Author: JLfromNH

Forest Notes for July

Bunchberry flowers

Hard to believe we’re well past midsummer and have only one full month of summer left. While the beginning of fall isn’t until late September, August has the feel of summer already winding down. With July you still have the ambiance of summertime without feeling you have fall and winter breathing down your neck. The above flower is bunchberry which blooms in spring but in midsummer produces bright red berries.

bunchberry fruit

It’s actually a member of the dogwood family, blooming perennially and spreading itself on the forest floor. The berries are said to be edible but many people find them tasteless. I have never tried them and prefer to leave them for the birds and other critters in the forest.

Another flower which appears in July doesn’t even look quite like a flower. In fact it is often mistaken for some sort of fungus. This is easy to understand as unlike other plants it has no chlorophyll and is pale white.

ghost flowers

Called ghost pipes or Indian pipes this little plant is classed with the heathers and other heath plants though you would never guess it to look at them. It is a parasitic plant, feeding off of mycorrhizal fungus which in turn live symbiotically with trees, usually beech trees. This unusual characteristic limits its habitat and makes it nearly impossible to grow in your garden unless you have exactly the right conditions.

As for fungi themselves, I didn’t see much of them in the earlier part of the summer when we were under semi-drought conditions. But over the past three weeks, we have been receiving an abundance of rain which has stimulated them to send up fruiting bodies. They come in an amazing assortment of sizes and colors, some edible, some definitely not.

morel mushroom

mushroom with yellow cap

mushroom with orange cap

Fungi were originally included in the category of plants but once DNA sequencing hit its stride, it was discovered that they are actually in a class of their own and are more closely related to animal forms than they are to plants. In fact the biological tree of life we used to see in our old biology textbooks has gotten very complex and gnarly thanks to recent discoveries using DNA sequencing.

tree of life

This diagram has been redrawn many times by scientists and will likely be tweaked repeatedly for some time to come. It bears remembering that the above drawing exists mostly for our own convenience in trying to make sense of the intricate biosphere we are part of. Organisms are under no obligation to fit neatly into this diagram. In fact there are a few that seem to delight in bamboozling us as to how to categorize them. One good example is the slime mold.

There are hundreds of ‘species’ of this bizarre life form. It lives most of its life or lives as single celled organisms. Then under the right environmental conditions, all the cells move together, congeal and form a single ‘body’ we refer to as a slime mold. Some molds form a single gigantic ‘cell’ with multiple nuclei while others maintain their single cell arrangement but unite with others and move as though they were a single organism. They seem to occupy the borderline between single cell bacteria and multi-celled critters like ourselves, cheerfully switching back and forth over the border depending on environmental circumstances. Scientists eagerly study these strange organisms hoping to gain insights into how multi-celled life may have got its start.

Slime molds are mostly harmless to humans and serve an important role in breaking down dead matter and recycling it. I actually came across one type of slime mold a few weeks ago.

dogvomit slime mold

This is known by the rather charming name of dog-vomit slime mold and it did look rather like something a dog might have up-chucked. As slime molds ooze about very slowly, I went back later in the day hoping to check on how far it had shifted, only to discover to my dismay, it had vanished. Had it slithered under the pine needles? Or finished its life cycle? Hard to say. But slime molds move according to their own rhythms, not ours.

It’s weird to watch time-lapse videos showing how slime molds get around. For all their seeming simplicity, they are remarkable complex life-forms which still hold many mysteries for curious humans to explore. Not for the first time it makes me wonder if we will ever recognize alien life-forms if we can barely even make sense of the creatures here on earth that are related to us yet utterly different in their approach to life. It’s easy to forget how provincial we are until we find ourselves face to face (?) with a slime mold.

Hmmm. So was that really a slime mold? Or an extraterrestrial exploring our strange planet? Inquiring minds want to know.

flying saucer

See you next month.

Forest Notes For June

The month of June has certainly whizzed by fast. It seems as if I just barely got the gardens planted and here it is less than two weeks away from the Fourth of July. I’m hoping the tiger lilies will make a showing this year. I have been diligently drowning Scarlet Lily beetles in soapy water (eschewing chemical pesticides) and so far have kept any beetles grubs from devouring the leaves and buds. In spite of the near drought conditions this past spring, enough rain has fallen so many plants are doing well.

The local Water and Light Department went around this past winter cutting back tree branches and shrubbery from the overhead wires. They trimmed back some of the branches on the two Washington Hawthorn trees on the front lawn, which must have been a major undertaking as the trees are gifted with two inch long needle sharp thorns which they aren’t afraid to use. But the trimming didn’t phase the hawthorns as they leafed out well this spring and are now in full blossom. One thing I didn’t discover until the lower branches began producing flowers as well as the upper is that this particular variety of hawthorn has flowers that – well – smell like something died. This hasn’t stopped bees from visiting it as well as the expected flies, wasps and other odd-looking insects. Makes me wonder what the honey might taste like.

Hawthorn tree flowers

Another much less welcome plant has shown up again as well. That would be poison ivy (the plant, not the DC villainess)

Poison Ivy leaves

The photo above shows the leaves at dead center. Most people know the adage; ‘Leaflets three, let it be’. But there’s another rhyme associated with the plant which is less well known. ‘Berries white, take flight!’ The plant has non-descript tiny flowers which produce whitish berries. These are toxic to humans but not to birds who devour them without any hesitation. The seeds in the berry survive the trip through their digestive tracts and get excreted with a nice little packet of bird guano to give them a good start. So if you are wondering how those darn poison ivy vines started growing where none had been before, that’s how. I use long handled clippers for trimming them back as far as I can without risk to myself, not being brave and bold enough to try pulling them up by (gloved) hand.

Within the past few decades, another vine has made its appearance here in northern New Hampshire. Virginia Creeper now grows rampantly along local roadsides often overwhelming other plants. It has occasionally been mistaken for poison-ivy but only by people who can’t count. Poison-ivy has just three leaves, while Virginia Creeper has five.

Virginia Creeper vines

While it is native to North America, it is sometimes classed as an invasive due to its exuberant growth. Because of its handsome dark red color in the fall, people have sometimes planted it as an ornamental only to rue it afterwards.

Virginia Creeper in fall

Given how fast it has spread around the area here over the past few years, it would probably qualify as America’s answer to Kudzu. However while Kudzu is actually edible, Virginia Creeper and its dusty blue berries are to be avoided due to their oxalic acid content which can cause digestive upset and even kidney problems. As with poison-ivy berries, birds are not bothered by this substance and can eat them without worrying about intestinal blowback. Many songbirds relish them and turkeys will eat them as well. With the recent boom in the population of turkeys introduced to this state starting back in the Seventies, their favorites foods have spread along with the birds themselves; Virginia Creeper, grapes, and (gulp) yes, poison ivy.

Although I live in a residential neighborhood in town, a surprising number of animals still share the area with the humans who have overrun it. Bears will trash feeders if available, woodchucks and raccoons will cheerfully raid unprotected gardens and what they don’t get, the deer will polish off. Chipmunks and grey squirrels are ubiquitous along with the occasional red fox. Once several years ago I spotted a bobcat trotting across my lawn early in the morning in a very business-like fashion. Not sure if he was a vagabond or if he actually lived in town. It wouldn’t surprise me if he did as there is enough prey around to support a townie lifestyle. Most of these critters stay carefully out of sight so it’s easy to be startled by how many there actually are. The Covid lockdown last year emptied the streets of humans and as a result a surprising number of critters popped out of the woodwork much to the astonishment of many people.

Each summer presents its own challenges as well as pleasant experiences. It will be interesting to see what July brings to the table. Happy Summer!

White tailed deer

Guest Star

Chinese astrologers

In July of 1054, Chinese astrologers took note of the astonishing appearance of a new star in the sky. Alarmed, they quickly put a positive spin on it as there could be unpleasant consequences for not predicting such a strange event. As star-like objects appearing temporarily were referred to as ‘guest stars’, they documented the appearance of this new ‘guest star’ object as being on July 4th, giving a detailed description and noting its position in the constellation Taurus. According to their reports, so great was its brilliance, it could be seen by day for nearly a month before gradually fading. Accounts indicate it could still be seen in the night sky with the naked eye for two years before disappearing completely from sight.

What the astrologers had no way of suspecting was that the strange manifestation they documented was in fact not a new star but an old one undergoing its final death throes. Often classified today as a Type 2 nova, it involves a star roughly 8 to 15 times as massive as our sun, burning through its fuel to the point it can no longer sustain fusion reactions and undergoes a catastrophic final collapse which burns through the remaining material in a split second producing the awesome explosion such as the one witnessed a millennium ago.

Other ‘guest stars’ were observed over the following centuries but it wasn’t until modern astronomy began taking shape that sky observers began grasping what these strange objects were. In the eighteenth century, a French astronomer named Charles Messier avidly searched for comets after witnessing a spectacular comet, the great six-tailed comet of 1744. However he was greatly irked by comet-like objects or nebulae which he often at first mistook for actual comets, distracting him from his search. He began compiling a list of the various objects and their locations as a way to avoid future confusion. One of the objects he catalogued was a fuzzy diffuse object located in the constellation Taurus which he listed as M1. We know it better today as the Crab Nebula.

Crab Nebula

It wasn’t until the nineteenth century that astronomers began grasping the true nature of supernovae. In 1866 English astronomer William Huggins discovered lines of hydrogen while using spectroscopy to observe a recurring nova in T Coronae Borealis. He made the suggestion that a cataclysmic explosion might account for the unusual spectrum. Other astronomers began investigating as well but the power which lay behind these explosions didn’t become apparent until the early twentieth century when physicist Arthur Eddington speculated on the role of nuclear fusion as the source of energy for stars.

At roughly the same time, the Crab Nebula in Taurus was finally identified as the probable source of the supernova of 1054 as the Chinese had noted its location in that constellation. Along with Chinese records, historians have located a Japanese account about the ‘guest star’ as well as the writings of an Arab Nestorian christian which referenced an earlier document. Much has been made of the lack of records from Medieval Europe leading to some absurd speculation that Europeans somehow myopically failed to notice the visible by day supernova but bits and pieces of possible accounts have been located, indicating medieval scholars were not oblivious to the spectacle in the sky. The paucity of European documents is most likely the result of political turmoil in the intervening centuries leading to loss of these precious records. No doubt European astrologers would have taken note of the ‘new star’, writing and speculating about its implications for their charts, but unless there are accounts lingering in a neglected archive somewhere, it is most likely these have been lost as well.

Medieval print of astrologers

Supernovae occur in our galaxy roughly twice in a century’s time but the last supernova visible to the naked eye occurred in 1604. The majority of time, most novae are hidden from sight by the heavy lanes of dust sprinkling the arms of the Milky Way galaxy. There’s much interest in studying them as they show the variety of ends different size stars will meet. Our sun is too low in mass to undergo a supernova explosion. Instead it will sedately burn through its fuel for about nine to ten billion years (it’s at the mid-way point right now) before swelling up into a red giant, slowly puffing off its outer layers and finally ending its days as a white dwarf star.

More massive stars (above the eight sol limit) will burn through their fuel at break neck speed, the more massive the faster. After just a few million years, they too will start to expand as super-red giants, burning first through their hydrogen, then helium, then carbon and if the star is massive enough, the core burns down to the element iron precipitating the final implosion which creates the super-nova. Because mass is so critical in determining what finally happens to the star, they are objects of intense study.

Scientists are able to observe novae happening in other galaxies but there’s nothing like a ring side view for getting an extraordinary light show. Several years ago Betelgeuse, a red super-giant nearing the end of its life began dramatically dimming, leading to excited speculation it was about to go super-nova. At roughly 600 light years distance, it would be far enough away to pose no threat to Earth but provide us the first clear view of a star exploding close up (in stellar terms). Alas, it was not to be. Betelgeuse began brightening again so all that was going on was that it was ejecting a big gob of dust and gas (the stellar equivalent of phlegm) which obscured the star for a brief time.

Still, it’s only a matter of time before a giant star in our galaxy explodes so we finally get an opportunity to witness one of the most awesome spectacles Nature can produce armed with a battery of scientific instruments available for teasing out the secrets of this stellar cataclysm.

supernova starting to blow up

Entertaining the gods unaware

Offering hospitality towards visitors is an old custom, common to every culture you could think of. In traditional cultures it was often considered a moral obligation. You needed to treat any visitor, either people you knew or strangers from a far off place with equal courtesy. Underlying it is the idea of treating others as you yourself would wish to be treated if you were in a strange place.

In ancient Greece, it was known as Xenia. In a time when conflict could be just an insult away, it was important to treat guests with generosity. You might never know who was sitting at your table as a guest. Folk tales gave accounts of what happened to those who either honored Xenia or violated it. Once Zeus and Hermes, disguised as mortals, tested the hospitality of a village. Looking like beggars they were spurned by nearly everyone except an elderly impoverished couple who welcomed the strangers into their home and shared what little they had with their visitors. The gods punished the other villagers by sweeping them away in a flood while sparing Philemon and Baucis because of their generosity.

A similar attitude exists in India, where it is explicitly assumed the visitor might be a divinity in disguise and should be treated accordingly. The Odyssey depicted a variety of tales exhibiting the benefits of Xenia. It also showed what would happen if Xenia was violated. The cyclops Polyphemus not only failed to show any hospitality to his visitors, he even devoured several of them with relish before being blinded by the wily Odysseus.

In the novel I’m currently writing, a character is introduced and has an unusual experience which unbeknownst to him involves a bit of Xenia….

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Officer Joseph Burrows munched on his roast beef sandwich, occasionally popping in a large wedge of potato fry. He had settled his chunky frame at one of the outdoor tables set up in the tiny park a few blocks from the station. The seat was hard as a rock but he wasn’t going to sit in it long enough to make his hip ache. Just long enough to chow down and then scoot back to work. As usual the take-out fries were good if a bit salty but they always cooled too quickly. He wished there was a good way to keep them warm. The cardboard container they were in just didn’t cut it. Maybe he should bring one of those insulated plastic containers his wife used. Just something to hold the heat in while he ate them. Maybe Keith was willing to eat cold fries but he sure as hell couldn’t. Keith could eat pretty much anything without even hiccuping. He wasn’t on duty today though so Joe would have to toss the cold ones. He hated wasting them but there was just no way he could eat them. They’d sit like a lump of lead in his stomach for the rest of the day if he did.

The rookie assigned to him should be starting today. Jacob Armstrong was tall, lean, with auburn hair and the kind of light complexion that would burn like a torch if he stood out in the sun too long. Fresh out of the police academy, he was bright eyed and bushy tailed, obviously raring to go. Joe always looked forward to showing the new kids the ropes. They’d start out so wet behind the ears they’d leave a puddle behind them but he’d guide them along, correcting any misconceptions they had, watch them fumble a bit but then pick it up little by little. The new kid looked so clean cut, Joe was surprised he didn’t squeak when he walked. But he suspected Jacob was sharp enough that he would probably catch on quick. The department always assigned the most promising ones to him. Whatever rough edges he had, Joe would expertly trim off, buffing and honing him. With any luck he’d leave a good officer behind to take his place. Damn, he’d miss all this once he retired.

A passing taxi honked its horn repeatedly, the driver leaning out the window glaring at the vehicle in front of him, swearing and giving the classic New York City salute with a tobacco stained digit. Joe shook his head. He knew the guy, having cited him a few times for illegal parking. Once of these days he was going to wave his finger at the wrong guy and then all hell would break loose. People were so damn short-tempered these days. With any luck Joe would already be drawing his pension by then. I’ll have to remember to warn Jacob about that moron so he’ll know to watch for him. Joe took another bite of the roast beef.

An enormous black bird soared down and landed on the concrete barrier near him, shaking its feathers out as it settled down. Joe’s eyes had a little difficulty focusing on the thing at first. Jesus, that’s not a crow, it’s a raven. He thought, as his eyes finally adjusted to the size of the bird sitting just five feet away. A feeling of unreality settled around him. Christ, he’s a big mother. I didn’t realize they got that big. He looks like he could take on Uncle Sam’s eagle. The raven stared at him intently, black eyes shining with ageless intelligence, then looked down at the package of fries.

“Hungry.” It croaked unmistakably. “I’m hungry.”

It took a moment for Joseph to remember to swallow the piece of sandwich he had been chewing on. The feeling of unreality increased. Okay, Joe my man. A giant raven just asked you in perfect English for a handout. What are you going to do? Well, there were several options, running off screaming being one of them. But this was New York City. The Big Crazy Apple. There was only one thing he could do.

“You can have the fries. I’m not going to be able to finish them.”

“Thank you.” replied the raven, Who hopped down and quickly polished them off. Once done He flew off. Joseph watched Him for a moment, powerful wing strokes taking the bird, if that’s what it was, rapidly out of sight. He finally shook his head. The wife will never believe it. Never. Hell, I don’t believe it. He had the odd feeling he had just been tested in some way though he wasn’t sure what the test was for. Probably one of those things he’d have to wait on until he got to the Pearly Gates before he found out the answer. Finally he laughed and finished his lunch.

Hugin, resuming His journey around the world, burped. In spite of the Age of Iron, it was nice that some mortals still had respect for otherworldly beings. Most humans would have just run or tossed a rock at Him. This one had responded correctly, with generosity, which pleased Him and would no doubt please His Lord as well. But He probably shouldn’t have eaten those fries. It felt like they were going to sit like a lump of lead in His belly the whole trip.

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So always show courtesy and generosity to whoever or whatever you meet. You just never know….

Make Old Tech New Again

A recent posting on Ecosophia which was part of a series on the topic of American occultism, covered the subject of a grand old American tradition: the fine art of tinkering. In this case the kind of tinkering done by people often kindly referred to as ‘cranks’.

Mad Scientist

While Mr. Greer’s posting was occult oriented, he pointed out that while the majority of people regarded by those about them as ‘cranks’ often were out in left field in terms of what they were working on, not all were failures. One of the most notable inventions of the 20th century came out of a home bicycle shop run by a pair of tinkering brothers named Wilbur and Orville Wright who created the first successful powered flying machine large enough for a man to pilot. While another tinkerer Samuel Langley created a successful small unmanned steam powered aerodrome, the design did not scale up well and manned test flights of his design failed miserably.

Tinkering has long held a special place in American history, associated with do-it-yourselfers, inventors and the occasional mad scientist. While some dictionaries define tinkering as an attempt to improve something in a casual or desultory way, that is not the reputation it has had in American culture. For us, tinkering is a way to improve or invent. It can be a way to allow the tinkerer to become familiar with his or her material in such a way that innovation becomes more likely. And it still continues to hold a place dear in our hearts. What’s the first thing you do when something in your possession is no longer working right? If you’re like me, you go straight to YouTube looking for how-to videos.

Do It Yourselfer

Reading the comment section of Mr. Greer’s posting shows that tinkering is still alive and well. Commenters put up dozens of links to documents, some off-the-wall and but others profoundly useful. People don’t just love to tinker, they seem to have a deep seated yearning to tinker, something probably connected to our having opposable thumbs, as old as our urge to hunt, garden and gather. It’s not enough just to download a new ‘app’ on your I-phone anymore. People actually want to do things with their hands and express their creativity. There’s a feeling of self-mastery which comes when you do it yourself, something you don’t get when a machine does it all for you.

Long before everything went high-tech, there was no end to the gizmos cooked up to accomplish any task you could think of. The LowTech Magazine website is filled with articles describing various low tech ways of doing tasks which anyone with a little mechanical skill could achieve.

Who was the innovator who came up with this little beauty? A hot-water radiator with a built-in warming oven for keeping food hot until you are ready to bring it to the table? Talk about killing two birds with one stone!

Hot water radiator with built-in warming oven

While toilets are not really a new invention, the gradual adoption of the water closet and the indoor plumbing which went with it in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries did much to end the cholera, dysentery and other water-borne diseases which shorted the lives of many people of those times. Not exactly high-tech but then it didn’t need to be. You just needed a good knowledge of valves, woodworking and how water flowed.

Water Closet

Tinkering is not enough, of course. In order for your tinkering to have results, you have to be a keen observer of your surroundings and spot an opportunity.

brick fruit wall

Noting that stone and brick walls would hold and release heat even after the sun went down, led to the creation of fruit walls. This innovation allowed for the cultivation of fruit trees far north of their usual range, taking advantage of the micro-climates the fruit walls created. The curving design of the above walls increased their stability and made small niches that fruit trees could be tucked into and trained to grow up on.

Tinkering is a non-stop process which requires great perseverance and a high tolerance for failure. Not everything you tinker on will pan out as hoped. Thomas Edison, a famous inventor from the late nineteen hundreds into the twentieth century, once remarked that he never failed, he just found 10,000 things that didn’t work. In the case of the incandescent bulb he was working on, he went through thousands of fiber types before he found a carbonized cotton filament that succeeded in giving the steady light he was searching for. In our instant gratification culture multiple failures may be hard to swallow but it’s essential if you want to reach that moment of success.

All too often these days, tinkering takes the form of pre-packaged kits with directions to be slavishly followed and creativity taking a back seat. We need to get away from this. With climate change, resource depletion and a host of other issues threatening us, genuine human creativity will need to come back front and center. It’s gotten us through quite a few bumpy spots and can do so again but the sooner we start, the better.

Extreme tinkering, Frankenstein