Last And Best

Day 13: I have long held with the motto, "Learn something new every day," however this particular lesson was several years in the making. Today, I discovered one last kiwi fruit hanging on the vine thanks to the fact that most of the leaves have dropped. I had found a stray berry about ten days ago, bringing my total year's harvest up to seven, but this eighth one was a bonus in many ways. First of all, it was the biggest and sweetest, but more important was learning that the fruit remains on the vine even after a light frost. Leaf-fall makes it easier to find and, as is also the case with grapes, a touch of Jack Frost's paintbrush set the sugar. I'm smarter now than I was when I went to bed last night having had a fine lesson in horticulture from the greatest teacher of all, Mother Nature.

Killing Frost

Day 14: We've had our first "killing frost," 26° F to be exact (that's -3.5° C to you metric types). Any delicate plants are done for, tender annuals terminated, and the coup de grace has been delivered to the vegetable garden, but over there on the fence, the bryophytes are demonstrating what it takes to survive in a harsh world. How do they manage? The secret lies in the ability of their tissues to husband sugars. When frost draws moisture out of them in a way which would kill most other plants, it serves to concentrate the sugars within mosses and lichens, thereby lowering the freezing point. Cold-hardy plants utilize this same strategy, although most of them aren't as good at it as the bryos. You can't help but admire the evolutionary process here. A bit of vegetation we deem "primitive" is better equipped to withstand climate extremes than we are. That should make you re-think your position in the scheme of things, shouldn't it?

Frost Art

Day 65: "Wintry mix, patchy fog, snow." That's what my forecast looks like for the next week, with the possibility of rain mixed with snow for solstice. In any event, Jack Frost has been busy lately, with some areas of the yard not thawing at any point in the day. I bring the hummingbird feeders in at night, and even before first light, the Anna's have emerged from torpor and have begun looking for breakfast. Again and again, I am astounded by those tiny creatures' capacity to withstand temperatures which would throw a human into hypothermia in very short order. When stood up against a hummingbird or mosses and ferns, the human animal seems so very fragile and vulnerable, and certainly not the superior beings we imagine ourselves to be, or at least not in a biological sense. Our perspective is skewed by our ability to use tools, and yet if we look at the situation objectively, it is tool use which is bringing us to the brink of extinction. Perhaps the hummingbirds and ferns will survive us.

Fractal Fantasy

Day 48: Yeah, I know...it's the time of the year when everybody posts pictures of ice, but ol' Jack did such a lovely job of decorating my bin last night that I can't resist. You could get lost exploring the fractal coastline described by his crystalline map of fjords, inlets and bays, but only for a few minutes until you became aware that his nippers were getting dangerously close to portions of your anatomy you'd prefer to keep intact. Western Washington is experiencing a cold snap of unusual depth for late November. Here, the last several nights have held just barely above 20 F., and the afternoons haven't crept above 40. Twenty years ago, I'd have thought nothing of going for a snowshoe/hike or casting a line to the prospect of a dinner of fresh salmon, but these days, those temperatures even curtail my appreciation of frosty art.

Leaf Litter, A Monochrome Study

Day 56: One definition of "hoarfrost" is "a crystalline deposit of frozen water vapor formed on vegetation and other objects at temperatures below the freezing point." It has been particularly lush during our recent cold snap here in the damp Pacific Northwest. It can take a number of different forms from fine needles to crystals resembling those of sugar "rock candy." It differs from "frost" only semantically; the term "hoar-" is appended when the crystals become more distinct than a thin film of ice. On the other hand, "depth hoar" occurs at the base of snowpack, building on existing snow crystals and frequently attaining much larger dimensions than "surface hoar." The word "hoar" derives from an Old English term meaning gray or old.

And That (Said John) Is That

Day 355: It comes in handy for many things, my favourite line from A. A. Milne's "Happiness" poem in "When We Were Very Young":

John had
Great Big
Waterproof
Boots on;
John had a
Great Big
Waterproof
Hat;
John had a
Great Big
Waterproof
Mackintosh -
And that
(Said John)
Is
That.

This morning, it came in handy for the first light frost. I looked out at the moss on the garage roof, saw the sparkles, thought of my tomatoes, and quoted aloud, "'And that (said John) is that.'"

Planting Season

Day 55: The last several Nisqually Land Trust events have seen me absent from the ranks of scotch-broom pullers and tree-planters through the unfortunate circumstance of an irritated nerve in my right leg. On my doctor's advice, I have been wrapping it in a pressure bandage which after a few days seems to relieve the pain, but a day or two out of it, and I'm right back to square one. Consequently, he's taken me off shovel detail on the premise that over-shovelling was probably how I got into this predicament. After all, I did dig up most of my yard last spring, and I'm not as young as I used to be. That said, it has upset me that I haven't been able to participate in work parties at my former level, so Charly (pictured here) suggested that I could do duty as official photographer. Thus I could be found on this 25° morning atop Ohop Bluff with five other stalwart souls, having lugged a pair of shovels down a mile of trail while the stronger members of the planting team carted planters' packs filled with bare-root Doug fir seedlings. While they put 100 of them in the ground, I took pictures and ran around sticking pink flags beside each one to mark them for the later addition of protective plastic sleeves. I am grateful to Charly for having found a small job I could do in addition to my photographic work.