood into their territory.

Recently, after a run through a muddy patch of the trail stamped with goose footprints and lined with wild sea beets, I remembered that I had some old beets in the refrigerator. Time to do some botany!

For much more information about beets and their relatives, see our longer posts.