South Downs Way - the earth laughs in flowers

'The Earth laughs in flowers,' Ralph Waldo Emerson

Sometimes we wonder how we might communicate with aliens should they visit our lonely planet.

Maybe a more interesting question is whether there are already 'aliens' here with whom we have failed to establish contact 

I have been enjoying the flowers of the South Downs Way. 

Meadow saxifrage, lime green crosswort, eyebright, common spotted orchid and silverweed are all in bloom on the downs. To me they are an exquisite tapestry of yellow, blue and pink. 

But seen from another viewpoint, flowers are the genitals of plants, lewdly displayed in order to achieve fertilisation.

Bees and butterflies get excited, just as the flowering plants intend, but for them, the glowing shapes of flowers mean food, not sex. They are enthusiastic but unwitting partners in plants' reproduction.

As for me, as this deadly serious battle for reproduction and nourishment takes place right under my nose, I cry 'Oh, how pretty!'

But I am missing so many layers of communication.