Earth, environment, green, nature

spring 2023

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Spring has sprung.

The deer are eating the tulips for the third year in a row.  So this year, before planting a bunch of new bulbs, Floyd and I put up a 6-foot (2m) fence of plastic bird netting.  I found some long 1x2s in the garage, pulled the nails out, sharpened the ends with Father’s band saw, and hammered them into the ground.  Unfortunately, nightfall had already begun.  (I wonder what passers-by would think.)

I went to Peavey Mart to get some gardening supplies.  While looking around, I was surprised to see a cat just laying about.   Was he protecting the store from mice?  After all, he was sitting on a stack of feed, likely a mouse’s dream come true (except for the cat).

Along with spring comes spring cleaning.  I’ve finally phased out the old computer and brought in the new.  Along with that is also an old sound system I have had for about 15 years, replaced with a very small sound bar.

40°C, global heatwave

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Pretty worrying.  The entire northern hemisphere on the glob is in a heatwave.  For the past few days, we’ve seen temperatures hovering around 40°C.  Lytton, BC, has stolen the North American “hot spot” from Nevada.  Lytton, unfortunately, is now gone.  The fire season has started already.  Fire ripped through the town, and 150 people evacuated.  No one injured, so they think.

inside looking out

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If I were a wild animal, I don’t think I’d want to be in an enclosed area.  But in Parkbridge, deer come in in the morning and leave at the evening.  They spend their days meandering around the park, eating what they can, and sleeping the rest of the time.

I saw this one on the back way home from shopping.  We just stood there looking at each other.  We, as people, personify various animals.  The deer is obviously thinking, “Why is that guy outside of the enclosure?  Doesn’t he know the dangers?”

Reversing that, would the deer be personifying (or, rather, deerifying) me?  The human is obviously thinking, “It’s too bad that fence is there.  I’d like to kill that deer and eat it.”

nature is amazing

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I get awe-struck sometimes of how amazing nature is.  There is a type of insect that has the only functional gear mechanism evolved in nature, that we have found at least, long before people designed it.  There is a bird that mimics the sounds of up to 14 other species of birds and, believe it or not, chainsaws.  Yesterday I read another article online entitled Scientists Discover a Major Lasting Benefit of Growing Up Outside the City.  I haven’t had a Netflix subscription for ages.  I do, however, have a subscription to curiositystream.com because of nature documentaries.

Here are a couple of pics taken out / by my kitchen window.  I bought this and hung it on a garden / camping hanging pole duct-taped to another long pole.

how many trees?

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According to one study, it’ll take about 1.2-trillion trees to absorb enough carbon to completely neutralize and reverse the carbon-emissions greenhouse effect that is (apparently) going on around the world.  Deforestation in various places should be reversed; the land there isn’t good for much anyway except forest as they’ve been ranched to death.  People plant green grass in their front lawns; how about shrubs, fruit trees, shade trees?  Anyway, I thought it was interesting.

Carpeted in trees, the 2.82 million hectare Chiribiquete National Park in Colombia sucks CO2 from the atmosphere. (CNN)