It’s amazing how fast this month has come and gone. So much has been happening, it’s hard not to be left a little dizzy by it all. A Thanksgiving Day storm allowed only one of my brothers to come for dinner. It was a quiet meal as we avoided politics and stuck to mundane topics like odd family relatives, cat hijinks and how easy it really is to replace the battery in a watch.
The weather in the earlier part of the month was mild enough to I was able to snap this picture in mid-November of a dandelion plant, near the edge of the road, sprouting a pair of bright yellow flowers.
There have been enough frost so that it’s unlikely pollinators will be visiting these blossoms. But dandelions are rugged little beings. If they could talk, they would say “We don’t need no stinking pollinators.” They can self fertilize and set seed. The seeds can lie dormant in the soil for up to five years before sprouting. The plant can re-sprout from bits of small taproot left in the ground. No matter what you do to them, they can bounce back from any blow.
Now there’s snow staying on the ground so winter is here, at least for now. But take a lesson from the dandelion. It’s possible to bounce back from anything. If a lowly weed can do it, so can we.
With Halloween on the horizon, it’s worth looking back over the past month. October is one of those transition months, where late summer and early winter duke it out. Global warming has pushed the first frost date into October instead of mid to late September, the way it used to be when I was young. Not that I’m complaining, mind you. A few extra pleasant sunny days are always welcome. It also extends the growing season a few weeks longer. My calendula has been faithfully blooming, though thanks to the light frosts of last week, insect pollinators have largely vanished. A pot of johnny-jump-ups that I had dumped into the garden since it looked like the plants were winding down, instead has put out a new crop of small bright flowers. A very nice surprise for so late in the season.
Still all good things come to an end. Columbus Day weekend is usually considered the end of the summer tourist season with a brief respite before the skiing season starts. Tourists come for a look at the fall foliage. It’s always a busy long weekend but this past holiday stood out for the shocking hordes of leaf-peepers it brought. Franconia Notch was apparently the go-to place to see and everyone must have decided to come on the same day.
The above is an image taken by a hiker showing how packed things were. Some locals who had come were shocked by the enormous number of people.
Artist’s Bluff (shown above) was filled with humanity and if you look closely, you will not see any protective barrier at the cliff’s edge, nothing to stop some idiot from falling over it. Fortunately no one was injured but some locals who had come for the view had difficulty enjoying themselves. WMUR interviewed one woman who stated she felt unsafe with so many people jostling and elbowing up and down the trail. And who could blame her?
Such huge numbers of people also meant a lot of trash was left on the trail. Two employees from the Tramway took it upon themselves to go up and brought out several large bags of rubbish, ranging from plastic water bottles to used disposable diapers. It was great that they were conscientious enough to do this, but it shouldn’t have fallen upon them to collect trash. The tourists themselves should have cleaned up after themselves.
This is a problem afflicting all tourist attractions ranging from Mount Fuji to the beaches of Bali, not just in terms of trash but in the vast press of humanity. Everyone wants to see the beauty of nature but in such large numbers, the risk is that they will love it to death. It might be useful to come during the off season, but if everybody decides to do that, we’re no better off than we were before. One solution might be charging a fee to enter the favored spot but of course this blocks out people who can’t afford it. Another is to limit the number of people who can enter the tourist attraction at any one time. The risk here is disappointing people who might have to call ahead to see if they have any chance of getting in. There probably is no perfect solution to this dilemma.
Perhaps we might benefit by simply staying closer to home and discovering the beauty and occasional surprises of our own local area. While out walking last week, I came across a stone wall abutting someone’s property. On the stone wall was an open padlock someone had forgotten. No one has touched it as it is no use without the key. But someone found a use. A very tiny someone.
Within the red circle I drew on the photo is a very, very, VERY tiny spider, barely visible even with the arrow pointing at it and the circle around it. Its body wasn’t much longer than one of my eyelashes. Even this late in the season, this minuscule being was spinning a web on the padlock, showing that hope springs eternal.
Enjoy the rest of this fall and be sure to keep your eyes peeled. You never know what you’re going to see.
Well, the big birthday Seven-Oh has come and gone for me. I don’t feel a whole lot older than I did at this time last year, however old age is one of those things that creeps up on you bit by bit. Maybe a little more gray and couple extra wrinkles but slow enough so I don’t really notice it. Sometimes there’s a bit of stiffness in the morning but that goes away quickly once I start moving. Not often, fortunately, though when it does, it brings to mind the late comic Tim Conway’s character The Old Man, barely moving at a shuffle.
So what has changed over the years I’ve lived in my home town? Quite a bit and yet a lot is the same. It was and still is a small town. There was a Newberry’s store eons ago with rows of little bins with trinkets fascinating to a small child. Now the Newberrys is long gone. I’m old enough to remember shoe stores that would measure your feet and order shoes which would fit and not cause discomfort. Yeah, you paid a little extra for them but it was worth it. Now the small town shoe stores are gone as well so you order online while you cross your fingers.
Big box stores like Walmart and Home Depot have muscled in, wiping out most of the local clothing and hardware stores we used to have. But some small businesses have managed to soldier on and prevail. A local candy and gift shop is still hanging tough, though the Covid shutdown threw them for a loop. A book store which started up over fifty years ago has gone through multiple incarnations and still prevails in spite of Amazon. Also enduring is the local diner as well as a small restaurant on Main Street.
Residential neighborhoods still look the same, though people have come and gone, with small town suburbia slowly spreading into the countryside. Both the fire and police departments have their own buildings now, moving out of the Town Building where they formerly resided, in order to avoid the traffic and stop lights on Main Street as well as escaping from very cramped quarters. The only drawback to that is that their new digs are just a few streets away from me, so I hear them whenever they go bombing out on a call.
Some changes seem to fall into the ‘How Long Will That Last?’ category. All of the big box stores built themselves on the local flood plain, becoming obvious whenever a heavy rain happens, which seems to be happening with more frequency now. The flooding we had last July turned Walmart and Shaws into temporary islands and caused water damage at Walgreens. The much touted Riverside walk next to the Ammonoosuc River with picnic benches and wrought iron railings experienced a small land-slide at one end putting the picnic area at risk. Ominous looking cracks have appeared on the small sidewalk running along the river. Since the riverbank at that point is extremely tall and steep, any repair job will be complicated as well as expensive. Even if it’s done, the can is only being kicked just so far down the road. Land slump happens.
Nature itself has undergone changes. Rainfall seems to be in the feast or famine area. After a number of years of abnormally dry weather, we now get deluged with heavy rains. While it hasn’t gotten a whole lot warmer over all, the growing season is extending itself. Fall frosts seem to be receding into October when once they began in early to mid-September. Last winter’s temperatures almost never fell below zero degrees Fahrenheit, something I found unprecedented, having lived here my entire life. I’m curious to see what this coming winter will bring.
When I was a child, cardinal birds were a rare and exotic sight. Now they are nearly as common as robins. It’s been ages since I saw any indigo buntings, scarlet tanagers or Northern orioles. They may still be around but greatly dwindled. The orioles used to build their nests on the elm trees around town. Unfortunately Dutch Elm disease blasted the once-elegant trees lining Main Street and are sadly long gone. The change in vegetation as well as much development have altered the environment, making it less suitable for these lovely birds.
Other invasives are gradually altering the landscape. Now we’re watching for the emerald ash borer and the hemlock wooley adelgid. Queen Anne’s Lace, Japanese knotweed and garlic mustard are steadily invading, looking like they’re here to stay. There’s been no sign of the Joro spider as yet, so it’s too soon to know if it will have any effect on the local weaver spider population. Naturalists seem to think it’s not having too much of an impact. Let’s hope they’re right.
Virginia creeper (a native plant) began making its appearance in my area about twenty years ago, probably seeded in by turkeys and other birds who like to eat the small blue colored berries,which are inedible to humans. I’m not sure if it was here in Northern New Hampshire to begin with but it is definitely expanding its range. The vines grow vigorously anywhere they can (which is pretty much everywhere). I’m constantly pulling them up, leading me to dub them the Kudzu vine of the northeast. Their saving grace is the handsome garnet color they turn in the autumn.
I’m sure there are more changes to come. Barring accident or illness, I anticipate another twenty to twenty five years of life, as both my parents lived to be 91 years old. We seem to be living in interesting times now. While I don’t expect total apocalypse, things will definitely never be the same. I think we’re resilient enough to get through it.
August this year has been a mixed bag this year. While my home town didn’t get the devastating rainfall that Eastern Vermont did (8 inches in one evening in Saint Johnsbury), we still had some flooding which badly damaged a number of roads, Route 18 having a section of road completely washed out and the local Walgreens being partially closed for weeks after getting flooded out. Things are slowly but surely being repaired and looking more normal. Walgreens is open now, though you can still see the interior floor damage especially near the entrance.
I went light on the veggie garden this year. Pushing 70 years, my back isn’t quite as eager for gardening anymore unlike the rest of me. Though I planted only two short rows of wax beans, they did well. Potatoes and carrots seem to be doing all right, but I haven’t dug them up yet, so I don’t know how well they actually performed. The single parsley plant I have has been quite enthusiastic so I anticipate getting a good supply from that to garnish soup with. Plenty of rain helped.
It’s a major change from previous years when abnormally dry weather was starting to look like the norm. Now the pendulum is swinging the other way with soaking rains and grumbly thunder showers. One which went through last night rumbled for the longest time before it decided to drop some moisture. Not a lot though, just one tenth of an inch.
Both this year’s rain and the rain we had last year has had a beneficial effect. Biting insects like the black fly and mosquito have really boomed along with those annoying little gnats which try to fly up your nose for reasons known only to themselves. Various butterflies have increased such as Eastern Swallowtails and assorted skippers. Also, the bumblebee population has rebounded quite a bit after looking for a while like they were on the way out. I’m careful not to use any pesticides or herbicides on my property which could impact their population. Also reappearing are sweat bees.
The ones I see are the green sweat bees like the one above. There may be other types but they don’t catch the eye with bright colors like the insects I saw. Sweat bees get their names because they are attracted to the minerals and salts we sweat out during a hot summer day. They come in a number of varieties, some of which are solitary and some forming small colonies, not quite a hive as each female has her own brood, formed mostly for defense. They are very small, serving as important pollinators for native flora as well as commercial crops like squash, sunflowers and tomatoes. My lemon thyme bloomed profusely this past month and attracted hordes of these tiny insects. While I guess the females can sting, they are very unaggressive. You would really have to disturb them quite a bit to prompt a self-defense attack and they’re so little, it’s not likely to hurt that much. Simply leave them alone and enjoy the bright emerald color they bring to your garden.
Last week, while doing my morning walk, I spotted this Brobdingnagian creature perching herself on the seed-head of a Queen Anne’s Lace.
She’s a variety of orb-weaver spider native to America, her abdomen from what I could tell was easily an inch long. I feel safe in calling her ‘she’ as the male of her species is much smaller compared to her. Quite often less than a fifth of her size, he needs to approach with caution when intent on mating as she is very apt to eat him. The tiny peacock spiders of Australia have a similar problem but try to solve it by being brightly colored, dancing back and forth as well as engaging in an elaborate semaphore with their front legs. If they do it right, they get a date but if not, they’re dinner. It’s a rough world out there.
Now the sky is opening up again with rain and rumbles of thunder, putting an end to any hopes of weeding this afternoon. Special weather statements were issued about a strong thunderstorm in my area but so far it seems to be skirting us, just grumbling in a threatening fashion and dumping some more rain on us. Oh, well. Tomorrow’s another day.
A tall delicate looking flower has made its appearance in recent years here in northern New Hampshire. Known as Queen Anne’s Lace, it is a non-native biennial plant said to be a progenitor of the garden carrot. Some states designate it as ‘invasive’ but it’s an attractive enough flower that it can make a nice addition to wildflower bouquets containing other ‘invasives’.
The flowers consist of umbrels of tiny white blossoms with a curious minute purple flower directly in the center which is said to be vestigial. They have no perfume that I can detect (other than a faint musty odor) and the only pollinators I have seen upon it are flies and ants. At first I thought the ants might be herding aphids but close examination of the blossoms showed no sign of aphids. Some garden carrots I planted a second year to see what they would do, produced identical flowers to the Queen Anne’s Lace and had the same visitors.
An alternate name for this plant is Bird’s Nest. When the blossoms go by, they begin curling inwards producing a cup-shaped seed head.
The ‘nest’ has small seeds around the edges with burr-like bristles which can catch on animal fur or clothing and so disperse the seeds.
Commercial carrots do exactly the same thing which is why Queen Anne’s Lace is also known as Wild Carrot. If you dig up the root of Queen Anne’s Lace, you will find a long narrow yellowish tap root with a carroty odor. They are edible but no where near as flavorable as the supermarket carrots. Also it is recommended that only first year plants be used as second year roots will be bitter tasting.
This, of course, brings us to the issue of identification. Queen Anne’s Lace has several toxic look-alikes such as Fool’s Parsley and Poison Hemlock. Various field guides will explain the minor differences which will help you distinguish between them. I use the Peterson Field Guide to Wildflowers but there are many others which are useful. Make sure you can safely identify them all before you begin experimenting with wild edibles. Gathering plants should be a fun project, not a one-way trip to the hospital or morgue.
In addition to its edibility, Queen Anne’s Lace has medicinal properties. It can be used as a diuretic for removing excess water from the body. In addition to being an anti inflammatory, it is helpful for the digestion and is thought to have anti-cancer and contraceptive properties. While little or no research has been done to confirm all the possible benefits of Queen Anne’s Lace, its reputation at least as a diuretic and digestive aid, can make it worth your while to add this to your personal pharmaceutical collection. If you have a garden, you can acquire the seeds of this interesting plant to grow yourself.
Have a happy August!
Queen Anne’s Lace’s modern day commercial descendant
