Time Flies

It seems I never get around to posting stuff anymore...and certainly not like I used to!  Even content-wise I feel I have slipped a long way from where this blog was back when I was in NY.  Partly (mostly) this is due to time.  At my last job, since we were closing down, I had plenty of time to research and write.  Now my days are full at work - busy busy busy doing a bi-monthly newsletter, working on interpretive plans, doing weekly programs at the local middle school, attending meetings, etc. etc. etc.  I don't have internet at home (can't afford it), so I have to make do at work or at hotspots on my days off (which doesn't happen very much - I do so miss the Crandall Library in Glens Falls).

Right now, however, I have misplaced my camera cable, so I am unable to download photographs.  Photographs of exciting things like the annual Christmas Bird Count this last Saturday.

And I also neglected to post a major milestone:  one year, one week and one day ago I moved to Michigan.  Two days later I started this new job.  It's been a whole year!  Tempus fugit!!!  Sometimes it feels like it can't possibly be a whole year already, while at other times I feel like I've been here so much longer.

With a whole year behind me now, I can no longer take advantage of "I'm the new person."  I've now seen and done just about everything here, so there are no more excuses.  Time to forge ahead and make my mark.

Today also marks another year completed in my own life - and for the first time, a birthday doesn't really seem like such a big deal.  It was starting to feel that way the last couple of years, but this year it is truly so.  Is this a sign of having finally grown up?  Hm....can't have THAT happen!

But it is the Winter Solstice - a time of celebration around the world.  I guess officially it isn't the Winter Solstice until 12:30 tonight, EST (or tomorrow morning, if one wants to be really correct).  In my mind, however, December 21st will always be the Winter Solstice, just as March 21st will always be the Vernal Equinox, June 21st the Summer Solstice and September 21st the Autumnal Equinox. 

I really kind of like the idea of this being the longest night of the year, where the community would gather around a roaring fire and keep it burning (Yule log) until the sun rose the next morning, ensuring the turn of the seasons and that light would return to this good earth.  I imagine this was really a lot more significant in those far northern climes where daylight at this time of year only lasts an hour or two.  While I may begrudge the morning darkness (I hate getting up before 5:30 and not seeing the sky lighten until after 8:00 AM), we still have some daylight here until almost 5:30 in the evening.  A wee bit more light than we had in the Adirondacks.

So, enjoy your holiday this season, whatever it may be.  And when I find my camera cable, we will once more be back in business here.

Cheers!

A Splash of Color

I usually see the first hint of autumn color on a tree or two in late July. This year I noticed my first ones last week when I drove up to Canton. Today, however, on the way in to work, I saw several trees already sporting crimson, orange, and yellow leaves.

Could the strange weather this summer (hot-cold-hot-cold-hot-cold, and wet-dry-wet-dry) have the trees under enough stress to turn them en masse so early?

Spring is here, Spring is here

Life is skittles and life is beer... (a little something for all you Tom Lehrer fans)

But seriously, look what I found in the yard today:

And as if that weren't bad enough, I also found this:

Both, of course, are pussy willow catkins, in the fuzzy stage we usually see in April or May. The first is from my giant pussy willow, and it has over a dozen "kittens" already emerged along its branches. The second is from my black pussy willow, and while it has fewer fully emerged "kittens", there were plenty just starting to break through their buds.

>sigh<>

On a cheerier note, however, I finally found some evidence that the Wildlife Crabapple that I planted a couple years ago is indeed of benefit to the wildlife:

I wonder if the birds only became aware of it after I put out the birdseed and they started spending time in the yard. Or maybe they were simply waiting for the apples to reach a particular stage of ripeness. Hm.

Crabapples, in case you didn't know, are the original apple, or at least they were in Europe. As I recall, apples (as we think of them today) originated in the mountains of Kazakstan, and it was about 10,000 years ago that they became popular with traders and military personnel and started to make their way around the world. (Meanwhile, North America was still recovering from being over-run with glaciers.)

For an in-depth history of the apple, written rather delightfully, hop on over to this website.

Things are Greening Up

I know it's the end of November, but the plants outside seem to think spring is on the way. Sure, the days are still getting shorter, but they are also getting milder. Even some of the nights have been mild. So, what else is a plant to conclude but that spring is just around the corner?

New shoot on elderberry.

Comfrey - sending up some greenery.

New leaves for the hollyhocks.

Golden Marguerite with plenty of new growth.

I keep hoping it will snow soon. On the one hand, it's been awfully nice to not have the furnace really going (my house is about 58*F...depending on where you are, of course; some areas are likely closer to 48*F), but it is the end of November, and we should have snow. Despite the pervasive dampness in the air, actual moisture accumulation so far this month has been less than two inches.

Global warming? Considering that mild winters have been occuring with greater frequency lately, it sure seems like it.

Here are some interesting facts to consider (a la National Geographic Magazine, although I've seen them elsewhere, too):

* Most of the CO2 emissions that are responsible for climate change come from the burning of fossil fuels (no news there);

* Even if we maintained the CO2 levels we emit today (go no higher), we are releasing CO2 into the atmosphere nearly twice as fast as the planet can remove it (plants, soils, ocean, sediments and rocks);

* If we stopped emissions completely today (ha), it will still take centuries for plants and the oceans to absorb most our man-made CO2, and it will take millennia for the rest to be removed by rocks and sediment.

In other words, it looks like nothing we do now will stop this boulder from rolling down the mountain. We are going to have to change the way we live - not to fix things, but to live with the changes we have wrought. Some of us will come out okay, but much of the world will be facing potentially cataclysmic changes (no water, or too much water, for example).

Does this mean we shouldn't even bother to try to cut our emissions? Absolutely not. What we do now will not likely make noticeable changes in our own lifetimes. We MUST start to live today for those who will be around many generations from now. If we don't start living today for the future, there might not be a future for us.

This is one of the biggest problems I see with humanity today: so few of us see beyond our own immediate future. For some, this is understandable (those who live in poverty-stricken lands, where food and water are scarce). For others (mostly the Western world), it is a choice: we choose to be ignorant and selfish in our needs and wants.

For example, I meet people all the time who absolutely refuse to recycle. REFUSE! I just don't understand it. It's not like it costs anything to separate our trash into recyclables and genuine garbage. Sure, it can be a hassle sometimes, but it has so many benefits. And don't even get me started on composting!

I'm probably preaching to the choir here, but maybe some day this message will get around to everyone, and we will all see that our wants (not needs) are superfluous. It's a matter of learning the difference between "need" and "want", a difficult concept in our modern society where everything is so readily accessible to so many of us.

Alrighty - enough of my rant. Snow is in the forecast for tonight, and we are scrambling here at work to get out shovels, put up winter signs, and batten down the hatches just in case winter finally arrives. I've counted and catalogued our snowshoes, so we are ready. Bring it on!