It was cool and windy yesterday. Click on the image for a larger view.
Tag Archives: Nature
Oak Apple Gall
While clearing up some low hanging limbs on one of our oak trees, I found this under a leaf—an oak apple gall. The gall is created by a tiny wasp of the Cynipidae family that lays its egg in a young oak leaf. The secretions from the egg cause the leaf to mutate and create this structure—humans are not the first to experiment with genetic engineering. If you open the gall up, you will find a small center capsule that holds the larvae and is suspended by filaments stretching out to the thick walls of the gall. The wasp will emerge later in the summer. This gall is about an inch in diameter. Click on the image for a larger view.
Blackberry in Bloom
Our fruit plants are going through their annual flowering cycle. At the beginning of May, our wild plum was in bloom. The middle of may brought the blossoms out in our apple and peach trees. Now our blackberry canes are blossoming. These are in our field, but the blackberry under our forest canopy are also out. Click on the image for a larger view.
Celebrating Spring Revisited
At the end of April, I was so excited about the arrival of spring. The flora was returning and the weather was warm. A month later, the forest is a rich mass of green. Oddly enough, in winter, the forest is spacious and full of light, yet there is an absence of life. Now, it is dark and closed, but full of the vitality. Click on the image for a different view.
A Changing World
This is not some strange specimen under a microscope, but a composite image of two satellite photographs from the NASA Earth Observatory web site showing the high and low water level in Lake Mead in 1984 (high) and 2016 (low). What you are seeing is the difference between those two images—black means there was no change. The bright fringe around the lake is how far the water has receded. It also shows the development of Las Vegas to the west of the lake. The dark center of the city is where it was already developed in 1984. Most of this water loss and development has happened since 2000. Here are the original images: Continue reading
Water and Rock
The Swift River in the White Mountain National Forest. Click on the image for a larger view.
Memorial Day Weekend
Naomi and I went to the White Mountain National Forest on Saturday. The weather was hot and humid—unusual for this time of year, especially since the temperatures reached 93°F. This is also one of the busiest weekends to travel to this park. While it would have been nice to be at the cool summit of Mt. Washington, we had no desire to jostle with the crowds. We had lunch at the bottom of the auto road and simply enjoyed the view. Click on the image for a larger view.
Peach in Bloom
May is such a dynamic time of year. Flowers seems to be taking over the whole world. We planted two Red Haven peach tress. Those too are in bloom. They are young trees and we have harvested only a few fruit in the previous years. Perhaps this year we will get more. Click on the image for a larger view.
Apples in Bloom
Our apple trees are in bloom. We have several varieties, but the blossoms are surprisingly similar—the foliage has greater variety. These particular blossoms are on a tree we call Midori-chan. Click on the image for a larger view.
The First Foliage
The emergence of the spring foliage always takes me by surprise. Not only in how fast it happens—it seems like last week the trees were just beginning to bud—but also in the intensity of color. This evening’s sun seemed to make the forest glow in a burning green-yellow flame.
The other thing that caught my attention this evening was was the scent of new plants. While the air in winter is fresh and clean, it is rather sanitized. You seem to forget the world has a fragrance. And when I passed our lilac trees, the sweetness of the air was almost unreal. It is really nice to see spring taking hold. Click on the image for a larger view.
