June 16 2023 Rain
The old pond swamp: The old pond dried up several years ago, before we came here. It was perhaps twenty feet deep and lovely for swimming. I have not figured out why, whether a stream from the west was diverted to the other side of the ridge by human or nature, or a crack formed in the foundation. All that is left is this small place, smaller this year than last. Bull rushes grow here though, which is a good thing. They are safe for now from the invading grasses, hidden so far from human traffic.
I found this tiny fern on the rise there. It is the brittle bladderfern. It is a citizen of the world - you can see on the map that it grows everywhere. I wonder how common it is for a plant to be so widespread, the same exact species. Ferns are old, yes, but I would be surprised that they had not evolved into different species, in the two hundred million years since Pangaea existed, before the continents drifted apart. Yet if they have changed in that time, then they somehow spread across the world by air and water more recently.
This is from "Picture this" - the app that identifies plants from a photograph. My mother, who died in '91, was an avid birder and was interested in all things growing. She would have been astonished by this app, and by the birdsong app as well. It was a challenge before these apps, to identify things. You had to take a picture, which then would require a day or two at least to develop, or, in the case of plants, bring home a leaf or flower, and search your reference books. We also carried in our packs a bird and a flower book. Now I carry my phone: camera, reference books and these wonderful apps. I usually cross-check information, because the apps can be wrong, but are amazingly good. It was a challenge, before, to match the song of a bird to its singer. I have identified two birds by their song only, a vireo of which there are many in the woods, though I have not seen one to identify, and I have recently been hearing an indigo bunting, which was so surprising to me that I cross-checked the song in my Peterson's reference book. (The ebook on my tablet, which has the songs of birds to listen to.) It, the bunting's song, is distinctive and was easy to confirm. Now if I could just see it!
The daisies are in flower. They are a reminder that our wedding anniversary is coming up. My mother suggested wild-growing daisies for our wedding, for the table, and we went to a vacant lot and picked some.
K and I were Pooh and Piglet, following the heffalump. The path which one imagines is a deer (or heffalump) path is actually our own. I have walked here most days, for weeks now. *
These fungi were here last year, same tree, same placement. They are parasitic, drawing nutrients and causing the tree to be sick. "Shelf" mushrooms, of which there are many varieties, grow mostly on fallen trees, however, making good use of the food, after the tree is dead.
This small salamander lives throughout the woods, so plentiful and easy to find, once you know the exact logs to look under, just the right wetness in the ground, just the "weight" of the log, how long it has lain there. This was the first this year. It has been cold and dry so I have not looked before this week.
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The hummingbird " feeder": I do not use a sugar water feeder. I worry about the nutritional value of pure processed sugar, and prefer to get cut flowers. A hummingbird feeder with sugar water must be kept clean, changed almost daily, and its water must be made from white sugar. Otherwise the birds will get sick. Fortunately Rain's farm grows flowers for cutting, wonderful hummingbird material.
The hummingbirds visit several times a day; butterflies and bees also come by.
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This week in the kitchen, my first ever frittata, which name I don't think suits it. Baked egg vegetable casserole, though more prosaic, is a better name. I sautéed eggplant and red pepper, added a can of corn niblets, ground pepper, basil, ginger, cayenne, a little, and put it in a dish. Added 6 eggs, beaten with a little oat milk and baked for 20 minutes at 400 degrees. Eggplant is a favorite of mine: I have done souffles with it before, but they are a bit more work than the frittata. I also use it in pasta sauce. I leave the lovely purple skin on for nutrition. I don't peel most things, since I feel so much is wasted if you do. Even apples for a crisp, or sauce, I leave with their skins on.
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We got rain this week, along with the rest of Quebec, and Ontario. Fifty millimetres by Thursday and then yesterday it tipped down, with thunder and lightning, and we received another fifty milllimetres. More overnight, this morning 63 millimetres - that is the past twenty-four hours. It looks like we will get more today. After six weeks of no rain it is making up for lost time. It is in time for the berries. The blackberries are in flower all over the meadows. You can hear the hum of dozens of bees if you stand near a patch.
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Rocky, always nearby, wants to get in on this week's post. He does not like the rain and really did not like the thunder yesterday. He was lying under my desk on the porch while K and I watched the storm.
The rain:
We spend a lot of time on the porch. K likes the Adirondack chairs, which came with the house, but I prefer a straight chair and I love the desk. Through the warmer months I work out here, and watch the valley. Rock has a blanket here, too.
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The rain will be washing some of the wildfire smoke from the air, and hopefully is helping to bring the fires under control. The fires unite the country, a commonality we share, and the smoke reaches all of us, city and country dweller alike. Indeed, the fires are showing how as a planet we are all in it together. This article in the Guardian describes how our Canadian fire smoke is reaching Norway. Will we ever take care of our planet, realize that everyone shares our weather, our pollution, our welfare? It is a constant worry and so urgent. But I feel as if we are each of us so small and can influence such a small circle, and many of us are talking but mostly to the already-converted, while the corporations and governments are not uniting to take on the problems. Maddening. I am part of the problem myself, with the plastics I use, my car, my electricity use. And if I burned wood for heat and cooking, I would send particulate and carbon pollution into the air. I say again that it may take a terrible revolution for us to turn this world around, both for the planet and for ourselves.
Mumma Yaga
A.A. Milne, Winnie the Pooh
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