the climate race

Once again NPR comes through with thought-provoking programing. This time it is Marketplace's series "the climate race". If you missed hearing these segments, you might want to click below and check out the interesting stories that were explored.

http://marketplace.publicradio.org/display/web/2009/10/28/pm-climate-race2

its more than the veggies

Bad news about the Obama garden, but not really a surprise (see http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/jul/02/michelle-obama-vegetable-garden-lead for a sample article).

The real issue that needs to be addressed is the overall soil, water and air quality that millions of people, animals and plants are exposed to every day.

Sounds like a great idea to plant yourself a garden, but do you really know what is in your soil? You can try and grow organic, but what if the rain water that falls on your garden is chemical laden. Lets hope this brings the complexities of our industrial life into a new light.

Funny Face

Yes, I just watched the film classic Funny Face with Audrey Hepburn and Fred Astaire....what a classic....and how about all the tree references......as for photographing trees, I for one love it!

Jo: Trees are beautiful. Why don't you photograph trees?

Dick: I do what I do for a living; it has to do with supply and demand. You'd be amazed how small the demand is for pictures of trees. My work is very pleasant, the pay is excellent, and I get a trip to Paris every year.

Later...

Jo: [Looking at a picture of herself] How can you possibly make a model out of that? You can't be serious.

Dick: When I get through with you, you'll look like - what do you call beautiful...? A tree. You'll look like a tree.

firewood and beetles

Once again NPR comes through with some pretty important things to consider....such as where your firewood comes from. NPR reports that the Asian Longhorn Beetle is making huge strides in destroying hardwood forests by being spread by folks like us taking infected firewood on vacation with us.


As such, "New Hampshire and Vermont are banning wood from out-of-state as part of a major outreach campaign to prevent the spread of the beetles, which could cause epic devastation if they reach the Northeast's hardwood forests". Wow! That made me think about where the firewood for my fireplace comes from. Unfortunately, I have to obtain firewood from outside sources as I live on a very small lot. Where the trees infected trees? Is the left over wood now releasing beetles onto my property? Yet another example of just how important it is to know where the things you buy/consume come from. For more info, check out the link below.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=105438580

pluots and more

The bounty of human creativity and trees continues. There is a great story that was on NPR this morning about a farm stand in Santa Monica, CA that specializes in stone fruits. J. Fitzgerald Kelly, the proprietor of the stand, grows over 190 different kinds of stone fruit, though they're not all in season at the same time.

Stone fruits are also known as drupes. These are fruits that typically grow on trees, which have an outer fleshy part that surrounds a shell (the pit or stone)that contains a seed inside.

Freestone refers to a drupe having a free stone, meaning the stone is relatively free of the flesh, and can be removed from it with ease. While a clingstone, is used to describe fruits whose stone is rather difficult to remove.

Plums, peaches, apricots and yes even pluots and aprium all fall into these catagories.

Trees truly are amazing with what they provide us!

For more info and to hear the story first-hand go to:
http://www.npr.org/news/specials/2009/farm-foods/?startat=2

and now the snappers

What appears to be a first week of June ritual has occured again. Today, the snappers have arrived to lay their eggs. This one was right under the front of our car and we didn't even see it until we had backed out of the driveway. They seem to always prefer the gravel drive to any of the flower beds or other mulched areas. If This summer goes as last summer did, the baby snappers should be making their appearances at the lake at the end of August.

pine trees and grizzly bears

Once again the intricate web of life is revealed in the current issue of the NDRC newsletter. One article in particular discusses the importance of the white bark pine to the continued survival of the grizzly bear. It appears that the rise in local temperatures is impacting the white bark pines in the west and "whitebark pines have a special relationship with one of the region's most iconic species. Yellowstone grizzly bears face an uncertain future without these trees. Females rely on caches of white bark pine cones and their high fat content when preparing to hibernate. And since the pines are an important food source; fewer whitebark pines probably translates into fewer grizzly bears." Hard to believe that the continued success of such a magnificent bear is linked to a small seed provided by a tree, but it is true. For more info check out http://switchboard.nrdc.org/blogs/jmogerman/zombie_trees_and_bear_attacks.html.

old logs and North Korea

An old log, probably once a large limb from a nearby willow, came floating down the lake during an early winter storm. It nestled itself into the mud right below the tree house amongst the lily pads and cattails. At first my inclination was to push it back out into the open water and have it ride the north wind further down the lake. I even went out in my kayak and prodded it several times with my paddle to see how easily it could be moved. It did move. I could have sent it on its way, but instead I decided to leave it there and see what would happen.

The winter progressed. The ice came and went and by spring the log had settled a more into its new home. It is now partially submerged near its center and either end of has certain characteristics that have earned it the title "alligator log". It really does look like an alligator! It would be great for a bit of fun once in awhile, if only alligators were native to Connecticut.

Well this week the alligator log has lots of visitors as it seems to have become a favorite hangout for painted turtles, mud turtles and small snapping turtles. Occasionally there is some gesturing, snipping and renegotiating for space, but overall they all seem to tolerate eat other just so they can share a great basking location. I took this all in while hearing the latest on nuclear missiles, nuclear bomb testings and border disputes on NPR.

One log, one world, one sun. I think that even turtles are smarter than people.

memorial day

For those of you who may never actually visit the tree house, it is located about 30 feet above the edge of a small lake. Today the sun rose over a calm lake and as I often do on mornings such as these, I would see the sun, a hawk and several smaller songbirds first on the lake's surface. You see the trees that surround the tree house often block what is going on in the sky and therefore the lake's surface becomes my window to the sky. For me on calm mornings, that means looking to the water to see what is happening in the sky. If I only looked to the sky, I would miss much of what is happening up there in the heavens. It is only by turning my eyes away from the sky that I see what is happening there.

into the atmosphere

for a moment
I was the song
of an oriole

sunrise musings

Yesterday my sleep was broken by the brilliance of the rising sun. This may not seem to be an extraordinary event, but this had not occurred for several months. As I greeted, what would prove to be a glorious day, I realized that the sun was able to shine upon my face that day due to the positioning of the earth relative to the sun.

This positioning is ever changing and I am only greeted by the sun in this manner for a few weeks a year. As I thought about the everchanging positioning of these two celestial bodies, I began to think of the overall positioning of planets in our solar system, which led to thinking of our solar system in relation to other solar systems and galaxies to galaxies and the meaning of infinity.

Could there really be 1000 other planets like ours out there as some folks have speculated?

The charged energies of the universe seemed to pulse through my barefeet, which seemed to cling to very fragile earth.

painted turtles

Mid-May has signaled the beginning of turtle season here at the tree house.

Baby painted turtles were found making their way towards the lake earlier this week. I gave a helping hand to two of them, only time will tell if they can survive all the obstacles put in front of them.

Each one of us that has the pleasure of having turtles visit our properties can help by providing them with a pesticide-free environment and by limiting our input of fertilizers into the nearby aquatic environments.

Hopefully, soon the snappers and mud turtles will follow. Keep an eye out for turtle crossings!