Jean Raber scooped the fire fly story this year. And she keeps it. Am back in nature and last night there were two or three forlorn blinking lights out in the ferns. Very wet Spring (which I think encourages them), but also very cold (49 last night). Don't think they will have time for a comeback before July 4.
On the other hand, plant life is exuberant. The ferns have taken over all low-lying ground while the mountain laurel is bursting with blossoms (from a distance they look like popcorn bushes). The trees are weighed down with leaves, like never before. Hay high in the meadow. Had to machete our way from the car to the cabin.
And there may be a squirrel in the roof--all that rain, poor thing.
Yay, Michigan! Number one in bugs if nothing else.
ReplyDeleteAfter the heat and rain last week, we saw quite a few. Still some them, though last two days were also chilly here. Perfect this week, highs in the mid 70s. Cats have been extra active. Which means they've moved from "moribund" to "languid."
Everything looks very lush here, orange day lilies in the ditches especially profuse. Have never seen them quite this spectacular. Wild phlox had a very short season, though.
We went up north last weekend and saw the storks and osprey at the wildlife turnout. Raber got a dozen home-baked cookies at the mom and pop coffee joint for $4, so it was a good day for all concerned.
Some places close to Saginaw Bay and associated rivers had 7 inches of rain and flooding Friday, but the rain seemed pretty hit-or-miss.
Have I ever brought up the wormwood infestation in the "garden" so-called? The locals say "Roundup," but I'm not going there.
ReplyDeleteWormwood? Are you making your own absinthe?
DeleteAm not. But clearly the intensity and addicitveness of absinthe begins with the plant that produces it...invasive, ubiquitous, unrelenting...you don't have to distill and drink the stuff to become obsessed. Pulling it out has become a daily spiritual practice!
DeleteYou should give absinthe another chance. It's magical. I once drank quite a bit while visiting a friend. I woke up the next morning with my legs wrapped around my suitcase under the blankets in his guest room. I have no memory of what happened, but I'm sure it was interesting.
DeleteI count something like seven types of artemisias/wormwoods, just one associated with absinthe. You can see pictures on Wikipedia to find out what type you have.
DeleteSome site called Crazy for Tea tells you how to make absinthe tea to improve appetite and digestion, and then notes that it can also cause convulsions or death.
That's what's in the "so-called" garden?
DeleteFile:Artemisia absinthium P1210748.jpg
I need something stronger. Wasn't there something with laudanum?
DeleteAbsinthe, the green fairy. It's supposed to rot your brain. Cocaine, now there's a nice drug.
DeleteArtemisia absinthium is such a more attractive name than wormwood. A species of Artemisia (tridentata) is prairie sage. I like the scent when I crush a leaf with my fingers. Another Artemisia is the dusty miller plant, familiar as a bedding foliage plant. Also tarragon is an Artemisia. They all have the beautiful silver green color. I guess Artemisia absinthium is the druggie cousin of the more respectable family members. However it may have anti-cancer properties, and there is some research into components which may have use as cancer therapy.
DeleteCrystal, I always trust the expertise of California folk in these matters.
DeleteI had something to jazz me up right after my colonoscopy. I was flirting with the anesthesiologist. I told the nurse to bring Raber back there so they could meet and be friends. I was so happy it wasn't funny. They wouldn't tell me what it was. It didn't last long, but I told my doctor that if I get really sick, I want to be mainlining that stuff.
DeleteYes, hard to grow up in California, especially near San Francisco, and not do the drugs/sex/rock & roll thing :)
DeleteJean - maybe morphine? I had that once after surgery and it was very nice.
Not morphine. Had that after the C-section and was like floating on an air mattress. The post-colonoscopy stuff helped you wake up out of the twilight sleep. It makes you alert, super happy, and, apparently, reduces inhibitions.
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ReplyDeleteMichigan sounds nice compared to here. Last week there was a heat wave of temps around 108 every day. Now it's down to the 90s. Most plant life that isn't being watered is dried up. I feed the birds so we have a family of blue jays plus lots of other kinds like oak titmice. A stray cat showed up with kittens. I've been trying to catch them to take to the SPCA but haven't been able to so far.
ReplyDeleteExcept for one short heat wave, it's been nice in the NE, if a bit too rainy, though I never complain about too much rain. Beats drought any time. We'll see if the hurricane season will be as productive as they've predicted.
ReplyDeleteLake County, Ohio is not only snow belt country, we are also rain belt country. The same effects that happen in the winter, winds coming across Lake Erie, also happen the rest of the year.
ReplyDeleteI live on top of a sand dune about ten miles from the Lake; it was the shore of a former deeper Lake Erie. It also causes rain as the air lifts. There is even more rain as one goes back further and where mountains begin. Clouds also form over those small mountains.
Just as snow fall is very variable here, so is rain fall. Nearby stations on the Weather Underground reported about 6 inches in May; then most of early June was dry; now we have been back to rain with about 2.5 inches the last ten days.
Since once I dig down a foot or two I hit sand, the ground in my garden dries out quickly if it does not rain for a week or two.
That's interesting. Michigan has a couple of rain/snow belts due to lake effects. Also, a high wind area around Gaylord.
DeleteWe are on the western side of the Catskills--not the Rockies, but clouds do dump rain as they try to pass over them. Or so my theory goes.
DeleteThe Lake has a lot of effects. I always have a variety of outerwear and headgear in my car for walking there.
DeleteI park my car towards the West end of my walk, walk West then turn around and walk East past my car. This lets me adjust things. Usually the wind is from the West but sometime it is out of the East.
The lake is colder in the spring. On even a bright sunny day it can be very cold when the wind comes off a recently frozen lake.
Then there is an onshore lake breeze that usually develops around 10am as the air rises above the heating land to be replaced by air flowing in off the lake.
All of these effects get modified in various ways as distance to the lake increases. Sometimes I don't work out in my yard on sunny spring days because it is too cold. Sometimes I get a refreshing lake breeze in mid morning.
I spent my childhood and adolescence five blocks from Lake Michigan. The very nice effect of that was cooler summer air than territory further west. In the winter, the wind was almost always from the west and not from the lake. Stuart Dybek has some very good stories of life in Chicago with the wind from the west.
Deletenot a bad theory. As wind driven air goes up the mountain to higher altitude, it cools, lowering dew point, water precipitates out.
ReplyDeleteThere is a large body of water, but it's a reservoir. The locals seem to think that it makes the area rainier, but I am not convinced. Have you a theory on that?
DeleteReservoir, probably not. Great Lake, yes. your theory on mountains squeezing out moisture is accepted science. you get the meteorology prize.
DeleteContinued: From "The Hidden Life of Trees," previously discussed. This from Chapter 21, Mother Ships of Biodiversity.
ReplyDelete"Most animals that depend on trees don't harm them....[However,] little research has been done, particularly in the upper level of the forest, because scientists need to use expensive scaffolds or cranes to check them out. To keep costs down brutal methods are sometimes employed ....[I]n 2009, tree researcher Dr. Martin Gossner sprayed the oldest (six hundred years old) tree in the Bavarian Forest National Park. The chemical he used, pyrethrum, is an insecticide, which brought any number of spiders and insects tumbling down to the forest floor--dead. The lethal results show how species-rich life is way up high. The scientist counted 2,041 animals belonging to 257 different species."
Still working on "The Hidden Life of Trees". It's interesting, but just not one of those things that keep you up after bedtime binge-reading. Yeah, I thought some of the research methods in times past were pretty misguided. Like cutting down a centuries-old tree to count the rings, and the instance you cited. Couldn't believe that happened in 2009. Good grief, just rent a cherry-picker from Sunbelt.
DeleteLooking at dozens of fireflies in my front yard in the Poconos right now. Found out just today that they are the PA state insect.
ReplyDeleteDidn't know that! Congratulations on living in such a state. Inspired me to look up NYState insect: nine-spotted lady bug.
DeleteLady Bugs are cool, too. Not a bad choice at all.
ReplyDelete