Back to School

High 75.  Sunny.

September first.  Although my school doesn't start until next week, I saw my first school bus of the year yesterday.  It's kind of exciting.  I remember feeling the anticipation of the new year, a new start.  I liked school, and I loved the first day.

A storm blew through this past weekend, and the air has been cool ever since.  If you can ignore the height of the sun in the sky and the vibrant green of the plants, it really feels like fall.  I am heading up to D.A.R. State Forest in Goshen to kayak this morning.  I am in training for the Josh Billings Triathlon!

Tomato Blight

Every summer I look forward to canning tomatoes and making spaghetti sauce, but this summer my kitchen will be quiet.  The flooding rains and cool temperatures of June and July stunted tomato growth and provided Phytophthora the optimal conditions for growth. 

Phytophthora is the genus of fungus that causes late blight.  It's the same genus responsible for the Irish potato famine and sudden oak death in California.  It is not a true fungus, meaning it does not belong to the taxonomic kingdom of Fungi, but is instead a member of the Protist kingdom.  Commonly called a water mold, Phytophthoras spread by flagellated spores that swim through water.  If one wet plant is infected and it touches another wet plant, the fungus spreads, feeding on the photosynthates of its host.  Photosynthates are sugars and other chemicals that plants make through photosynthesis.  Usually, these chemicals are used for reproduction and the plant produces fruit.  But if a parasite attacks, those chemicals get sucked away, and the plant won't be able to make fruits/tomatoes.

So all this means that tomatoes (plants and fruits) have suffered in New England.  A New York Times article published in June predicted this crop failure, as did others I am sure.  And now it is late August, and local tomatoes cost an arm and a leg. 

Thankfully, tomatoes are just one crop grown in my region-the Pioneer Valley.  Kale has done wonderfully, and I have a freezer full of steamed greens for winter soups.  My own kale plants have gone above and beyond my expectations (maybe they can sense my disappointment about tomatoes), and have provided me with POUNDS of leaves. 

I am glad that the theory of farm diversification has been put into practice in my area.  The Pioneer Valley has several small farms, and many of them plant a variety of crops.  I hope the loss of the tomatoes doesn't cause too much economic stress for any farmers in my area.  I can survive without tomatoes, and I hope the farms can.

Hiking on Summer Vacation

High 82.  Cloudy and humid.

New England has been drenched by rain storm after rain storm this summer.  Consequently, I haven't been getting outdoors as much as I would like.  I don't mind hiking in the rain, but the trails can't take it.  They start to erode with rain, washing down hill, and hiking on them only exacerbates the process.  So, I've been staying on the pavement-running and cycling. 

After a spell of dry weather 2 weeks ago, I went hiking in the Berkshires with an old high school friend.  It was great to catch up after so many years apart, seeing how we both have changed and how we both have stayed very much the same.  I liked high school, and I like looking back on myself at that time.  It's reassuring to realize that my personality and temperament have remained fairly constant.  And the hiking was great.  We climbed Alander Mountain, and the trail was very easy to follow.  There were great views from the summit, and we enjoyed the sunshine amid the blueberry bushes there.

Luckily, I planned a vacation to a tougher landscape.  My husband and I spent last week camping in and exploring Acadia National Park.  The granite that is so prominent in the mountains and sea cliffs is very resistant to erosion, so the paths and trails of the park were in fine shape for hiking.  And hike I did.  Up Mansell Mountain, the Beehive and on various smaller paths.  I even saw a program on how crews build the paths, cutting each granite stone by hand.

[caption id="attachment_84" align="alignnone" width="225" caption="Trail up Mansell Mountain"][/caption]

 We did so many things on vacation, and I am not going to list them all here. 

Happy Hiking!

Turtle Season

Cloudy and warm.

During early summer you can catch turtles out and about, looking for love.  On a five mile run a couple weeks ago, I spotted (and almost touched!) a snapping turtle that had at least a 10" diameter carapace.  All dark and spiky, the shell looked wet, as if the turtle had climbed right out of the stream a hundred yards away.  (I know I should use metric...)

Here is a picture of some painted turtles I caught sunning themselves on a branch overhanging Perfume Pond in Easthampton, MA. 

Ravenel's Stinkhorn

This is the second summer in a row that I have found these beauties outside of the Bartley Center on the Holyoke Community College campus.  Stinkhorns are named for their shape and have a characteristic odor.  Some say the odor is of rotting flesh, others say it smells like semen.  To me, it's a toss up.  They just reek!

[caption id="attachment_68" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="Phallus ravenelii"][/caption]

Here is the emerging stinkhorn.  Caught in the act!!

Keepin' up with the rain

High 75.  Cloudy and rainy.

I don't complain about the weather.  This is because my father, a rugged yet sensitive guy with Canadian heritage, always told me not to complain about things you can't fix.  We all have to live with the weather, and there's nothing we can do to change it, so I might as well just move on with my life.

That said, this has been a rainy June.  So much so that I am starting to get concerned about the tomatoes and basil I am expecting in August.  And what makes me even more concerned is that my farmers are disheartened by the weather.  Farmers!

Nevertheless, between rain drops I went down to the Manhan River trails and saw a lovely belted kingfisher (female)!

Pictures

[caption id="attachment_61" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="Columbines"][/caption]

And the visitors...

[caption id="attachment_62" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="Racoons!"][/caption]

Revival

High 74 (expected), Cloudy!

Summer is upon us!  This past spring, I taught Zoology for the first time and loved every minute of it.  Well, not the minutes that were filled with the smells of the preserved animals.  Some of those really stunk!  But it was a pleasure to learn and teach about the animal kingdom.  I am currently teaching an Anatomy and Physiology lab (during the first summer session for the college), and I am having a great time with it.  The course is challenging for the students since it is an upper level Biology course, but the students are dedicated and strong.  Their patience, enthusiasm, and dedication never cease to surprise me.  I get to teach some real good people.

Out of doors, I have been coaxing my garden to bloom.  I had an amazing bunch of huge columbines, fragrant lilacs, vibrant tulips and fluffy apple blossoms (in no particular order).  As I look out my office window, I see the salvia, astilbes and feverfew all in bloom at the moment.  The yellow aster-like flowers of lovage are on their way. 

Although I haven't been hiking much this summer due to the rain and other distractions, I have seen some fantastic wildlife!  Cardinals and catbirds are plentiful this spring.  I saw an oriole in Monson, and a few woodpeckers around the house in Easthampton.  On my way to work yesterday, I saw a bear in Holyoke !  Maybe that's what inspired me to get back into writing this blog!  It was a young bear, and it seemed confused that it had found its way out of the woods and onto Jarvis Street.  This morning I was visited by a family of racoons.  Two young racoons pushed their way through my fence gate, followed soon after by their mother.  I got a couple  pictures of the babies, but of course my camera died when the mama came through.  She hissed at me for disturbing her morning stroll.

Pictures will be up shortly!

April Showers

High 60.  Partly sunny.

Holyoke Community College is situated on a ridge of both sedementary and igneous rocks.  On one end of campus, near the main entrance, you can see the layers of shale in which dinosaur fossils can be found.  A professor told me once that there is a large fossil on display in the courtyard, but I have yet to see this (even though I look every time I walk through).  Perhaps they were joking with me.  The other side of campus abuts a natural area with trails throughout.  The introductory Biology labs go there to study community ecology, and I go there to relax between classes.  This time of year, the skunk cabbage (Symplocarpus foetidus), a member of the lily family, is starting to poke up in the moister locations.  The vernal pools are full of blossoming life. 

It is time for priority registration here at HCC, and I am swamped with work.  My days are filled with students who want to get into classes-"Can I have Mondays and Fridays off and still take the 12 credits I need to be full-time?"-and out of classes-"Do I really have to take Anatomy and Physiology to be a nurse?".  I was able to escape for a little while this morning and sit in the sunshine, resisting all the while the temptation to lay down in the grass.

Spring is here

High 60.  Sunny.

What took Oregon State University so long to post the headline that Jane Lubenchenko was going to head NOAA?  That's the question on my mind this morning.  That's old news, OSU!

In Western Massachusetts the air has turned warm.  The snow has completely melted from my shaded backyard, and I am starting to see my herbs poke their green heads out of the mulch.  Spring has arrived, and after the long, hard winter we've had, it had better be here for good.  I will protest an April snow storm!  It's happened before.

I have not posted in a while because it has been a busy semester!  Truth be told, I knew it would be busy, and now that it's almost over I can't tell where the time went.  Teaching General Zoology for the first time has kept me busy day and night-creating new lectures, tests, assignments and grading these and all new lab reports! 

I've been learning so much through this experience.  Of course, I am delving into the Animal kingdom much deeper than I ever have before, and I am building so many new schemas to relate my old knowledge to the new knowledge.  I can practically feel the neurons firing new pathways!  I am also learning more about teaching, and particularly about how to teach the Animal kingdom.  I won't get into the details here, but my students have given me some very useful feedback about how they are learning.  And to top it all off, I've come up with a service-learning project for the course-salmon stocking with Mass Fish and Wildlife.  Busy, busy!

And speaking of Zoology, I have to go teach.  Today we are covering the Phylum Platyhelminthes-the Flatworms.  I'm looking forward to this one!

Recycling Plastic

High 32. Cloudy and lightly snowing.

As I look out my window at the few flakes of snow that are marking the start of the newest winter storm, I can't help but notice the bright pink plastic bags jammed into the snow in front of my neighbor's house.  I'll have to go pick them up later.  Trash on land usually ends up in streams, rivers and then in the ocean, following a crooked path of hydrology that culminates in enormous islands of trash out at sea.  Once out there, ocean currents act like a vortex and all that trash gets pulled together.  Right now, there is a giant mass of garbage (mostly plastic) floating in the Gulf of Alaska and similar masses are developing in the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans.  I am greatly disturbed by the thought of this. 

What can be done about this massive pollution?  How long will it take before the plastic islands grow so large as to be seen from land?  Or reach land?  I can imagine, in several decades, the oceans being completely covered in trash and plastic like a buried treasure.  The best thing we can do is reduce, reuse, recycle and INVEST in technology that will lead us away from waste as a byproduct of daily life.

Reducing personal waste and reusing packaging materials are the two most important actions we can take in reducing pollution.  I try to keep my garbage and recycling to a minimum mainly by composting and buying food in bulk.  There are numerous ways to reuse old containers-jars can be cups, old food containers can be next year's Christmas boxes...  But we all rely on recycling for the things that are impossible to reuse or worn out.  The following is a list of what plastic can be recycled in western Mass.

Containers- Milk, water, soda, juice, water, cooking oil bottles; condiment bottles, peanut butter jars, margarine and butter tubs, yogurt containers, liquid dish and hand soap bottles, liquid household cleaner bottles, shampoo and conditioner bottles, mouthwash and lotion bottles, pump hair spray bottles, vitamin bottles, liquid laundry detergent bottles and jugs, bleach jugs (rinsed well), liquid fabric softener bottles.

These things cannot be recycled in western Mass-

Polystyrene (styrofoam), plastic egg cartons, deli trays, berry cartons, microwave trays or containers, packaging peanuts, plastic bags, plastic wrap, plastic swimming pools, lawn furniture, flower or plant pots, black plastic, toys, coat hangers, plastics from electronics or appliances, pails, buckets, hampers, cds, video tapes, cassettes, medical supplies, caps, lids, pumps, jugs and pails over 2 gallons, prescription bottles, and bottles that contained motor oil, automotive products, poison, pesticides, solvent, adhesive, paint or other chemicals.

That's alot of stuff that can't be recycled.  I'm going to try to buy non-plastic versions of things when the plastic version can't be recycled.  For example, plastic hampers cannot be recycled so the next time I need a new hamper I'll look for one made of wicker or light wood.  I'll opt for metal coat hangers instead of plastic. 

My students are often frustrated with environmental issues.  They tell me that they are sick of hearing about problems and want to hear more solutions.  I do too, and here is something we can do.  I urge you all to think about your plastic waste and reduce it.  Aim for zero trash.  Know what you can and can't recycle and look for alternatives to non-recyclable items.  No one wants to see a pile of garbage on top of our oceans.

Not another plastic bag

High 34 degrees.  Light snow.

Ice and snow has made it difficult to get outside much this winter.  It seems that almost every winter, someone I know gets a nasty injury falling on ice.  Last winter, I slipped and fell on Valentine's Day.  I wasn't badly hurt, but it did shake my confidence in my ability to walk safely on slippery surfaces.  A pair of YakTrax are a good investment to prevent slips on sidewalks and such.

During this cold time of year, I find myself engaging in introspection.  I particularly ponder ways to live simpler-solving riddles for sustainable living, and such.  Well, here's the recent riddle and solution!

Recently, my parents adopted two kitties from the Homeless Cat Project of Westfield, MA.  Although these little darlings add life and fun to their home, my parents found that they needed quite a number of plastic bags for the dirty litter.  My folks recently converted to reusable grocery bags, but the need for bags was making them take the plastic bags at the checkout just so they would have them for later use.  So, they were reusing plastic bags.  But I knew they could do better.

I work part-time at a yarn store, and we throw away alot of the plastic bags the yarn comes in. It's quite sad, really.  So, I took a big load of these bags to my parents so they can use them for litter.  That way, they can be good environmentalists on two ends (no pun intended).  They can use the reusable bags at the grocery store, and they can put to use good bags that were headed for a landfill.

If you are in a similar situation, ask some local businesses about their bag waste.  It will help you live lighter on the earth, and it's good press for the businesses that send their waste on to be reused!

Winter Reads

High 31, partly cloudy

Snow keeps falling here in New England.  Since it's been wicked cold lately, I have been reading more than usual.  I thought this would be a good time to make a list of some of my favorite books and some most recent reads. 

All Things Great and Small, James Herriot- I just finished this heart-warming and humourous account of a veterinary surgeon in England in the 1930s. 

The Web of Life, Fritjof Capra- I am currently reading this book about systems biology.  This is not a light read. 

The Unsettling of America, Wendell Berry- Every once in a while I pick this book back up and read a chapter or two.  Berry is passionate about the land, and this book is one of his best.

Animal, Vegetable, Miracle; Barbara Kingsolver- I didn't think I would like this book because it came at a time when everyone was talking "locavore," but by the end I loved it.  There's a great mozarella recipe in this book too, for those who want to try something new.

The Omnivore's Dilemma, Michael Pollan- An elegant account of our food systems.  I recommend this over his shorter work, In Defense of Food.

Silent Spring, Rachel Carson- A must read for anyone in my field, and one of my favorite all-time books.  This book brings chemistry to life!

A Sand County Almanac, Aldo Leopold- This book can change your life.  It made me look at sunrises in a whole different way!

Living the Good Life, Helen and Scott Nearing- The authors describe how they went off-grid in the 1930s!  Vegan.  In Vermont.

Living on the Earth, Alicia Bay Laurel- A general how-to book for homesteading or communal living.

Walden, Henry David Thoreau- I bought my first copy new for $3 in high school, and I still have it!

Luminous Fish, Lynn Margulis- In this work, Margulis humanizes scientists and shows that they are more than their research.  We also see that Margulis is more than her own work!

Okay, that's the short list.  Just in time for the spring semester!

A hike at the Hawley Bog

High 4; mostly sunny

This is an account of a hike I took on January 27, 2007.  I doubt much has changed, but perhaps the ice is a little more solid today.

The Bog Trail meets Hunt Road at a nondescript intersection.  There are no trail signs, save for a sign marked "Stop.  Dead End."  The map shows the trail meeting up with the multi-use Poverty Hill Trail in less than a mile, so this sign makes me question the audience of this sign.  Is it meant for snowmobilers?  Because it is possible that this trail becomes unsuitable for them.  Deciding to see where it takes me, I begin following what I can only assume is the Bog Trail.

Up a steep hill the trail meanders along the property ling of Kenneth Dubuque State Forest.  This part, at least, is consistant with the map so I press on.  The trail is wide and road-like, and eventually it forks.  The right fork appears to go toward private property, so I stay left.  The trail narrows.  Young hemlocks, encased in ice, bend over the trail and some need to be pushed aside.  Mountain laurel encroaches on the trail, seeming to grow underfoot.  I get a sense of acidic soil.  Branches and the leathery laurel leaves clatter like broken glass.  I am becoming less convinced that this trail is legitimate when I see snags and cattails ahead on the right.  Obvious signs of the wetland that was shown on the map.  I navigate through the brush and come across a plaque mounted on a rock.  It was a plaque stating that this, Hawley Bog, is a National Landmark.  Amazing, and somewhat unexpected.

The bog was a beautiful sight, but why was it hidden, and why was the trail so unkempt?  How sad that thsi pristine and valuable natural area is underappreciated such that its access is in disrepair.

I walked farther, and spurred on by the open spaces created by the water.  I followed what seemed like a trail, skirting around frozen areas.  But no more than 50 feet from the plaque, the ice underfoot cracked and my leg dipped down into freezing water up to the knee.  Disheartened, I was forced to turn around and head back to the "trailhead".  My pant leg froze and knocked against my boot as I made my way back through the frozen landscape.  My toes slightly numb, I made it back safe and cranked up the heat of the car.

Wolf Moon

High 26, Some clouds

According to the Farmer's Almanac, Algonquin tribes of the Northeast named the first moon of our calendar year the Wolf Moon.  I don't know much about this tribe of Native Americans, except that my grandmother was 1/8th Algonquin, and I should (and do!) resolve to research them more thoroughly.  The Wolf Moon happened last night, and since we had a nice snowfall the day before, I thought that this would be a perfect night for a moonlit snowshoe in the fields near the Oxbow. 

After dinner, I peered out the window, and saw the brightness in the sky of the moon behind the clouds.   My husband and I put on our winter woolies and headed out to Old Springfield Road (Easthampton) at around 7.  Needless to say, there are no pictures from this hike.  It was pretty cloudy, but mild.  The first half of the hike, I didn't think we would get to see the moon at all, but then it poked out of the clouds, and became more visible as we headed back across the fields toward our car.

While we were out in the fields, admiring the brightness of this winter moon and how it reflected off the snow, I could hear dogs barking in the distance.  The sounds of highway travellers were quiet in the distance, even though I could see the head and tail lights of cars on I-91.  But the dogs were loud, and seemed eerily close even though they must have been at least 2 miles away.  The Native Americans called this moon the Wolf Moon because it was accompanied by the howling of hungry wolves outside the camps.  Not much has changed.

View

High 26, mostly cloudy

This is a short post because while I meant to write all week, today flew by.  I have been anticipating the snow storm which has just started, and in doing so, I sort of lost track of the time.  I went for a morning run, to the diner for a hearty breakfast, and then spent time with my sister.

Spending time with my sister meant making mozzarella, a new family tradition for us LaCroixs.  I use a simple recipe that I found in Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver, and (as she says) it really only takes 30 minutes to make a pound of cheese!  Of course, I try to use local milk when possible, or just the best quality milk I can find. 

As I made cheese at my sister's apartment, I enjoyed her view of Mount Tom.  She has a fantastic view of the summit out of almost every window of her apartment!  As we warmed ourselves in her kitchen, I tried to imagine Mt. Tom under 1 mile of ice, as it was during the last glaciation.  I looked to the darkening, clouded sky and tried to imagine beyond.  Beyond the clouds, up into the heavens.  Ice.  The trees clinging to the basalt columns almost seem like opportunists if you speed time forward in your mind, racing toward the present day.  Pine, maple, oak.  But still, there are those cliffs, now growing white and staying so for the next few months.

Ratomorphism

High 32, Wintery mix

I have been reading a bit about animal behavior lately and came upon an interesting idea.  For as long as I have been studying biology, I have known of the concept of "anthropomorphism," ascribing human thoughts and emotions to animals.  For years this has allowed scientists to reason out particular behaviors.  The desire to explain animal behavior, such a human desire, runs deep.  Do animals really "care for" their young?  Do spiders spin a web to catch prey? 

Over the past century or so, scientists have found that it is nearly impossible to infer anything from the behavior of animals.  Studies on the behavior of rats in artificial conditions have brought up more questions than they have answered about the natural behavior of animals.  In fact, after watching lab rats navigate these abnormal conditions, scientists began explaining human behavior in terms of rat behavior.  I suppose that "gut decisions" and some "human instincts" seem more akin to the behavior of other animals.  But it's not that simple.  This "ratomorphic" view of human behavior appears just as misleading as the anthropomorhic view of animal behavior.

New Year

High 31, partly cloudy

Although January 1st doesn't mark any significant event in the natural world, I still get excited whenever New Year's Day comes around.  I love the feelings of new beginnings, fresh starts and clean slates. 

My intention was to spend the New Year celebrating with some friends in the Catskills.  Unfortunately, the snow on Dec. 31 and the cold weather that followed made this impossible.  The windshield washer fluid froze as it was coming out of the sprayer, and I realized that the trip to the mountains might not be such a good idea this time.  So my husband, my best friend and I enjoyed a quiet Eve at home.  On New Year's Day, we ventured out into the cold (10 degrees) for snowshoeing and cross-country skiing.

I had never been to Wendell State Park before, and it seemed appropriate to have new experiences on the first day of 2009.  Julie had never been on snowshoes before, either!  Luckily, the trails were very easy to follow and we had a great time breathing the fresh air and looking for animal tracks (the best one was a mouse track with the tail line still visible).

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="144" caption="Wendell, MA New Year's Day 2009"][/caption]