Sunday, 3 February 2008
I forgot to mention that yesterday’s Intrepid Hikers found a bit of snow/ice in a very sheltered north-side spot right next to the AT.
No sign of the earliest spring vegetation, though. I saw a few vultures high up, but neither heard nor saw birds among the trees. Instead, I heard the spring-blush of water tumbling down the balds and ledges and steep slopes—a very happy sound in these drought-times….
Saturday, 19 January 2008
All the way into ATL, the light-up signs warned of snow-terror!
Today found us on the road, making the final trek into ATL, mostly avoiding I-75, instead following routes that took us west of Lake Cumberland and east of Chattanooga (oh, darn, we missed Chattanooga). Awaiting us in the northern suburbs of ATL: snow on the ground (and dry roads). Yup, a few airborne flakes, too!
Right now it’s bitterly cold in Michigan, so homebound seems great (wise, even!), although already we can anticipate the irrational “city paralyzed!” situation common to the South under these weather conditions…. Trust me, many churches will cancel services tomorrow, while the sun will blaze and almost all roads will be passable, even at 6 am (long before parishioners will be on the road)….
Tuesday, 15 January 2008
I keep saying that the thing I am most happy I don’t have to experience about Northern winters is the slush/ice that piles up behind the tires on your vehicle and on your footwear. I think that’s still true.
Fortunately, the sun came out for a bit this morning to light up the new-fallen solid precip, and I could ignore the slush now hanging from the Prius, fresh from it’s 10K visit to the local Toy___ dealer….
By the way, that odd layer of branches in the right foreground is the Botanist slyly working against Mother Nature to retain extra moisture in the strawberry bed.
Monday, 14 January 2008
If you don’t like the weather in [insert placename here], wait [insert duration here] minutes.
In this case, East Lansing’s afternoon rotated through overcast, almost sun, and snow flurries several times, while gusts sometimes unfurled the flag completely.
Sunday, 13 January 2008
Late afternoon, we saw a small flurry of big wet flakes. The Prius’s first snow!
Saturday, 12 January 2008
Hey, this is Florida. Well, the Maumee in flood in Florida. Confused? This is Florida, OHIO! From Thursday, when we took the back way from Lima (OHIO, again, and pronounced like lima bean not Lima Peru) to Jackson (Michigan).
Geographic context: simultaneous flooding in east central Midwest and drought in east central South (approximately).
Wednesday, 2 January 2008
Temp was 21°F at dawn. Is this a frozen version of clay’s hydrostatic pressure?
North America’s non-organic maize crop has been fingered as causing the big dead zone along the northern Gulf of Mexico. The maize fields are fertilized with tons of nitrogen fertilizers, which wash out of the fields and down the Mississippi drainage.
If you exercise your green impulses, you avoid non-organic maize products (which also means avoiding many prepared foods, including fast foods), thereby contributing less to the dead zone—and other environmental nightmares.
So, I now await the widespread call for organic ethanol at the pump. Yes, I googled it and it’s available, but apparently for medicinal uses, not as biofuel.
Tuesday, 1 January 2008
Best wishes in the coming year*!
May all the distortions you experience be filled with sunshine!
Weather: sunny, breezy, cool (high around 50°F).
* Even though it’s an artificial, culturally determined construct—well, the year part, but maybe the wishes part, too!
Monday, 31 December 2007
This morning our backyard sentinels quietly stood watch in dense fog. Is this an omen for 2008?
Sunday, 30 December 2007
The camillias are thriving this winter so far….
It’s a good thing and a bad thing that today we got enough rain here in good ol’ ATL to beat the record driest year—but only just. So it’s a good thing for the environment and our reservoirs that we have more rainfall. It’s a bad thing in that since it’s no longer a record drought people may find it easier to disregard this issue. And that would be not-good.