As kids, we called each wisp a “Santa Claus” and captured them to make a wish.  #Wordless Wednesday #Milkweed seeds

Posted on December 8, 2021 by Linda Schaub

#Wordless Wednesday – allow your photo(s) to tell the story.

About Linda Schaub

This is my first blog and I enjoy writing each and every post immensely. I started a walking regimen in 2011 and decided to create a blog as a means of memorializing the people, places and things I see on my daily walks. I have always enjoyed people watching, and so my blog is peppered with folks I meet, or reflections of characters I have known through the years. Often something piques my interest, or evokes a pleasant memory from my memory bank, so this becomes a “slice o’ life” blog post that day. I respect and appreciate nature and my interaction with Mother Nature’s gifts is also a common theme. Sometimes the most-ordinary items become fodder for points to ponder over and touch upon. My career has been in the legal field and I have been a legal secretary for four decades, primarily working in downtown Detroit, and now working from my home. I graduated from Wayne State University with a degree in print journalism in 1978, though I’ve never worked in that field. I like to think this blog is the writer in me finally emerging!! Walking and writing have met and shaken hands and the creative juices are flowing once again in Walkin’, Writin’, Wit & Whimsy – hope you think so too. - Linda Schaub
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48 Responses to As kids, we called each wisp a “Santa Claus” and captured them to make a wish.  #Wordless Wednesday #Milkweed seeds

  1. Thattamma C.G Menon says:
    December 8, 2021 at 5:51 am

    So beautiful Milkweed seeds ❤️🙏🥀small time we play with this flying 👏😀

    Liked by 1 person

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  2. Kim of Red Dirt Farm and Studio says:
    December 8, 2021 at 7:11 am

    I never heard this before. How delightful.

    Liked by 1 person

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  3. bekitschig says:
    December 8, 2021 at 7:17 am

    Very pretty, Linda! I have no clue what they are 🙂

    Liked by 1 person

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    • Linda Schaub says:
      December 8, 2021 at 8:46 pm

      They are very silky Jeanine. People plant milkweed all over to encourage Monarch butterflies as milkweed is the only thing the Monarch caterpillars eat. So this was at the Wildlife Refuge in their pollinator garden. The Milkweed goes to seed inside big pods, then they burst and release the seeds. We used to catch them and make wishes as kids.

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  4. Anne says:
    December 8, 2021 at 7:38 am

    How many wishes have been made all over the world like this! Lovely to see.

    Liked by 1 person

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  5. Barbara Rodgers says:
    December 8, 2021 at 7:49 am

    Love these wisps of white! Now I know I can catch Santa Claus and make a wish. I never heard of this tradition before. 😉

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    • Linda Schaub says:
      December 8, 2021 at 8:50 pm

      Perhaps it was just in Canada where I grew up Barbara. It was fun and we always did this as the Milkweed seeds flew in the air. Lots of wishes made back then! Now you have something to try on your next early Fall walk.

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  6. AnnMarie stevens says:
    December 8, 2021 at 9:48 am

    Kids enjoy making wishes……………………….That’s why those leftover pods are there for us to enjoy……………………thank you …………..you have good memories!

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    • Linda Schaub says:
      December 8, 2021 at 8:52 pm

      That’s right Ann Marie – those empty pods are waiting for us to feel like a kid and send them on their way wish wishes. I did grow up in Canada, so perhaps this was a Canadian “thing”?

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  7. Tofino Photography says:
    December 8, 2021 at 10:29 am

    When you look at a Milkweed spreading it’s seeds,your also looking at the future of a Monarch butterfly!

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    • Linda Schaub says:
      December 8, 2021 at 8:55 pm

      Yes indeed Wayne – all those new Milkweed plants, all to be gobbled up by hungry Monarch caterpillars. Marge and I had separate milkweed plants that came with 10 caterpillars. They munched so fast, they depleted all the leaves and we had to ask around and find someone who hosts Monarch caterpillars and blooms for the butterflies to loan us some leaves. 🙂

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  9. Laurie says:
    December 8, 2021 at 3:50 pm

    I never heard them called “Santa Claus”, but it’s a great nickname. You get a LOT of wishes from one pod.

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    • Linda Schaub says:
      December 8, 2021 at 9:05 pm

      Well this was in Canada Laurie – it might be a Canadian thing; another blogger, from the same state as you, knew them as fairy wings. They do look like they come from Santa’s beard. You do get lots of wishes – as you no doubt see on your walks or runs, once those pods burst, they are just spilling out before they go airborne!

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  10. singlikewildflowers says:
    December 8, 2021 at 4:12 pm

    Love the tale with it! If I find one around here, I’ll share your knowledge with the kids.
    They look like fuzzy flying bugs.

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    • Linda Schaub says:
      December 8, 2021 at 9:11 pm

      Yes, do the Santa Claus wish with the kids – hope you find some. At the end of the Summer/early Fall, the milkweed pods are dried up and they burst open and all the seeds with the wisps go airborne. Lots of seeds and wisps. Do you have Poplar trees near you Esther? We have the Poplar fuzz floating around in early Summer. It collects on the side of the paths at the Park, or on the road, so much that it looks like cotton flying around and it sticks everywhere. If you’re running the A/C, it sticks to the grille and needs to be hosed off several times before it is done flying.

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  11. Tom's Nature-up-close Photography and Mindfulness Blog says:
    December 9, 2021 at 4:40 pm

    Well, i sure hope that Santas are double-masking these crazy days, Linda. Your natural Santas are far safer really.
    Christmas is a magical, very special time of year! 🎅🤶

    Liked by 1 person

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    • Linda Schaub says:
      December 9, 2021 at 6:47 pm

      Yes, it is a magical time of year Tom … it’s really too bad that for the second year in a row, kids can’t make that trip to Santa’s knee. I think some Santas are going to use a Plexiglas shield and the child will sit on a bench in front of them. I wonder what will happen this time next year? The wishes for natural Santas back in the day were fun … sometimes I long for those days. Michigan and the news wears me out – a lawsuit was filed on behalf of two of the kids who survived the school shooting by Geoffrey Fieger. I listened to his press conference. I had forgotten he represented families who lost kids in Columbine. That was this morning. Later in the day we had a school where a kid got stabbed one city over from me and now kids at three high schools are being released from lockdown as someone saw a kid’s backpack containing a gun. We’ve had 23 threats since the rampage last week and all those kids were charged by the County Prosecutor. Sad times we live in.

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      • Tom's Nature-up-close Photography and Mindfulness Blog says:
        December 10, 2021 at 4:47 pm

        Good grief, how very sad for kids these days. You can’t even go to school any longer without worrying about getting shot (or catching Covid and bringing it home). In a nearby rural town, i saw that someone had a sign in their yard that said, “Unmask our school kids.” How mindlessly ignorant! There are all kinds of nut jobs out there… and a lot of them have guns but not compassion!

        My cousin was right, “We lived in good times in the past; we were very lucky.” Yes! Now, i would not want to be a kid! It’s sad. You are right, “Sad times we live in.”

        We have to be an oasis in a dark, sick world. Keep smiling despite the madness! 😊

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      • Linda Schaub says:
        December 10, 2021 at 8:08 pm

        Yes – very sad and if I were a parent, I sure wouldn’t send my child to school, no matter how much they protested that they wanted to be with their friends – for both school violence and COVID. We just had a school board meeting the day before where parents stormed in with their views – one group demanded masks be worn and the others said “kids have rights” … just like your sign. Now, those kids can get a booster shot, but I keep hearing about breakthrough cases galore, so I will stay very wary for now. I don’t mind wearing a mask though it fogs up my glasses despite anti-fog treatment … I push the mask down if I’m by myself but it goes up if I see anyone. I will keep smiling through the madness. 🙂

        Liked by 1 person

      • Tom's Nature-up-close Photography and Mindfulness Blog says:
        December 10, 2021 at 10:42 pm

        Yes, keep smiling! 😊 The Delta variant is dangerous; my cousin’s husband was in the hospital for 17 days with it. And she has a nasty case of it too! Both stupid Trumpian anti-vaxers!
        The good thing is that the Omicron variant is highly contagious, but it seems to have effects that are not serious. They say we will all catch that variant.

        Liked by 1 person

      • Linda Schaub says:
        December 11, 2021 at 7:26 pm

        That’s what I am hearing too Tom – Delta is worse … but we have the flu running rampant here as well. Yikes – I’ve had the flu shot, plus had my part 2 pneumonia shot in September and been boosted since the day after it became available. Still worried. Yes, too bad for their severe illnesses but anti-vaxers, but my fear is all the breakthrough cases. I was sitting here working on my post for Monday and out of the corner of my eye, I see my phone says “in use/no line” – phone’s dead. I had a junk call this afternoon – working just fine. Not squirrel chews, as that is gradual – static and moisture gets into the cable and eventually no phone at all. I need the landline for work so looked for outages – most of our county has no AT&T, whether landline or internet. If that is the only casualty from this horrible wind, I’ll take it. Did you have severe weather in Illinois? I thought I heard there was bad weather – nothing like Kentucky – those poor people.

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  12. Prior... says:
    December 9, 2021 at 9:20 pm

    I can see why you called these milkweeds a Santa Claus
    such nice photos of their whips
    🙂

    Liked by 1 person

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  13. Joni says:
    December 11, 2021 at 8:46 pm

    I’ve never heard of that tradition Linda, but it’s cute! It’s been a long time since I’ve seen a milkweed plant, although I know they’ve become more popular and gardeners plant them for monarchs, but I don’t have any myself.

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  14. Shelley@QuaintRevival.com says:
    December 13, 2021 at 7:36 am

    I’ve never heard them be called Santa Claus. That’s interesting. Have you ever watched a bird attack one of those and pull all the seeds out. It’s quite entertaining to watch. Milk weeds were always fun to pick and run with our arms stretched to watch all those fluffy seeds float across the sky. 🙂

    Liked by 1 person

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  15. Janis @ RetirementallyChallenged.com says:
    December 13, 2021 at 3:11 pm

    I love the little puffs! We had some similar looking seed pods floating around this summer. We don’t have milkweed in our yard but I wonder if a neighbor does?

    Liked by 1 person

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    • Linda Schaub says:
      December 13, 2021 at 9:38 pm

      It must be drifting over your way, so maybe their house is a butterfly magnet. Here in Michigan we have a lot of Poplar trees and they have fuzzy seeds in May, sometimes June too and it collects in the street and along the sidewalks and looks like snow at a distance.

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  16. indianeskitchen says:
    December 13, 2021 at 11:24 pm

    OMG I had forgotten about making a wish with these when they were air borne!

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