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Thoreau Thursday
The other day, when I noticed a host of gnat-like flies outside the kitchen window, it was 54 degrees F and overcast. Nothing to see here, people, move along. Well, actually, we can see an awful lot here. The top specimen is, I assume, male, because of those moth-like feathery antennae; the better to sense you with,…
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Raptor Wednesday
A Bald Eagle at Croton Point. In February, I had 61 raptor sightings (!), a count which includes a total of 18 sightings during two trips up to Croton Point. More about non-violent protest. The take away: demonstrations are good, need to continue, and get bigger. Here’s a list of actions in NYC. Here’s the…
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Naturalia
Still a few days left to catch Naturalia at Paul Yasmin Gallery here in NYC. Exhibit ends on March 4th. It’s a thought-provoking mixture of old and new representations of nature in collaboration with Sotheby’s Old Masters division. The juxtaposition may leave you with a confirmation of what you already knew you liked to begin…
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Hot February
Yesterday, in Green-Wood, some Cherries and a Red Maple were blooming already.Record-breaking temperatures raise the bar to the new normal. A nice review of climate change now. People, from the rotting orange head of the regime on down, can say it doesn’t exist; they can suppress research; intimidate scientists; but they can’t change the radical,…
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Annual Anniversary Subscription Appeal
Probably the earliest I’ve ever seen the turtles so frisky in the Sylvan Water. I hope you’ll consider subscribing to this blog if you haven’t already. It’s free (what a deal!) and easy. Sign up on the upper right. You’ll get a confirmation email. Confirm. Hey, presto! I usually post in the morning. A number…
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Mocking
Funny: Congress members hiding from the citizenry. Par for the course of the anti-democracy strategy necessary to keep a minority party in the majority. But claiming “paid protestors” are the new “outside agitators”? That’s rich for people who take money from outside their districts, states and even, via the Chamber of Commerce’s money-laundering shell-games, nation.…
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Breaking the Lock
Rebecca Solnit’s “Tyranny of the Minority” in the March Harper’s nails it: “Republicans’ furious and nasty war against full [democratic] participation has taken many forms: gerrymandering, limiting early voting, reducing the number of polling places, restricting third-party voter registration, and otherwise disenfranchising significant portions of the electorate. Subtler yet no less effective have been their…
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Sturnus vulgaris
The view from the moraine recently. Here’s another view: ten things you can do to make Trump toast. (We can hardly wait for his resounding condemnation by history, after all.) Beyond the usual pressure, constant pressure on reps of all parties, I for one was intrigued by the notion of becoming involved at the county political…
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Twiggy
The twigs right now! The twigs! Green, red, orange, brown. Spring is coiled for the spring. This is our old friend Liriodendron tulipifera. Look at those leaf scars! The bundle scars, too, are nice and obvious. In the Native Flora in Winter course I just took at NYBG, some species’ bundle scars were damned hard…
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Raptor Wednesday
See me?Well, I don’t want to be seen. Speaking of being seen! There are lots of elections this year, and although the Republican anti-democracy campaign plows full speed ahead, their nasty little oligopoly isn’t here yet.
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Backyard and Beyond 