Green Marble Hearth

Standards

2010-07-17T12:23:00.000-07:00

For today at least, I'm using my blog to file some things I want to remember. I just got a call from Oxfam America wondering if I would renew my monthly contribution. I let it lapse because I'd heard on Behind the News that Oxfam was supporting a project involving genetically-modified seeds. I meant to look into it further, so when this woman called I did a search and found a statement posted on Oxfam's website.

What I like is this sentence:

"Oxfam believes that any decision to use GMOs must be based on the human rights’ principles of participation, transparency, choice, sustainability and fairness."

Nice list for evaluating, what, social structures? My local government? Anyway I felt like filing it somewhere.

Free speech

2010-07-17T08:12:00.000-07:00

A candidate signs up to get public financing under Connecticut's election laws and gets state funds to use in his campaign. Then his opponent spends another million dollars, and so he goes back to the state and asks for supplemental funds. The Federal courts have decided this restrains the free speech of his opponent. Funding = speech, they've decided, and if you had to worry that if you 'spoke' ie spent a million dollars and then your opponent might do the same, you might restrain your speech! So much for free speech!

That's kinda weird, hunh?

I got that from this article about recent rulings in CT:

"Supporters of the law breathed relief that the combined state and federal rulings overall preserved the basic thrust of the laws. But some expressed concern about the decision against supplemental grants. The federal panel echoed an argument offered by the U.S. Supreme Court in a recent decision involving Arizona’s public-financing law (the Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission case) that such supplemental grants violate a self-financing candidate’s constitutional right to free speech. Here’s the logic: If a wealthy candidate’s own campaign spending (now considered “speech”) triggers more public money for a taxpayer-financed opponent, that will affect the wealthy candidate’s decisions about how much money to dole out to broadcast a message, thereby restraining the candidate’s exercise of free speech."

There's a great new e-newsletter coming out weekly called CT News Junkie, it really helps keep tabs on state elections.

Don't forget the primary August 10th!

Rollover 1

2010-06-20T16:59:00.000-07:00

My digital camera takes short videos.

June night

2010-06-20T12:31:00.001-07:00

You may have to put your speakers next to your ears, but here we go...

Recovery

2010-03-20T15:50:00.001-07:00

I'm profoundly tired. I just had dinner: Michele made some cod, and boiled a potato, and I thawed some home-made chicken broth and cooked some frozen spinach. Then it all went into the blender in various combinations, through the strainer, and down the hatch. A buttery potato / cod puree, and then a spinach/ginger/butter/salt soup. C'est bien fait.

I had put in a case of chicken broth in liter Tetrapaks, and find a cup has 1/2 gram of sodium, no calcium, and 10 calories. Really not what I had in mind. What was I thinking?

Today the plastery bandage came off my chin, 5 days to the hour after the surgery. I've stopped the pain killers after last night's misery. I feel much calmer, if heavy with unspecified ache. Only the stitches on the side hurt in particular, when I cough, which I do from time to time from throat tickles. Maybe tonight I'll sleep some, instead of waking every 10-15 min with throat tickles and chokings.

I keep pondering the role of drugs. When I came out of surgery I kept throwing up. This wasn't as horrid as one might think -- the worst is when you're not really throwing up but might sometime soon. But the nurses wanted to control it and they tried 5 different methods on me, including Halcyon, if I heard them right. At another point the next day some dutiful soul approached me (still nauseous) with a syringe of liquid Tylenol. What is it with these dark red sticky sweet preparations? My antibiotic is served up in a similar fashion. I know, someone has Thought All This Through, but something got lost along the way.

And then there's the split pea soup Michele picked up for me - "split pea and ham" with a picture of the little chunk of ham on the label, but the ingredients tell you it's just the water from cooked ham that they let slip into the soup. General Mills. What a world.

Well, that's what's on my mind right now folks. Thanks for listening and have a peaceful night!

Surgery

2010-03-08T06:37:00.000-08:00

I sent this email to a friend, thought I'd post it here for the curious / concerned. This is happening in Boston at Mass-Gen.

I was in for the pre-op last Monday so they went over everything again. They'll knock me out, slice open my chest, take some cartilage from where the ribs meet the sternum, play God and fashion a new woman.. no, I mean fashion 2 new jaw joints (the condyles, to be exact), slice me open just in front of each ear and again under the chin on each side (4 incisions around the face), saw off the deformed condyles and stick on the new ones, tuck a bit of flap from the muscles around the joint into the socket for cushioning, and sew me all back up. They'll stick a "splint" ie a piece of plastic between my teeth to hold them apart a little bit and then fasten the teeth together so I don't move the jaw at all for the first week or so while hopefully the bone graft takes. It's a six hour operation! Takes place on Monday the 15th, first thing in the morning. I'll be in the hospital one or two nights, depending how I do.

After about a week they'll give me a little mobility so I start moving the joint and after about 6 to 8 weeks I'll have an open mouth again. Meanwhile I'll lose 5 or 10 lbs and drink a lot of broth and protein drinks and such. The ribs will grow back. Life will go on. I'll be relieved it's over.

The point of this is to give me back the centimeter or so I've lost from my lower jaw and tip it back so the teeth meet properly and I can go back to eating things like salad and nuts and such. I mean, I can eat those now but it doesn't work so well, and I can only fit little bites of everything.

They'll probably inadvertently slice some nerves in my face and I'll have numbness or muscle weakness, which will slowly abate over a year or so. As a rule it's only peripheral nerves.

The ribs will hurt a lot and I'll have to be careful to take lots of deep breaths so my lungs don't get infected.

Sometimes I get pretty freaked out about all this but I saw the surgeon and his chief resident on Monday and they're awfully nice so I felt better. And I find the hospital kind of fascinating -- such a big, self-contained organism.

I'll probably get back on my bike next summer. Maybe. No one tracks bicycle accidents so it's hard to assess the risk very exactly, but it's not negligible. But it's such a fun way to get around it'll be hard to resist.

So that's the report...

Town affairs -- land use

2010-01-14T07:10:00.001-08:00

Went to a planning meeting last night; the town is slowly working towards a new 10 year plan addressing conservation and development. Memorable tidbits:

Dave Hosmer said whenever they draw down Lake Bungee and Witches Wood Lake, he gets flooded out and last year he lost a crop of mulch hay. They draw it down to clean their docks and such, but there's no system to warn those downstream. The problem is worse for folks farming downstream from Thompson Dam and the other dams on the Quinebaug.

Jean Pillo gave a presentation on water. Woodstock holds the headwaters for water ways headed into other towns, and by state law we're supposed to be careful to keep it all clean. That means no one can build a new sewer system here. That limits a lot of larger development.

A lot of the water in town is in a layer of hard rock, but there's a large section in the SE of town where the ground water is in a layer of sand and gravel, and much easier to contaminate. In 2009 Putnam diverted enough water from the Little River (is that the one? I may have the name wrong) to completely dry out a section of it here in town so's nothing was left very lively in that section.

There was a lot more to the meeting but those are a few things I didn't know before. Some of it was tedious, as zoning can be, and some of it seemed out of touch from reality, or my reality. We're not going to build a big solar farm around here and provide all our energy needs. Most of our lifestyle of large houses and long commutes is gonna half to go. In fact, we'll be lucky if we don't descend into large scale chaos in a decade. But it's hard to frame a discussion that way, and easy to repeat the basics -- we like lots of open space, farms give us that, what can we do to keep the farms here?

But after blurting out a few thoughts I was reminded that discussion makes you examine your assumptions. Why should we support the farmers when their product is sold to far off markets and they're at the mercy of Federal policies? That question got me some strange looks but I'm glad I asked it.

Move Your Money

2010-01-06T11:03:00.000-08:00

Look, someone's on it! There's a movement afoot to move deposits to community banks. I must say that there seem to be a number of good options in this area for banking -- unlike restaurants!

Big Banks

2009-12-29T08:22:00.000-08:00

Check this chart out. The four biggest banks have gained a lot of market share. I wonder who lost that share?

Scrooge

2009-12-24T06:47:00.000-08:00

"Oh ! but he was a tight-fisted hand at the grindstone, Scrooge ! a squeezing, wrenching, grasping, scraping, clutching, covetous, old sinner ! Hard and sharp as flint, from which no steel had ever struck out generous fire; secret, and self-contained, and solitary as an oyster. The cold within him froze his old features, nipped his pointed nose, shrivelled his cheek, stiffened his gait; made his eyes red, his thin lips blue; and spoke out shrewdly in his grating voice. A frosty rime was on his head, and on his eyebrows, and his wiry chin. He carried his own low temperature always about with him; he iced his office in the dog-days, and didn't thaw it one degree at Christmas."

Dickens, A Christmas Carol

And I almost didn't start it, thinking, I've seen it on the teli...

Winter poem

2009-12-14T14:27:00.000-08:00

Dreams

Generations are born and generations pass,
the generations glide like streams,
die and vanish and become extinct,
and yet enticing dreams never die:
to live in the sun, in sorrow and the storm,
grow numb and be laid on the bier,
rise up again in shimmering form,
follow in each other's footsteps.
However they come and however they go,
gliding like reflecting streams,
however they vanish and become extinct,
eternal dreams live on.

poem of Jonatan Reuter, Drommarna, from the accentus CD North

A good winter poem.

Homemade beer

2009-11-22T13:45:00.000-08:00

This stuff has quite a head!

Uncle Collin's brewing gene had been tugging at me, so last summer I bought a 3 gallon carboy and eventually figured the rest out: Yorkshire Bitter mix, airlock, pitching yeast, and so forth. I sterilized everything with hydrogen peroxide, and used fair trade sugar instead of corn sugar, and despite all that the result has been drinkable. It helps that we don't drink much beer so wouldn't necessarily know good from bad. Made about 30 bottles, and most weekends we drink one.

Thanks, Paige, for blog-posting inspiration!

Orthodontics begins

2009-08-05T14:35:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I had spacers inserted between my 3 back teeth, both sides, top and bottom. By evening I was very sore, couldn't chew on anything, and felt groggy and a bit inflamed. So I'm back on liquids: pureed split pea and ham soup for dinner with extra broth. I think I'm already adjusting though. So, another milestone: the start of the orthodontic treatment. My crowns are all repaired with lab processed temps made to last about 2 years, until everything's straightened out.

I still have trouble imagining the orthodontic process though: teeth move? Roots travel about? Like a tree taking a walk through rocky soil?

Back to the Spot

2009-07-12T09:31:00.000-07:00

This is a photo of goldenrod leaves, cleaver seeds, and all that shimmer is spider web. It's very hard to get a camera to focus on spider web and spider. Here's another try -- if you look hard you might find the spider:

A few sit spot postings

2009-06-25T07:21:00.001-07:00

I've been busy, away, etc so haven't been to my sit spot much. But, here it is:

Thurs Jun 25. 9:45 AM. Been a month mostly of clouds mist and some rain. Today continues. But the clouds I hear are off the ocean and it's in the upper 60s, and everything smells good. Lots of birds this morning, maybe 6 different calls? Hard to sort out. The bedstraw and bittercress/plant X have gone to seed. The bedstraw climbs the bittercress. The bittercress, like celandine, produces long thin upright seedpods in ranks off a main stem, so it makes a half decent trellis. Its leaves are dying back. Some cleavers are flowering. The grass seems less present, the creeper, bittercress and bedstraw most prevalant in the immediate surroundings. The bedstraw has very cute little round seeds or seedpods that come in green pairs, covered with little white hairs or bristles. Each about 1/2 inch across. A little further away patches of goldenrod are hip high now, and a lone aster flower has appeared, as well as some fleabane further along. The quince is sending out new shoots of leaves, they're fuzzy to the touch, and its rather copious fruit is about 1.5 inches across now. A lone wisteria leaf pops out a few feet in front of me. A fly with a very black shiny body and butt lands. A spider is weaving on a bittercress stalk. Some tiny bugs are floating about. One mosquito. A steady drone from somewhere nearby. A sort of moth on the underside of a leaf. A few clunks from the bull frogs. Crickets.

Tues Jun 9th, Just went and stood for a few minutes in the drippy world. Wasn't actually raining. No mosquitos. No trillers. A few plunks from the bull frogs. Got 1/3 inch rain the previous night and rather misty and cool, in the 50s. Peonies blooming despite being choked by weeds. Also the late lilac. Some beech leaves are convex, some concave.

Mon Jun 8th. Went down in the dusk with long sleeves, gloves, mosquito net on head. Lots of mosquitos. Looked up and saw probably 100s of small flying insects silouhetted against the sky. Here and there big chubby insects were flying about, perhaps fireflies. Something else droned by. It's a 3 dimensional world! The sky was cloudy, high clouds, some cirrus. Small gusts of wind here and there. Looked up the triller frog: it's a grey tree frog. Another sunny hot day, mid to upper 70s.

Sit Spot Jun 7

2009-06-07T18:01:00.000-07:00

Sun June 7th, 8:30 pm. Within a minute of sitting down (less) 10 - 20 mosquitos appeared. Warm evening, cloudy. little wind, occasional light rain. After a sunny hot day. Friday it threatened rain all day and seemed to rain for a while in the evening, but it was another .1 inches to show for it. Fri eve I sat, and Sat at almost 10 pm in the dark, and now this evening. I retreat into the beech tree, climb up 8 or 10 feet and the mosquitos are gone for quite a while. I can see the hay, very high now, we venture into it rarely. Last time it was up to my shoulders in places. The pond is thick with water lilies, with patches of open water here and there, but small ones. Tonight there're no peepers, an occasional chuck or call of the bull frog, and mostly the strident ones, or trillers, I haven't discovered their name. The beech leaves are a very deep purple brown, papery to touch, and slightly concave as though to carry a little water. There are 1 inch patches of lichen on the trunk. On the way out I discover a vine is working its way up a stick into the lower branches: divided leaflets. Wisteria. (really). Where I usually sit the Virginia Creeper has formed a little forest with a canopy and, underneath, the wild basil here and there. The grass, cleavers, bedstraw, goldenrod and golden alexander surmount it. The grasses are moving through their flowering and setting seed, some of the heads have separated, some show anthers and will release a cloud of pollen if brushed. I've been contentedly sitting with the huge old dictionary and learning grass vocabulary before I go on identifying them: lemma. caespitate. obtuse. terete. awn. branching distally at nodes. viscid. distichous.

Great documentary

2009-05-31T08:52:00.001-07:00

This is a really good documentary, both visually pleasing and an excellent overview of some questions and answers facing our local farms. 48 minutes, well worth it.

Farms for the Future

Tick

2009-05-22T14:23:00.000-07:00

This shows a tick hanging on the end of a blade of grass. My camera isn't terribly good at close-ups. A little later s/he was crawling up my shirt.

Other than that, 2 interesting sitings: an electric blue dragon fly, and a six-leaved Virginia Creeper, right in front of me.

Cardamine Impatiens

2009-05-19T14:40:00.000-07:00

Plant X has a name: Cardamine impatiens. aka Narrowleaf Bittercress. It's cruciferous and a Brassica and it tastes pretty good, with a slight mustard tang. It's the auricles that give it away, little bits of extra leaf stem that stick out and partially surround the main stem.

The snake pictured in the last post has dots behind its head. A red-bellied snake. Storeria occipitomaculata. Now I know what a keeled scale is.

I'm distracted from my sit spot by the lower field, it's got all sorts of things going on and the dog loves it down there.

(Click to enlarge images)

Pond

2009-05-16T14:17:00.000-07:00

Question: what's growing in the pond? There seem to be a lot of little leaves as well as the bigger water lily leaves, so I took the canoe out to investigate. This fellow came with me.

As it turned out, I think it's all small round water lily leaves. I'm not sure why some are fully formed or even blooming, while others are little and round. A lot of them had disease of various sorts, speckles and such.

Great fun being out on the water, although I had to back into the wind most of the way back, which was flowing steadily from the south and would push my nose around too much if I faced it.

Golden Alexander

2009-05-15T16:04:00.001-07:00

Fri May 15, 6:15 pm. The quince is blooming, 5 white petals veined with pink, lots of stamens, a few insects buzzing around. The grass next to me is taller than from my finger tips to elbow. Beech leaves are thicker and bigger, and one shows some white stuff stuck to the bottom. A beaver is making its way leisurely towards the far shore, and some of the water lilies already have yellow buds showing. There may be something besides lily pads down there now, there seem to be smaller stationary things on the surface. A great blue heron is sitting on a stump over the water and sticks his head under his outstretched wing for a bit. Plant X has upright stems now, sturdy, watery green a bit like jewelweed, with ridges. The leaves are alternate, divided and then lobed, and have two little protrusions clasping the stem. The Golden Alexander has tiny yellow flowers now. 10 ft in front of me a patch of stems rise, I think of this as goldenrod but have never been sure of the connection between these leafy things and the later flower. Next to me there are two stems of the same; when did they appear? They're a foot high. Round, fuzzy stems, soft white fuzz, alternate leaves long and thin, with teeth, also a bit hairy. The quince smells sweet. It's in the low 70s, still, humid, sunny, a few clouds some wispy and a cumulus. Plenty of black flies, and a cloud of some small fly up near the maple, like 100 in a round cloud 2 feet across.

Nope, not wisteria...

2009-05-09T17:51:00.000-07:00

Fri May 1, 3 pm. Trace of rain, 60s, everything smells good. Black flies seem more numerous or are flying lower, maybe cause it's not windy and quite damp. Trees across the pond are full of greenish yellows now. Wisteria leaves are like little upturned fingers bunched together, getting ready to open.

Sat May 2 10 pm. Moon around it's zenith, halo'd by orange in a band of high clouds. Peepers. Something in the north pond making a rasping noise, about a second long. One star visible to the East, with an occasional blue twinkle in it. Parts of the big dipper visible. Two spots of activity in the leaves, one to the right, one to the left. A rustle here, a rustle there. Charged, semi-magical feeling.

Sun May 3, mid afternoon. The wisteria are opening, revealing 5 leaves. Virginia Creeper?! Plant X, up near the house where it's found a spot in gravel with no competition, has formed a stem which is round, about 1/4 inch thick, fleshy or watery, leaves clasp stem in alternate fashion, looks more familiar. Like something I've pulled up a lot later in the season, a 'despised' weed. My feelings are conflicted: "Oh, it's 'just' that?" (even though I don't know it's Latin or vulgar name). But down next to my sit spot it remains part of the whole. Off to the side I notice a fat black ant. Do they care for wet woodsy places? I look at the grass some more. There are 3 types I think. 2 have the 'velcro' trait -- run your finger one way and it catches on something too small to see, a bit uncomfortable. Seems to run along the edges and midpoint, one seems to have more of it than the other, or maybe it's older. The day has been densely cloudy and with slow sprinkles a lot of the time, upper 50s, quiet. There're a lot of smells, something smells a bit like licorice to me.

Wed May 6, late afternoon. My first mosquito. Black flies still about. Wisteria seed wrinkled. Got 1/2 of rain last night. Sun now. Monday I sat and there was a wind and I saw the beech leaves and branches moving in the wind and it was like a whole new wind language had emerged: wind in leaves, and the beech tree branches weren't reaching up so much as now they carried the weight of the leaves, the whole balance had shifted. The beech leaf color continues to amaze. There's yet another herb just sprouting, although how it's going to do amongst all these front runners I don't know. Charlie said one of my little herbs looked like a young aster, and were the underside of the leaves purple, and, lo and behold, they were. Just the bottom leaves. I'd looked at that plant a number of times and never flipped the leaf up.

Sat May 9, dusk. All of a sudden it's a race to the top. The average height of everything growing around me -- grass, bedstraw, Virginia creeper, golden alexander -- is 9 inches with some things a foot tall. The grass has really bolted in the last few days, round stems with leaves sticking off them. And then the maple trees are suddenly there in a whole new way, so sure of themselves with their leaves almost full, moving in the strong, damp breeze. Cloudy again -- we've had another .8 inches of rain with some sunny breaks here and there. Something keeps flying by trilling, do bats sing? Kind of like the duck sounds but it's moving back and forth. The peepers, the real soprano ones, are a steady noise but the ear is drawn to another rythmic trill, this one more of an alto. Near me something cheeps loudly, I suspect a lost amphibian. A few last bird calls; one very melodious, another blackbird chirp, then silence. The beech is fuller but quieter tonight compared to the maples. The maple to the North towers over me, I realize the drip line from the top leaves, 50 or 60 feet up, almost reaches me. A few rattles in the dead ground leaves here and there. The pond has some rippled spots, some smooth, the smooth lee seems to run along the East shore so perhaps the wind is predominantly east? The leaves all around are moving in various eddies of air, definite wind but not steady. And the pond is broken here and there by the water lily leaves now. Even Plant X has bolted, now it has upward reaching stems and the leaves are reaching up. I have about six black fly bites and a touch of poison ivy rash from the last week, but tonight no bugs find me. Oh, and the quince is full of beautiful pink buds, little conical spiral patterns with the 5 calyx arranged just so around them.

Brown thrasher

2009-05-03T09:26:00.001-07:00

First time I ever see this fellow (or gal).

April 30

2009-04-30T16:55:00.000-07:00

Thu Apr 30, 4:30 PM. 60s. pond ruffled, partly cloudy, steady wind from the south. Beech tree has popped a lot of leaves, they seem to emerge in 3s, a bit fuzzy, a gorgeous shade of, hmm, what is that color? Brownish red? Maple and hickory have little leaves too. And all around me, densely under the beech but everywhere, a sugar maple forest, mostly 3 to 6 inches high, reveals itself. Wow. Left alone this would soon be a dense stand of maples. How long do trees take to grow? Right next to the beech trunk are two maples about 4 feet high. No baby beeches that I can see. The wisteria begins its summer with a quick, 2 inch growth topped by still tightly clustered leaves. My herbs, or forbs (new word!) have grown a bit, I'm pretty sure 3x3 is golden alexander. Yes, there's my note from last year, found out in the field: "Zizia aurea. tiny yellow flowers in flat-topped cluster, leaves are divided w/ varying #s of toothed lobes. Parsley or carrot family." It's the varying lobes that gives it away. It's hard to practice looking straight ahead, using peripheral vision, because the black flies immediately appear in my face. If I look down either they leave or I don't see them, I'm not sure which. They don't really bite, they like to float around and then buzz in and bounce off, and then somehow they always bite but you only notice it the next day. If one does land and you reach up to touch it most of the time you find it rolled under your fingertip, instead of flying off like a mosquito. A tick appears on my hand. The red-wings, grackles etc are quiet at the moment. I've seen them either wrestling or mating in the last few days, I suppose they're working out their territories now. Quite the community. A duck flies in, making a high sound, I catch it in the binoculars and see a line of white on its brown wings, but when it lands I cant make out much detail. Then I notice a mallard standing on a tussock of grass: bright orange feet! Who knew?

Growth

2009-04-27T18:12:00.000-07:00

Mon Apr 27, 6:30 PM. 80 degrees, everything growing. dead spider husk on a wisteria stem. glory flowers faded into round beach ball black seed pod. fertile? rustling. beech buds fatter. downy pecking on beech tree, belly on a branch. white lozenge on its back, red cap somewhat divided, yellowish whitish beak, claws gripping the branch, pecking next to a bud. far side of beech (SE) open leaves, red rounded oddly large next to all those weeks of closed buds. wisteria bud gone green. quince leaves 1/2 inch. lower field greening. 3 x 3 plant getting established. palm tree plant separating its leaves -- butter n eggs? cleavers: like bedstraw but smaller, only 6 leaves in a whorl usually, spiny hairs along the stem edges and leaf edges that catch. Grass forming new shoots that clasp the old ones. I take off my Tevas: barefoot for the first time. Red wings rule this pond, they and the grackles are everywhere, and a passing hawk is harrassed as it passes by.

Crescent moon night

2009-04-26T18:03:00.001-07:00

Sun Apr 26, 8:30 PM. Peepers Really Loud, vaguely reminiscent of a needle screech on a record. Sort of a high, rich, vaguely irritating noise. One owl hoot, from afar. Rustling in the leaves around, one soft snap. Grass clumps dark, dead leaves lighter. Hint of another soprano call a little below the peepers'. Clouds almost to the zenith. Little wind. No insects to be noticed; I expected mosquitos as the day hit 84. Probably low 70s now. After a while a breeze pops up, then a gust, then a bigger gust, creating a sense that something's about to happen. The smells these carry are rich, hummus and moisture and plant breath, like the tropical room at the Brooklyn conservatory. I focus on relaxing my eyes, ears, self to take in whatever offers itself; it's beautiful but almost too much. Up at the zenith the big dipper presents itself, but the north star is hidden. On the way back I find a very very thin crescent moon resting in the treeline to the northwest.

Blue heron day

2009-04-25T05:03:00.000-07:00

Sat Apr 25. 7 AM. Light Eastern sun, not too warm. Hardly any wind, just a small ruffled spot on the pond near the alders. In the light one can see lots of single spider webs, glinting. And lots of insects, the living world gone three dimensional, every cubic yard of air has 2 or 3 or more floating in it. The grass is growing in clumps, around the clumps the dead leaves in troughs. Two more new plants: one a little palm tree of sorts, ie a stem with a clump of leaves at the top, although close exam shows 3 leaves tiny in a whorl near the bottom. These are 1/8-1/4 little ones, entire,a grey green maybe a little fleshy. And something else thus far just the two first leaves, roundish,also 1/8 inch. The bedstraw is making a bid for height. It has 8 leaves in a whorl, looking proud. The glory in front of me seems bigger and longer lasting than the others; it was the first, too, does it appreciate my contemplation? I appreciate its violet blue self. I watch a blue jay: big bird. It's pecking at something high on a branch. A blue heron flies the length of the pond, south to north: that's a really big bird. Wingspan 6 feet? Tina (the female titmouse). The red-wings. Chortles: turkeys? Or the neighbours chickens? I think turkeys. We had another .3 inches of rain, then yesterday it hit 70.

Hair-do bug

2009-04-22T05:50:00.000-07:00

We've had a lot of these lately; kind of like mosquitos but they have these fuzzy antennae so we're calling them 'hair-do bugs'.

sit spot notes -- Tues Apr 21, 7:30 PM. Rain, 50s, light wind. Cloudy. The pond an intense black, the glories violet petals glow, the woods across the pond a melting of black, red, shades of grey and green, the daffies a smear of yellow white. Two geese land, crying, splashing on the water. Peepers loud, one other sound, the steady cheep every second or so. Water falling over dam. Hands cupped behind ears, mouth open: new sound. Water? Static? It goes away when I put my hands down. Seems to come from the south: probably water.

Taurus

2009-04-20T07:11:00.000-07:00

Sun Apr 19, 9 PM. Clouds part way up but after about 45 degrees you can see the stars, big dipper at about 12:30 to the North star. Peepers loud and steady and soprano. Rustling in the leaves, slight. 40s. No moon, but the clouds reflect quite a bit of light and one can make things out. Neighbour's dog letting out high, short yips periodically.

Mon Apr 20, 9:30 AM. The wisteria have pushed out tiny, red-pink buds that look like tongue tips. I find it disconcerting: the Advance of the Wisteria begins. Dormancy broken. The glories are withering. The quince has feathery greenish buds now. The forsythia is 90% in bloom. Some of the shrubs are budding with small leaves, including the fragrant white-flowered one next to the forsythia. Grass is higher, 5 or 6 inches, and one type is a much different green, more blue in it I guess. The pond is rippled to the north now, and smoother to the south, the ripples are running steadily north, and on the smooth part from time to time a patch of ripples appears as if by magic, revealing tiny wind gusts strong enough to disturb water. The neighbour across the pond is busy in the nw corner of his lawn, building a patch of something. I stiffen as I see him walk into what I think of as "my" woods. Chickadee, red-wing blackbird. One of the later flies up the field into the maple, a blur of red and black. A titmouse lands in the beech: the 2nd bird in the beech. A few errant bugs. Cloudy, just enough wind to move the puschkinia a little. Upper 40s. And a spider! Tiny, with an orange-red body and a black head, building a web amongst grass stems. What will it catch?

Pushkinia

2009-04-17T17:26:00.000-07:00

Tues Apr 14 (Day 31). 6:30 PM. Sparrow rustling on the ground, in the leaves past the forsythia. low 50s, more cloudy than not, little wind. pond rippled on east side. duck lands, drags its feet for 10 ft or so. 2 geese fly the length of the pond, n to s. blackbirds. something behind me, a rustle, bird I'd say. a gnat or such. leaves a shade of copper brown that I could contemplate forever, almost, like a memory of a wood floor and a place of peace. Chionodoxa look tired, numerous. Puschkinia look fine. A few forsythia flowers open. Unknown bush near forsy. w/ white 4 petalled numerous flours, yellow stamen, dark base, heavenly scent, alternate leaf scars, light tan bark, fibrous in places. Name 5 things about a plant -- I take the mint like one: leaves approx triangle shaped, end near the stem is more or less flat, one side very slightly lower than the other. A dark green, underneath reddish, stem burgundy red, hairy. leaf about 1/2 inch square. opposite, very slightly wavy edges. 3 patches within arms length, 1 is the size of my hand with maybe 6 stems, 2 are more like 3 in square, it may have runners. I'm hesitant to dig around and disturb stuff. The leaves, in pairs, are at right angles to the pair before so it's a sort of cross effect, all crowded pretty close at this stage. Color: http://www.realcolorwheel.com/tubecolors.htm 2nd in on section 30.

Wed Apr 15. 4 PM. Windy and dry. Sunny, just some long thin clouds, wispy. The pond is smooth on the far side today. Two diving ducks, probably h.m. Lots of Glories, 20 in a 4 inch swath straight east maybe 25 ft. And a few bugs! A bee or a fly is visiting the glories one by one. 50s, would be hot but for the steady cold wind. Wandering around earlier I have to say Plant X is very common. Using the hand lens I look a bit more at the possible mint. Seen this way the leaves remind me of African violets, those little white kind of fuzzy hairs. On the stem they're a bit curly, possibly more numerous along the edges and bases of stems but everywhere, less numerous further down the stem, perhaps as it elongates they will space out a lot. They too curl a bit, dont look very stiff, come straight up but then some curl. The leaf stems clasp the main stem a bit, forming a slight ridge across it, lightly joined. And I think I find a dry flower stem, 4 sided, a few hairs, the few remaining dry flowers are irregular. I'll try and take a picture later. I crush one small leaf but the smell is faint.

Fri Apr 17. 6 PM. Warm -- 60s. Sunny, light breeze, wispy clouds. Black flies arrive, settling on my face and leaving again, just a few land, one tries to crawl into my eye. A bird is calling in the hickories, and I crane my neck and can just make it out, blackbird of some sort, but the cry might be a cowbird. Later 4 birds, no, 5, arrive and land in the beech tree -- first birds in the beech tree! They dont care about me, they are black but smaller than the red-wings, 3 black and 2 brown tan, one calls and makes a display just like the red-wings do, but the call is more musical, flutish, at the beginning, and I think I can make out the brown heads of cowbirds. A second displays. The first is edging toward the female. No wonder they don't care about me. Suddenly they all skirmish and fly off, except one who sits about for a while, displays once, then leaves. There are more pushkinia today, maybe 50 to 100 in sight, on top of the 100s of chionodoxa. The daffies here aren't quite open yet. The other plants looks a little bigger, and the quince buds have a slightly feathery aspect. Near the maple, 20 feet up or so, a swarm of bugs moves around in that swarm way that seems coordinated. Maybe the same ones I saw on a window before coming down, like a mosquito, at least the way the feet looked, with similar wings, but amazing little furry antennae, like a strange hairdo almost. The two beavers are making their way leisurely down the pond, north to south, diving from time to time. I missed coming out yesterday, like not taking a shower or something.

sit spot day 30

2009-04-13T17:40:00.000-07:00

Mon Apr 13 (Day 30). 10:30 AM. Last day of the official challenge. Windy and cold, got down below freezing again last night. The pond has waves, the troughs run a foot or two apart, everything headed north to south. Some of them have little white caps. First time all month. A lone swallow skims over them. 2 geese are floating near a mallard, they take off and land in the field. A bird is singing a steady 'peter peter peter'. I cant remember which one does that, but amazingly (given how elusive the songbirds have been), I find it by eye and then with the binoculars. It's the male titmouse, with the cute little black beak, crest, grey back, orange red under the wings, white belly. Behind it a blackbird fluffs and chirps. I catch a glimpse of a blue jay. I've brought my camera and settle down to photograph all my plants, all around my spot short and long range, my spot itself. I find what I suspect is a wisteria seed, flat and about 1/2 inch across, chestnut brown, thin. Maybe see an insect out of the corner of my eye, maybe not.

Thanks be to the creators of this challenge, and to the birds, beasts, insects, reptiles, plants, winds, waters, earth, rocks, stars, sun and moon, humans and their machines.

Sit spot Day 29

2009-04-12T10:37:00.000-07:00

Sun Apr 12 (Day 29). 10:30 AM. Windy and cold, just over freezing. Cumulus clouds, some big, some in tatters. The beech tree leaf is rattling when I arrive -- there's one that has a particular rattle at the right wind speed. Some dead leaves on the ground are rising and falling in the wind, but not scudding about. Only once or twice does a really big gust come through, roaring in the tree tops. But the pond has small waves over all of it, running south, reflecting blue sky or cloud light. Using my binoculars for a change I see a couple of pairs of ducks, mallards and another, and white specks all over the pond. What's shedding white specks? I'd have to go closer to find out. The Glory flowers (Chionodoxa) are looking a bit tired with all that rain and cold. But there's a white variant, or another small white flower, one here, one there, and a clump in one place. Later I look at one more closely and it has blue lines on each petal, down the middle. And back at the house I find it in a book: Puschkinia scilloides var. libanotica, known as Puschkinia. Another Turkish native. The plants around me are growing slowly, it at all. Plant X doesn't seem to have changed much at all, nor the bedstraw. One of the new ones has such thin, soft fuzzy leaves -- I count 7 now, all from the same base -- I keep stroking it. I turn around for a change and find a dandelion, and another new one with a stem about 3/4 of an inch then an oblong, entire leaf about 3/4 of an inch. That's a lot of plants growing within arms reach. I wonder if I'll get to know all their names. I look at the dead stalks around again, there are mainly two in the long round category, one is hollow, one not, and the leaf scar pattern is different on each. Not much bird activity, saw one sparrow on the way down, and another day with no evident insects.

Sit Spot Day 27 and 28

2009-04-11T18:49:00.001-07:00

Fri Apr 10 (Day 27). 9 PM. Dark and rainy. Peepers Very Loud. Around 60. Light wind, steady light rain. Faint bands of color: field, pond, woods - woods a softer black than pond. Smell of water and dirt, not too strong. Nothing but peepers, and all along the pond, not just at the far end. Steady pitter patter of rain. We dont lack rain here. We get rain, then sun, then rain, usually fairly well distributed. What do we lack? Ground that isn't stony? Rain on my face feels good, gentle. I'm not cold really. Seems crazy to come outside in dark and wet but it's fine, really.

Sat Apr 11 (Day 28). 4:40. I haven't been timing my sits but today I do as I'm due in for an early dinner. 10 min passes very quickly. I've hardly settled down. I linger a few more minutes. Still overcast, not raining at the moment. Pond is its dark, calm self with just a little riffle near the island, and a few patterns that come and go. Maple tops are red but there seems a little orange mixed in. Peepers are silent, blackbirds are calling. The Glory flowers are hanging down. A few shoots have white flowers on them, not open, probably a white variant but when they open I'll check. It's 39 degrees. Two ducks take wing, fly across the pond, and settle down again. No apparent reason. Two others are diving, under as often as up. The swallows are back again, swooping and turning over the pond, maybe 30. The pond reflects them back.

Sit Spot Day 26

2009-04-09T15:50:00.000-07:00

Thur Apr 9 (Day 26). My blue flower has been ID'd, thanks to Charlie at the Sit Spot Forum: Chionodoxa forbesii, Glory of the Snow. Alpine plant from Turkey, Crete and Cyprus. And that protruding white part is called the perianth.

5:25 PM. 60 degrees. No coat! Cumulus clouds, not too thick, medium frequent, distinct bottom plane. Light to dark blue sky, slight breeze, a few ripples on the pond but lots of smooth too. As I settle I see 7 blackbirds arrive in the maple, and I admire my field of Chionodoxa and listen to a long, detailed concert from the blackbirds. With a background of peepers, mostly at the far end of the pond where it's swampier. Haven't heard the wood frogs since those first few nights. And, subtle but definite, things are moving the leaves. For some reason I dont think it's the wind. Plants growing? Insect? Worm? Just a slight sound here, then there, like something shifting. I count 16 Chionodoxa within reach and probably 100 or more within sight. A couple of turkey vultures overhead, a duck or two flies by. Possibly the slap of the beaver. My plant with the slit leaf now has leaves, 2 more have appeared in the currently popular basal rosette arrangement. I consider the grass, which I tend to ignore as being too, um, related to a civilized era of mown lawn. Plus I've never studied grasses much, except one day last year in the field. A clump, green shoots, parallel veins, pointed tip. 3 to 4 inches long so far, 1/8 inch wide. All to be expected. Then, there it is, another kind. The one has a distinct vein down the middle, is maybe 1/4 inch wide, comes from more of a sheath at the bottom, and is a different green, maybe a touch of white mixed in, less bright/dark. I would call the later a hay field grass and the former a lawn grass. Mostly what I see around me is the clump type. Soon there will be a full moon coming up. No insects within sight, although earlier I saw things crawling in the field.

Sit Spot Day 25

2009-04-08T18:37:00.000-07:00

Wed Apr 8 (Day 25). 7:00 PM. Settle down in the dusk and look again at the little blue/purple flowers. The base of the petal on the inside is white, and then there's a little white protuberance with the yellow stamens showing. My little plant with the odd little slits on the edge of the leaf is quite red/purple on the underside. It's still just a lone, 1 inch long leaf. I say hello to a few other plants and then glance up and realize there's a yellow moon peeking around the beech tree, caught in the hemlock. Enchanting. I shift in my little scuffed spot to face it. Tinker's right, I've made a little trail to my spot and all the leaves are broken into bits where my legs rest, and nothing's growing there really, and that's just from me sitting no more than 1/2 hr a day for a few weeks. I really appreciate how all around the leaves and grass and vines and other plants are loosely arranged, with air pockets and never a foot fall, such that the dead leaves remain intact, and the plants can come up slowly in little sheltered nooks. The moon seems way South. It's about 2 fingers high, and seems about midway between east and south. The peepers are a steady high cacophony, and something else is making a single tone, over and over, maybe a second long, a B flat I'm guessing. The usual ducks pass overhead, 3 this time. An occasional blackbird calls, and there are various twitterings. There's so much to know out here, sounds and sights and wind directions and patterns on the pond -- this morning there were wild gusts in patches here and there.

Sit Spot Day 24

2009-04-07T18:43:00.000-07:00

Tues Apr 7 (Day 24). 5:45 PM. Cold day, never really got over 40, and I was resistant to go out. Clouds medium heavy but thinner at the zenith, and after 20 min the sun actually came out, just touching my head before disappearing behind the house. Pond mildly ripply. 2 blackbirds in the maple, making their usual longer call but sounding a little dispirited, sort of flat. Beaver nosing slowly through the water near the island, brief glimpse of his torso before he dives. I look at my purple flower, having checked Newcomb's Wildflower Guide and seen that if the petals have bristles on the tips then it's a "blue-eyed grass", although that says "late spring, early summer". But it's the only 6 petalled, blue, basal leaves only flower in the book. All the same, no bristle. Deep purple, 3 to 5 flowers in a raceme, flower stalk reddish, the yellow in the middle seems to be the stamens, the leaves are shorter than the flower stalk, 2-3 inches long, 1/4 inch wide if flattened but the two edges of the long, narrow, entire leaf curl toward each other,meeting at the tip, looks like a good system to catch water. There're a lot coming up now. There's also another new plant, probably a plantain, already over 2 inches long little clump of leaves all growing from the same spot, a "basal rosette" slightly hairy, distinct vein down the middle. So much growing here! Would that I had that many edibles coming up in a garden! Meanwhile, I glance back at the pond and receive my Surprise of the Day: a flock of 20 or 30 swallows. Swooping and gliding over the pond in the sun, flashing white on one side, dark on the other, back and forth, occasionally shifting over the field, together and apart. Brings back hot August summers, my mother sharing my delight at the swooping birds, late afternoon, while she goes about making dinner. So much for staying present...

Sit Spot Days 22 and 23

2009-04-06T15:30:00.000-07:00

Sun Apr 5 (Day 22). 10:30 PM. Chilly night, stars out. Big Dipper has moved up to the top branches of the maple, and the orange/white star that was on the horizon is caught in the beech. The tail of the Big Dipper points to that star. The moon is fuller, over my right shoulder and my left knee casts a sharp shadow. Just after I sit I hear a slap on the water near the beaver dam. Beaver tail slap. Did it notice me all the way up the hill? A minute or two later it is repeated. On the other hand, if it's not me triggering the alarm, what is? I wonder if a coyote would take an interest in me. Woodcock peeping off and on. Peepers constant. A bit later, from the other end of the pond, more slapping. Maybe they do it for fun. Must feel good. This night is mistier, and not as darkly magical as the other night. A bird is twittering in the dark.

Mon Apr 6 (Day 23). 5:30 PM. Downpour. Steady, heavy rain. lower 40s. I take a large umbrella and it feels awkward. I stare at the red trees across the pond through the rain, which is marching in great columns down the pond. But first I lean down and greet my purple flower, which has opened: 6 petals and a yellow center, which sticks out a bit. So it's not a 'bluet', which has four petals. I think I liked that word, I've been using it for these little flowers for a few years. It looks familiar, like I've looked it up before. The rain is noisy on my umbrella and everywhere else. No peepers, no birds, no insects, no water fowl. Just heavy rain. I ponder the grass. There really is a lot of it, this was field and not long ago. All the other plants are more recent invaders. It all looks similar, soon I'll learn a bit about grasses and give it a name. I ponder the shades of green around me, dominated by the grass. Notice another shoot at maybe 6 feet, because it's a different shade of green. Notice my 3 leaved strawberry like plant, the leaves coming from the base look like what I think of as eglantier, the wild rose that is pretty aggressive around here, taking up residence in many places and being unpleasantly prickly. These are just a few little leaflets, an inch or two long, but I bet that's what it is. The water is ponding in the track in front of me, the 'lower driveway' as we call it. I wonder where the water goes, and tune in, and look at the beech, where the leaves are thicker underneath, and all the seedling maples are growing, and it's as though they say to me: we capture water. We are the water storers. Reminds me that the neighbour across the way complained this morning how their lower lawn is soggier since the new houses were built across the road, up the hill from their land. We capture rain. The rain is still marching down the pond, looking purposeful.

Sit Spot Day 21

2009-04-04T07:06:00.000-07:00

Sat Apr 4 (Day 21). 9:00 AM. Upper 40s, overcast with the bottoms of thick cumulus clouds showing, not raining, winds N/NE/NW, gusty, sometimes loud in the trees. At one point no wind where I sat but loud across the pond, pine trees swaying over there. Pond rippled, no water fowl in sight. New sound: human footsteps, walker on the road. Probably sneakers. Rythmic, 2-footed, fairly fast. My purple flower plant now has 3 or 4 buds and a companion next to it. Try my drawing, quick sketch of each of the plants close by. Then draw a circle representing about an arms reach around me, maybe 2 feet, letter each plant and put letters in the circle to represent their location. The "C" are for the wisteria shoots and they seem innumerable, all around. There's a nother patch of my flower coming up to the right, maybe 8 shoots; 2 samples of what might be a mint; maybe 15 spots where bedstraw is showing; 1 example of the 3 leaved long stalked thing; maybe 10 of Plant X on two sides but not on the other, 1 of my little plant with the slits on the leaves, and, what's that: a new plant! At first it looks boring, maybe 4 or 5 little toothed leaves, dusty green, could be anything, but then I investigate and find it runs along on a hairy little round stem, with opposite leaves, either another vine or a trailing plant, this one about 8 inches, then reappears for another 6 or 8 inches. reddish on the bottom of the leaves and they're a little hairy too. Complete with a 2" long worm crawling around on it. It occurs to me I'm ignoring the grass. And that it's time to go eat breakfast. Walking up I see the first open daffodil.

Sit Spot Day 20

2009-04-03T15:36:00.000-07:00

Fri Apr 3 (Day 20). 5:45 PM. Been raining all day, and before I go out it's a downpour so I put on rain pants and top. 50s. Rain stops when I get out, although I dont realize it immediately. Sky an even white. I stare at the pond, which is in its dark, reflective mood -- every tree perfectly reflected. The red maples have trunks covered in lichen, whitish green in the rain, and the tops are a glowing red -- soon they'll flower if they haven't yet. The peepers are steady. Everything is growing now. The purple blue flower has two buds now and they should open soon. A small fly lands on me, back section striped and about 4 mm long, front hunched with two little attenae, feet like a mosquito's. It walks on my hand a bit and doesn't bite. Mostly it keeps tumbling to its side maybe trying to dry itself a bit. I pick up a broken stick to look at the pattern on it and find 3 worms, about 1 mm wide and an inch long. One raises its tip up 1/4 inch and weaves around in a circle looking for something to touch I presume. The stick is about 1/2 of an inch across, the bark fibrous where it broke and in the middle a slim rod of pith. I wonder where it came from; I know elder and sumac have pith, I wonder what else. This is quite slim. Something is moving on the pond again, like a small insect or snake. More round ripples but it could be stray raindrops. Several birds around, one call might be a robin. The field is showing green under the yellow; also one spot along the far edge of the pond.

Sit Spot Day 19

2009-04-02T18:33:00.000-07:00

Thurs April 2 (Day 19). 3:30 PM. Warm today, in the 60s, with just the lightest breeze from the south, a bit hazy. Lots of plant growth. Besides Plant X, which I find everywhere these days, there were 5? 6? other herbs coming up, not including the grass. At this stage the grass all looks similar to me. My little purple blue flower is being joined by more. There's another patch of the dark green little plant with opposite, non-toothed, slightly hairy, lightly pointed leaves, very dark green. It has a square stem, so perhaps its a mint. There's the bedstraw, which has 7 to 9 little leaves in whorls around a square stem, and is also very common. There's the one sprouting from a fairly substantial (1/4 inch) base, it has one older leaf that is really 3 leaves, lobed and toothed, at the end of about a 4 inch stalk, and then more little ones coming. There's something over near the daffies that looks like a begonia leaf. There's the cute little leaf about an inch long, oval, medium green, that has teeth so small they look like 3 little slits on each side. I saw something in the pond, neither bird nor beaver, possible snake or turtle or insect -- I'm too far to tell really, it was just notable. Actually saw 2 or 3 swimming things like that. Noticed the ducks flapping up water again, possibly at each other. The field is still a lovely yellowish straw color, probably not for long. The lower field (wetter ground) is a lighter yellow and the grass there has thicker leaves. Contemplated a long dead stalk (about 2 ft long) which I might have called a grass except it has little leaf scars along it, alternate but not in one plane. Round about the stem, every 3 inches or so. A bit rough. At the bottom it shreds into fibers a bit, but not very strong ones. May have pith; not hollow at any rate. See a few bugs, but nothing too close. The folks putting a roof on the new house across the pond were pounding away and playing a radio -- a new sound in my sits. The peepers were active but not dominating at that time of day -- later at dusk they were a pure, jewelled chorus. My camera has gone to Hong Kong with Michele, so I may have to try my hand at drawing. I enjoy just sitting there, but I was tempted to play with my pastels today and capture the shades of yellow, brown and green. Today was about looking a lot at the new plants and colors, less about shifting from my usual "civilized human" state into that nature state with its own time.

Plant X

2009-04-01T12:56:00.000-07:00

When crushed, smells like a tasty root, kind of crisp and earthy.

Sit spot day 18

2009-04-01T12:51:00.001-07:00

Thats a shot of recent beaver activity. Glad they're back and fixed the dam up!

Wed April 1 (Day 18). 2:30 PM. Lightly overcast, with a steady light wind from the South very similar to last night's. Slightly mundane compared to the stars of night. A blackbird 'checking' at me, then later giving way to other sounds. Check ending with whistle, for example. Another bird, calling back and forth, then a robin's call. Splashing in the pond. Seemed to be a duck. A crow calls out, flying by, the first I see from this spot. Two more join it and they're gone. I catch myself squinting again. This isn't about glasses, this is habit. I think, stare and squint a bit. When I notice I relax and go 'round eyed' and open my awareness again. Then I notice I've closed my eyes and scrunched them up tight, and dont want to open them, so I let them scrunch for a while. Also I'm considering whether I can be aware of more than one sense at once. I listen hard. Then try to listen soft. Then realize it's cold out, although it's in the 40s its a damp chill. After a bit I examine Plant X, and decide it doesn't grow on a runner, each plant is individual, with roots followed by a stem followed by a node that looks like its wrapped around with string a bit, and then a whorl of leaves, quite a few. Divided leaves, or stems with lobed leaves, depending how you look at it. I pick up a whitened dead maple leaf to bring and examine for mildew and there, revealed, a purple flower bud. Beautiful. I know from previous years the beech tree has a blanket of blue flowers underneath it, this must be one of the first. It's smaller than a crocus bud. We'll see in a few days! No bugs today. Later the maple leaf, under a stereo microscope, shows nothing remarkable. Just whitened.

Moss

2009-03-31T18:24:00.002-07:00

Sit spot day 17

2009-03-31T18:24:00.001-07:00

Tues Mar 31 (Day 17). 8 PM. End of dusk. A star, low in the east, twinkling white and then orange, back and forth. 3 more stars, one above the other, in a curve that makes me think of a pick. After a while, some more above them and then I realize it's the Big Dipper, standing on its end. So there, in the maple, is the North Star. I try to fix it to remember in daylight, between two branches. High, over my right shoulder, the moon, a fat crescent. Stars. A steady gentle wind on my right cheek: from the south. This morning in the field it was strong from the North. Always changing around here. The pond is dark on the southern half, then rippled. A goose squawk or two. Steady peepers. It's in the low 40s, and the pure higher tones are mostly absent. Mostly a steady high patter, lots of them, different than last night. I only hear the wood frogs (Charlie was right; 'quackers' are wood frogs) a few times. A rustling like insect wings; then I identify as the sound one of the beech leaves makes in the wind. No sign of the ground moving, but then I have trouble sitting still long as I keep turning to see more stars. I have a moon shadow. I stand and face the moon and see how it's surrounded by 4 stars in a diamond, and to the right are 3 more in a right angle, and to the left 3 -- that's Orion's belt. It's a whole other world, and immense, and full of geometry, and I want to be a mage, not a scientist.

Sit Spot days 14 to 16

2009-03-30T18:06:00.000-07:00

Sat Mar 28 (Day 14). 5:30 PM. Hazy cloud coverage, faint blue sky at the zenith. No shadows. Pond has enough ripples over much of it to reflect the white light from the sky. Wind is slight -- grass stalks moving but rarely a leaf. Earlier it was gusting a little from the south. Cloud of small flying creatures rising and falling above my head -- when I stand up I'm in their midst but sitting down occasionally two drift into sight. They don't land. The line of daffodils has gotten taller. Examining the ground I find that within a fingerlength either way there are 7 vines running north south, and 4 running east west. Ranging from about 2mm to 7 mm thick. There's a wisteria seedpod, or rather half of one, empty of its two seeds, dried out, at my feet. Its wonderfully velvety on the outer shell. Twisted nicely -- does it twist itself or twist as it dries out, to spring the seeds? White inner layer. Pointed at either end. There are stands of low greens under the beech, and I saw a small furry 2 inch set of leaves which looked like the beginning of some mullein. Once I settle in I want to sit and sit and not think too much, just listen to the totality of it all.

Sun Mar 29 (Day 15) 9:30 PM. Dark. Not totally. Two spots of greenish light on the Eastern Horizon, and another glow from the North. Raining lightly. Rained off and on all day, rarely heavily. Dripping from the trees -- there are no leaves, so the branches must collect and drip water. Mist against my face. Peepers. I find three sounds: from our pond, the soprano steady cheep that always sounds like jewels to me, like light through gems. Same direction, a longer, slightly lower, more occasional musical note. The former are maybe 1/4 second over and over, the later maybe 1 second then 3 sec pause then again, and there are only a few. To the right, the more hillocky pond across the road, steady short sounds more like a plucked rubber band or a duck's quack. Lots of them. When a car goes by these shut up for a bit. The sky is flashing every 20 or 30 seconds, in all directions, faintly perceptible so it might be my eyes but I don't think so. Mysterious, no sound of thunder, must be distant or very high. It's cold. The trees seem solemn, or ominous, in their height and the sense that they are used to wet cold nights, it is their world half the time and we don't even see it as a rule.

Mon Mar 30 (Day 16) 4 PM. Rain coming to an end, dryer west wind starting to blow, but still cloudy. Wind sounding in the trees. Along with a few blackbird checks and some complaints from the red-bellied woodpecker, directed at the blackbird I think. A pile of fresh scat, round slightly flattened balls about 1/4 inch across, a pile of maybe 15, a new version of what I've noticed before, looks like straw in them but I'm not picking these apart right now. I leave my glasses on for a change and contemplate the high pine tree across the way, with it's flat tiers of greenery. And all along the far shore the bushes are dense, many with a rounded shape. The pond has a pretty strong ripple pattern running to the SE, and again it looks like pollen along the far edge. But the hardwoods aren't flowering, nor the juniper that I've looked at. Maybe the pines? The patch of greenery under the beech seems to be daffodils. They're already sending up flower heads. None of the plants right where I sit seem much bigger. The buds on the quince have maybe just a touch more fuzz at the tips. And the dead leaves, some are wet and turning black, others quite close to white. The variation is striking, but I don't really know what the pattern means.

Sit Spot day 13

2009-03-27T16:54:00.001-07:00

Fri Mar 27 (Day 13). 7 PM, dusk. Today I almost skipped it. But I went down for a bit. I think we hit 60 degrees today and it was sunny, and earlier in the field I thought the grass had sent out an awful lot of 4 inch spikes. But my ground looked much the same, the leaves had pretty much dried out from last nights rain (only a quarter inch) and the few growing things looked much the same size. The pond was dark black and smooth. The big news, which I was already starting to forget, is that the peepers have started. Last night I heard one before I went to sleep, off and on, and now there are too many to count. There's more than one song or sound. The blackbirds were out and about again -- I guess they dont like the rain. A pair of ducks flew overhead just like last night. Some other birds came and went on the pond. Everything smelled good, like wet damp evening smell. The grass was a lovely shade of yellow, then faded with the light. The evergreens across the pond looked like they were solemnly presiding over the end of their winter tenure, reflected in the water. Could still hear the streams. Saw two bugs fly by, one like a black fly size, one bigger. Then I heard a woodcock! Thanks to deerwoman I've learned what they sound like. Right there in the field at the other end. And for the first time I heard ever so slight rustlings in the leaves near me, maybe 6 or 8 feet away. Slight, like an insect? Finally my back got tired and I thought I'd go, so I leaned over about a foot above the ground in front of me to take a last look at things, and then the ground moved next to my foot. The whole carpet of leaves/grass etc just up and moved like a blanket does when someone's under it. I froze and considered whether I wanted some creature to emerge and find my face a foot from it's. Then slowly sat up a bit. It moved around a bit, no hurry, a rising here and there, moving slowly underneath the carpet and in about 5 minutes ending up a foot away from me. Something else sounded like it was engaged in a similar activity about 4 feet off my left shoulder. Probably not a snake unless that was it's head going up and down. I never saw anything directly, and slipped away hoping I was stepping too hard on anyone.

Sit Spot day 12

2009-03-26T18:15:00.001-07:00

That's the mossy lilac, a few days ago.

Thurs Mar 26 (Day 12). 6:45 PM, almost sunset. There's 1/4 of a hickory nut outer shell right in front of my spot. How can I go 12 days before I notice something that big? Today it clouded up and started sprinkling. What a relief to find the local dead leaves nicely plastered down and lying still. Just the stalks of grass and the tips of the hemlock branches were moving in a light breeze from the south. I can hear the water in the local streams when the wind calms down, I think mostly the far side of the neighbours' swamp where it narrows and runs through a break in the old beaver dam there. I noticed a wisteria gone traveling. Most of them come up 6 or 8 inches, with 2 - 4 joints where the buds are and there they are, sturdy. But now and again one takes off, this one had a thinner stem running six feet off in search of? East, towards the dominant sun source. I saw one next to the beech tree that was classic: straight as an arrow, close to the ground, no beginning or end in sight. I see some virginia creeper vines along the ground too. Anyway this evening I see more birds, a sparrow actually revealed itself for a few minutes, hopping on the maple tree, and a big hawk or owl flew by. Usually these turn out to be the red-tailed, but this one seemed more white/tan/light brown than I ever think of those. Round body, seen from behind, steady wing beat. Ducks came and went: why do they make that deet deet deet high pitched sound they make when they fly? A big bird flew across the pond and landed in a tree, I wondered if it was the ring-necked duck which I read likes to roost in trees. The blackbirds were mostly quiet for a change. A goose was standing on top of the beaver lodge with its partner nearby. Later another group arrived and landed further up the pond, with much conversation, and then the first two took off and flew half way up towards the other group and landed again. They might be claiming territory. In other years the top of the lodge has been a nesting place. My mind wandered away, then came back and settled for a bit into the deep peacefulness of the rainy present. I remembered being out in heavy, warm rain with my last dog in Prospect Park, in Brooklyn, NY -- is it really that long since I purposefully stayed out in the rain? No bugs. Pond almost smooth again, back to its black self. No rings made by fish or insects. The diving ducks must be eating some fish though. I worry I'll get bored coming to the same place, even facing the same direction, over and over, but this time I want to stay for a long time.

Sit spot 9 and 10

2009-03-25T06:24:00.000-07:00

Mon Mar 23 (Day 9) 4:30 PM. Wind wind wind. Northwest and blowing and blowing. No white caps on the pond though, and only a few leaves skipping about. Low 30s, cold, sunny, a few cumulus clouds. The sun is beautiful; the maple trunks half in light, half in dark. One maple branchlet has a chunk of white ice hanging from it. Bobbing in the wind. A pair of ducks drifts slowly down the pond, carried by the wind. I go stand with my back to the beech, which beckons me to climb it. Another day. There are many more beech nut husks right here at the base, and nuts, too. It's been 2 years since it masted, I wonder if those nuts have anything in them. A different leaf sprouting on the ground: roundish with toothed edges. Might be a violet, but it looks rounder to me. Just one. A pair of turkey vultures over the pond. One or two blackbirds. The beech branches are all wrinkly at their base, where they emerge from the trunk, like a tightly wrinkled bit of shirt sleeve.

Tues Mar 24 (Day 10) 1:30 PM. Today the first thing I did was go and hug the beech tree. It's very huggable, just the size of a big round person. Then I sat with my back to the wind, facing SSE for a change, towards the road, the younger maple, hickories, and hemlock. I haven't mentioned the hemlock. It's in the SE corner of my quadrangle, fairly young, about 25 ft high, thick with branches. The wind was so strong today the upper ones were standing up nearly straight against the trunk. Looks almost painful to me they were blowing so hard. But I guess it's not like the deciduous ones, more flexible. I just feel bad whenever I look at it because all the hemlocks around here have woolly agelid, and are probably doomed. I've seen the corpses. This one's near where I buried my last dog, sort of standing watch, so that adds to the pathos. Actually it's pretty healthy at this point, with branches practically down to the ground. Along the Southern boundary wall there's a baby pine (3 ft high) and a baby hemlock (I think, have to look closer. 2 ft high). And then at the SW corner there's "grandfather" -- the oldest maple around that is in its final years, with some long thick dead trunks and some live ones. I love the way the old maples had sent out long branches over a foot thick which run 10 or 15 feet off the ground and straight out like 40 feet, an image of strength. The grandfather tree has good holes for squirrels and places for woodpeckers to eat. The wind today blew and blew again, more variable though, sometimes coming strong from the NE, sometimes NW, quiet a bit, then gusts so noisy with leaves flying in all directions I felt like ducking from some anticipated broken branch hurtling by. Nerves of steel, as they say. Meanwhile I looked at plant x... "frond" which isn't really a good name, I've got to look through newcomb's flower book at leaves. It has quite variable leaves, some are lobed practically to a split, others evenly toothed, all with that stem with the trough running down the middle of it. I want to taste it, but having seen poison hemlock at the BBG, which looks like a tasty relative of parsley or celery, I'm not doing any random taste tests. I saw a new leaf too, an inch long (like much at this season), oval, with little notches, 3 on each side, like little slits. No birds today except a glimpse of one, maybe a robin, and a few chirps behind me. There's a ridge of ground, a gentle hump, running parallel to the south wall about 10 ft in, I bet my father used to dump yard waste there. I remember coming into this quadrangle with him years ago, wheelbarrows of leaves and such. Always a plan, and me always following him. Ghosts.

Sit Spot days 7 and 8

2009-03-22T17:31:00.000-07:00

"frond" plant
Sat Mar 21 (Day 7). Out at 5 pm. Chill. Like winter bitter take cover. Light wind, pond slightly ruffled, sometimes half ruffled and half smooth. Sky baby blue at the horizon deepening to dark blue high up. Stunningly blue. Try using my peripheral vision. Patterns. Dead grass stalks scattered in my patch, one here one there, not clumped. Little maples 2 ft high under the beech stop at the edge of it. Because its more amenable to trees under there (grassland has a different makeup than treeland), or was this area bush hogged in the last few years? How long does it take for a seedling to grow 2 ft high under a beech tree? I look harder for tree seedling elsewhere, and suddenly there they are, like the one I noticed close to me before, finger length maple seedlings, orangy-brown, thin as can be but woody, every few feet all around. Beech buds all point upwards, reaching up from the branch. Quince twigs point out all around the branch, every few inches another one pointing in a different direction. No bugs today. I think my "frond" plant may be dying -- lack of water? Have to check again tomorrow.

Sun Mar 22 (Day 8), 3:30 PM. Fat cumulus clouds rolling across blue sky. North wind, gusting enough to blow a few leaves around. Big ripples on the pond. Earlier I identified 7 ring-necked ducks through the telescope. No hooded mergansers. Little bird activity, then a "check check" for a while of a blackbird giving way to a longer sound maybe a cowbird. And, barely audible, a long high pitch almost like a machine. 2 insects fly by. A few tiny green blades of grass emerging from the leaves, straight up. Per Tinker's observation I take a dead leaf off the beech but the base is dead, too. Then a stem from the other side: voila. Green. Almost every bud has a leftover stem which if I break off is green at the base. Tried not to break a whole bunch of them for the fun of it. The quince tree may grow twigs in all directions, but the ones on the bottom then die. Turned around for a change and contemplated the stone wall. The ground really slopes up towards it. Was it built that way or was it originally on a slope? The lilac bush has stringy bark. I know it's in the olive family and just looking at it reminds me of how tough that wood is, which I think of as an olive family trait. "frond" plant not dead but looking a bit stressed. took some photos.

Sit Spot days 4 - 6

2009-03-20T05:34:00.000-07:00

Wed Mar 18 (day 4): Out at 12:30 pm. Wind! mostly from the south / south west. The gust pick up leaves and chase them along. You can hear it in the trees constantly, and the beech is making the shir /shir noise it makes -- one of its leaves rattles in a very particular way. The pond is patterned. A few mergansers. No bird calls, then 4 blackbirds go by north to south, fairly high, chattering. Two seem to be interacting in some way, fighting? Big news: a fly. The size of a house fly with the most beautiful iridescent green body and head. Quite stunning. Field grass is that light yellow brown beige. Across the pond the border is grass or reeds, light brown now, 2 or 3 ft high, in hummocks, maybe 15 ft deep, giving way to shrubs interspersed with trees. Close up my 'frond' plant: seems to be basal leaves growing in whorls from points along a trailing stem. There's a patch of it a few feet away that's a foot or two across, still mostly reddish purple 'dead'? leaves from another season. Maybe dormant's the word. Each leaf ( or stem ) has its set of 10 or so unevenly lobed leaves, about 1/2 in across, thin, hand shaped ie blunt bottom and lobes point a bit up. well I"ll take a picture one of these days. Then the purple green opposite leaved plant, the bedstraw, and leftovers from last year. Probably goldenseal stems. round, dead, points where the leaves were traveling up the stem in a sort of spiral, remnants of white fluff probably seeds and the bases of the flowers with 2-3 mm points in a circle, more than six I'd say. Flowers in a panicle on one side of the stem. Another flower head, six calyx points left on each tiny flower, again, traces of white fluff, also one side of the stem empty, thinner stalk. Grass: soft, clumped. Grass seed head, like a little version of wheat. Sky blue but through a hazy cloud cover, near the horizon in all directions it shades towards grey. No real sense of incoming storm at this point. Been a week since it rained.

Thurs Mar 19 (Day 5): Out at 5:30 pm. On the way checked the temp: 43 and the rain gauge: .1. A trace. The pond was dead calm, every tree on the far side perfectly reflected. Saw one circle as from a fish or insect. Several hooded mergansers were active, spending as much time under water as above. Far trees have green / gray trunks, probably various lichens. Underneath, leaves, some open woods. RWB calling back and forth, long call, then a while on single chirps, very melodious. Flock of blackbirds in the distance. 3 geese come in for a landing, wing tips down, then feet out, all 3 hit exactly at the same time. Sky clearing in the North. Tiny white spider on the leaves. Some leaves black with water, others dry. Beech tree zig zags a little with the buds. Spot on lower branch has bark peeling away, around an old wound. Quince tree twigs end looking like they've been broken off, with a leaf scar just below that and a little tiny bud that is just slightly white and fuzzy on the tip right now: will the flower emerge there? The beech is like a large ad for terminal buds. How many of the little twigs with a bud on the end will turn into branches? A bug like a black fly size hit my cheek and went its way. White pickup truck did a screeching start back towards Redhead HIll Rd, then raced by -- feels like part of the local fauna.

Fri Mar 20 (Day 6. Equinox). Went out a little after 7 am. 28 degrees and calm, sun rising through some bands of clouds, blue sky overhead with some cirrus clouds. Blackbird tribe is busy busy. Took the binoculars. Watched a few red-wings puff up and deflate as they sing. They have about 4 or 5 regular calls, the basic chirp, the melodious chirp, the classic, the classic in a slightly different key, and a couple of others. I located one and then after I stopped watching noticed about 5 take off from the same tree that I hadn't noticed. Saw a blue jay! And after following it with the binoc's across the pond saw a couple of others over there. Something called out with a beautiful two tone; I thought it was the jay but I don't find that call at my online bird call site. Maple beautiful in the morning sun. It's covered with the stems of last year's seeds, last year it masted, a huge crop. Pond smooth and dark. Across the field a tree with maybe 10 blackbirds in it. Still contemplating the humps of my section: near the end of the wall behind me, to the North, is where the big sugar maple used to be, and there's a broad hump there, but I cant believe that's all from the old roots. Nice green moss patch at the base of the lilac bush where it divides into two 6" trunks. It leans heavily towards the wall, as though its decided its best solar bet is to climb the wall and get to the Western sun, away from the beech. So its base is closer to horizontal and the moss has bedded there happily.

Sit spot days 2 and 3

2009-03-17T17:56:00.001-07:00

Tues Mar 17: Out sitting at 3:30 pm or so, the sun and afternoon laziness was the most notable thing, like a summers afternoon only it was about 45 degrees out. Blackbird and woodpecker. Blue sky, slight breeze. The beech buds looked light against the sky -- were they like that before? Later I got up and looked more closely. The beech has those sets of little rings round the twigs, probably indicating a years growth. Some are quite close -- 1/2 inch, some 3 or 4 inches apart. The buds stick out on individual twigs. The quince throws off little twigs off it's main branchlets too. But more buds per twig. It doesn't have the rings. I used to know what those are called but forget now. The trees under the beech are small sugar maples, from what I can tell (buds look like ice cream cones). I'd read that maples grow in the shade, waiting for their big break -- these will have to wait a long time! Saw another little black spider (or the same one) in the leaves. Turkey vulture -- been seeing those for a few days now. Still never any birds in the beech. Maybe the maple is too tasty and high; at one point there were two woodpeckers on it pecking at the same time. Mostly though it was just the deep silence of the afternoon sun.

Mon Mar 16: Different dead leaves are different shades of brown. There's one, about 2 in x 3/4 in, smooth edges, pale as can be. No oak leaves. Beautiful beech leaves, with the pleasing gently wavy edges. The beech branches reach far out, nearly horizontal at the bottom, and then further up the tree much closer to vertical. It has those big buds that stick out from the twigs. The maple trees are somehow less linear in their approach. The quince bears the marks of my pruning, and one branch is thoroughly chewed, presumably by Meera when I tied her there. I hadn't seen that before. The carpenter's vehicle has left deep tracks in the mud, showing a deep brown mud. The ground feels rich and dark beneath me, not ledgy at all. The air is humid, not very cold but not at all warm. You can see blue sky through the clouds, but they're pretty thick, with interesting patterns. The ponds water is dead calm, no trace of fish or insects yet, very black. I can just smell the mud and dead leaves around. Funny wisteria forest I sit in. Few birds. Sunset on a cloudy day. But twice flotillas of geese arrive, honking loudly and receiving answering honks from those already on the pond. 3 ducks go by. Could I tell a wood duck from a mallard in flight, at a distance, with practice? Yesterday we got out the telescope and identified wood ducks, beautiful with red lines on their head and white lines and blue on the back, like an Asian painting of some sort. And the small little divers were / are hooded mergansers. The female h.m. has a great brownish tuft that she raises, then lowers and dives again. And the beaver has appeared, leisurely making his/her way around the pond last night and tonight.

Sit spot

2009-03-15T08:27:00.000-07:00

I made my way recently to the Wilderness Awareness School web site where I found a forum for people practicing "Sit Spots". I had read about this in one of Tom Brown's book, when as a child his mentor sent him out to sit in the same spot every day for a long time, taking notice of everything and learning the flora and fauna that presented itself. Anyway someone in this forum posted a 30-day Sit Spot challenge, starting today, so I'm taking them up on it. I'm posting there, but I think I'll repeat the posts here, not that they're particularly linear and they're bound to get repetitive, but it's an enjoyable practice all the same.

I've been sitting for a few days already, off and on. I'm sitting near a 30 yr old beech tree in a quadrangle formed by a couple of stone walls about 60 feet long each, to the south and west, to the east is our lower driveway (dirt) followed by the hay field (about 8 acres) and then the beaver pond (about 4 acres), both of which stretch off to the North and are bordered on the south by a road with light traffic. To the North is the quince tree, a big old sugar maple, more hay field, woods. Our house is 100 or 150 ft away to the NW. On a bigger scale there are 5 or 10 old 100-150 acre farms near me, several large swamps and beaver ponds, and some more suburban housing filling in here and there -- 90 houses within a mile of me. We are at the swampy head waters of what will eventually become the Quinebaug river, then the Thames and reach the sea at New London. The land is old and stony. In the mid 1800s it was fully farmed -- no wildlife left and hardly any woods. Through the age of oil the forest has been regrowing and the wildlife filling in steadily, the latest arrivals are the bears and mountain lions, coyotes arrived maybe 15 or 20 yrs ago.

notes so far...

Sun Mar 15: Out around 9 am for a change. Sun much further "south" than I would think, so where is east exactly? We're close to the solstice. Daylight savings time, so 2 hrs after sunrise. low 30s, little wind, not cold. Lots of water birds. Ice left on pond, some white, near the road 2 chunks one maybe 70 ft x 40 ft, the other smaller. N of the pond 100 x 40 ft anchored this morning to the shore with thin ice from last night. Mallards, geese, something else. Something small that I almost thought was a fish jumping it surfaced and dove again so quickly. Small round, blackish. No binoc's so no details really. Funny call which probably comes from it. 3 red-winged blackbirds calling back and forth, 2 near the pond, one across the road. Cardinal way up on top of the maple making several different calls, all melodious. Stretches itself. Heard the chickadee's phoebe sound for the first time. blackbird chirping too. red-bellied woodpecker. one very green blade of grass. dead maple leaf with about 15 little points or stalks sticking out of what was the top, like a deformity caused by a virus or something. another one with one or two. counted about 20 wisteria shoots if I looked in a line and did a swath about 6 inches wide. frond plants a little grown. young plantain? air fresh, slight smell of mud and dead leaves. still contemplating the rises and falls and pits of the patch I'm in, it's not smooth at all. did Daddy dump stuff over here? or are there rocks under there? I find it comforting, this lack of smoothness. But familiarity is coming over me, the patch is becoming comforting in its familiarity. Saw a spider web in the distance -- are they building already? (later. diving bird might be a bufflehead. need a telescope)

Fri Mar 13: Fat robin sited on my way down, later chirping in the maple? 2 ducks male and female mallards waddle across the ice and back into the water. pond really low, chairs showing, mud exposed between island and lodge. saw goose this AM on lodge. dark big bird flies over, hawk? look at dead leaves some more: awfully small maple leaf. 3 inch long, 1 inch wide leaf. very pale beech leaf? most are nuttier brown. found my lost beech nut husk, or another one. notice ground smells of mud / spring. slightly. sun, blue sky, a few small clouds, cold (around 38), slight nw wind. lots of leaves/sticks along the 'ridge' near the quince. steady rw blbd calls, 2 going back and forth. 5 pm. shadow lengthening. maple shadow reaches pond. 1,2, 3 herbs growing? say 'frond', bedstraw, and the purply soft one, deep green, wilty leaves about 1/4 inch across, opposite, maybe hairy, look thicker than the others. was the bedstraw blooming? or another set of leaves? quince stick broken, very green at the place where the bark broke.

Thurs Mar 12: A little round object like a bit of dog kibble: turd of some sort. Some more in a pile further away. Tan: old? Specks in it. Ice is melting, a small bird disappears under the water, pops back up, disappears again. Not a merganser. My head says buffle. But it's something else. Steady wind from the northwest. Cold. Ground is frozen again. Sun is setting behind me, surprisingly far south or not where I thought west was. You can tell by the house's shadow straight down the field. Reddish spot near the island -- the water is low, black muck exposed all along the edges. The leaves aren't quite blowing in the wind, until a bigger gust arrives. Blackbird flies by. A steady chir chir, or dewitt dewitt: chipping sparrow? a group flies away swooping playfully off to the alder grove next to the pond. A few small clouds, lots of blue. Another beech nut husk, cant see the first one now. I can only see the ground in one place near me, a small black spot showing. Mostly it's dead leaves, grass, shoots: so many wisteria! I could count how many in a square foot, it'd be a lot. Broken bark on the quince. Still no birds in the beech. Something else is growing under the beech, something woody. I get cold in about 20 minutes. Two days ago I sat for 1/2 hr thinking it was 15 min, and a car did a wheely right there.

Sun Mar 8th. Greens: A whorled group of stems 2" long with leaves (or is it a divided leaf?) almost opposite, toothed irregularly, stem is slightly grooved on top. Grass. Bedstraw. Something like a strawberry leaf but not. All around 6 to 8 inch shoots of wisteria, usually with 2 joints / leaf buds. Beech leaves rattling. Dead beach and maple leaves, lacy maple seed wings. A beech nut, with a white worm inside about 1 mm wide by 20 mm long. Field is brown. Some snow patches. Pond is white and black, open water patches and a stretch where the stream comes in. Tick now crawling on my forefinger. Saw a small black spider, too. Bird calls -- red-bellied woodpecker, red-winged blackbird, ducks, others not sure. Flock of something arrived overhead, probably blackbirds. Clouds thickening. NW winds. 50s. 4 pm.

Other worlds

2009-01-06T15:40:00.000-08:00

Emirate wealth and piety

Solstice

2008-12-22T07:41:00.000-08:00

Three days of steady snow, and now we see the sun again. 14 degrees out when I walked the dog her daily mile.
Yesterday was the winter solstice. This morning I took my annual sunrise at solstice shot -- that's the middle one and you may have to click on it to find the gleam of sunshine. I tried to line up the window edge with a tree because one of these years I'm going to map everything and figure the exact point on the compass where the sun rises on that day, and maybe that will help. Then I took the shot of the chimney, which faces North -- how often does it have a big patch of sun on it right at sunrise? Oh, and yes, that little patch of green at the bottom is my "green marble hearth" -- 5 marble tiles to extend the hearth. I'm very fond of them. They get all warm when the insert is going full blast.

Winter water

2008-12-14T07:28:00.000-08:00

The pond does interesting things this time of year. It was barely hard enough to walk on around Thanksgiving, but I didn't go far as it seemed dicey. Then it thawed all of a sudden night, then froze, thawed, etc. Thursday night we had the heavy rainstorm that was an ice storm elsewhere (the top of the hills around us, for example) and then it was in the teens last night and now there's a perfect sheet of black ice.

My newly acquired overbite is bothersome. An orthodontist tells me if I let him knock a few molars out there would be room to re-align the upper teeth with the lower teeth -- the lower jaw is evidently shorter than it used to be. I'm going to get a second opinion before embarking on what he projects to be a 2 year project. Until we get a good treatment plan in place my broken teeth remain as is, so I can only chew in one small area. Every new appointment requires a 2 week wait. Things proceed slowly. The rehabilitation on my wrist is coming along, I'm probably at about 50-70% of where I used to be in terms of strength and flexibility.

2008-10-05T17:36:00.000-07:00

If you look closely at this photo you'll find two bluebirds. We see them maybe once in the fall and once in the spring. They're very pretty. You can see the foliage is pretty now, too. The maple in front of the house shed its leaves early, perhaps due to a large crop of seeds to disperse.

The basement renovation is coming along bit by bit. The perimeter drain is done and exits out of the walls at either end so the water should run out by gravity. Better get some critter covers for the exits though! The electrician and plumber have been in and corrected various creative solutions of old that weren't to current code. The walls and ceilings are free of old and mildewed sheetrock and ceiling tiles, and the smell is giving way to that of new lumber as the bathroom gets rebuilt.

And I'm slowly healing from my fall (broken jaw and wrist), feeling a little more human as the days go by, a little less stunned. 3 weeks down, 3 to go, more or less. Then we'll see exactly how my teeth fared. I'm a bit tired of the liquid diet but tonight's mushroom soup puree was pretty good.

Lost Cat

2008-08-03T12:10:00.000-07:00

Lia-Boy, aka White Paws, aka le Sultan, aka Cary Grant, disappeared on Tuesday (July 29th). Mostly likely prey to a coyote, which happens rather frequently around here. He was a great love of mine, and is sorely missed. He was 10 last April.

This is my last photo of him, from June 25th.

City-living has a sinister side; so does country-living.

hay time (July 8th)

2008-07-15T06:51:00.000-07:00

More on spring flowers

2008-05-23T13:55:00.001-07:00

OK, those are mustard, honeysuckle, choke cherry, and Golden Alexander. I was stuck on the later. Zizia Aurea, "leaves 2 to 3 times divided" was what clinched it. Not many plants have variable numbers of lobes/divisions. Didn't get a great shot, but you can see it to some degree.

Spring meadow flowers

2008-05-21T12:26:00.001-07:00

Can you identify these flowers? 4 from the lower meadow this morning. Click on the images to enlarge.

Spring. Earth Day.

2008-04-23T08:24:00.001-07:00

Spring is coming along; the forsythia is in full bloom, the red maples are red, and the sugar maple is showing life for the first time today.

Yesterday was Earth Day. Michele drove the speed limit, to the ire of her fellow drivers, and took her lunch to work. This inspired me to turn off the electric power for the day, with the exception of the refrigerator, freezer and one phone. The house got very quiet. Can one 'hear' electric power? I was faced with a lack of water, and broke into our very dusty cache of spare water in bottles and jugs. It takes 3 quarts to wash a kitchen floor. I did not attempt to wash the flannel sheets by hand. After a bit I thought that the solar water heating panel wasn't working without a pump, and turned that on. Michele came home and thought of turning everything back on, then noticed how quiet the house was. She turned on the main water pump and electric supply to the water heater. We had dinner and talked until we couldn't really see each other, then took the dog for a walk. (Normally we tend to split, she to the ABC news on tape, and me to my internet reading). Then we read for a bit, she got in bed with a flashlight and a candle and I sat next to the kerosene lamp. Altogether in 24 hrs we used 9 kwh, instead of the usual 30 or so.

Meanwhile I made a list: manual laundry machine (I read about these somewhere), solar shower, alternatives for food preservation, light, solar power for computer/iPod, humanure compost system, dish washing set up, radio, oven. Fix the upper well for easy access. Water tanks. But am I looking at emergency preparedness or current civic duty in light of global warming?

Today I'm really enjoying this electricity business.

Pix

2008-04-16T17:22:00.000-07:00

The other day a lot of weather came through that was a lot more like summer. We woke up to thunder and lightening, and the whole sky flashed orange and then red with the lightening. Later I realized it probably had to do with the rising sun. In the evening we saw a rainbow.

Craigslist; laptop batteries

2008-03-31T13:57:00.000-07:00

I hooked up with one of my employers via Craigslist.com (worcester) and realized how useful it is. Once we posted a size 24 wedding dress for free and it found a new home within the week.

Today I'm listening the Personal Computer Show from March 26th. That's one of my podcasts from WBAI. They're conducting an interview with the CEO, Jim Buckmaster. Craigslist has 24 employees and gets 10 billion page views per month! He says that while they do make sure they run a financially solid business, their underlying purpose is to maximize the social good that they can do at the site, and to be as useful as they can be to as many people who want or need the service.

On another topic, there was a big fire in Korea at a factory (LG Chem) which produces many of the backup batteries for laptops. Turns out there are some very tight supply lines for computers so when something like this happens it can really affect a lot of people.

Letter to the Editor

2008-03-26T08:01:00.000-07:00

Look, my first ever letter to an editor.

To the Editor:

Waking up Easter morning to a taste of Swiss chocolate, I am reminded that our economy is still quite intact. The cocoa beans were grown in Africa, the sugar in South America. Making the bar of chocolate required complex machinery and expertise born of years of schooling. The end result: an Easter treat at a cost of what I earn in about 5 minutes.

Change is on the horizon. Oil and natural gas production is leveling off, and the costs of extracting what's left are rising steadily, plus the competition to use these materials is growing. Our local economy is going to evolve quite soon into quite a different beast.

We need to look around a little further than to question whether to buy a Prius or a car that runs on diesel. Used anything plastic today? Eaten anything not grown locally? Most of our food is entirely dependent on oil and related products -- not just to transport it or run the farm machinery, but to supply all the fertilizers and pesticides. Don't forget the toiletries, medicines, synthetic fibers, or the energy embodied in anything made of metal in your home.

We need to take the time to understand the ways cheap energy and petroleum-based materials are intertwined with the world we live in: the layout of the land, how we do our shopping, where we go for medical care, what the roads are made out of, how far away our loved ones live. The amount of cheap energy available to us equates to each of us having few hundred personal slaves doing extra chores. The resulting disposable income (aka extra energy) has enabled us to fund education, a big government, $500 billion international expeditions, and a fancy entertainment industry. The energy in a gallon of gas, at a whopping $4, is equal to about 120 hours of human labor.

Let's enjoy the chocolate, and everything else we take for granted, but at the same time let's begin to envisage a world radically different, and plan accordingly. It can all work out for the best, but only after many of us awake to what we have, what we could or will lose soon, and what the alternatives will be.

Rebecca Hyde
Woodstock

New York

2008-03-12T17:34:00.000-07:00

Going to NY tomorrow. I'm starting to get that not-quite-here feeling. Oof. Took some shots today of Meera playing with Michele in the field. Meera can run really fast now.

Listened to Jason Bradford interviewing Philip Sutton

that's the part 1 link and here's the part 2:

Part 2 today

The later makes a surprisingly convincing case for the possibility of ramping up a full-scale societal effort to actually reduce atmospheric carbon levels below today's levels. He's pretty sure that with levels as they are today the arctic ice cap will melt within a few years, followed quickly by all the Greenland ice, and much of the northern permafrost. Altogether too many positive feedback loops which our species would be better off avoiding.

Recent Travels

2008-02-04T17:57:00.000-08:00

Been on a trip to this city in the mountains, where everything was made out of big thick blocks of stone, and the streets were cobblestones, and there were lots of mysterious, heavy doors in thick walls, made out of old, heavy wood or ornate metal.