The Sky is Falling...

Do we heed the warnings?

In bocca al lupo. m (no v )

Color and Clouds

OMG! We almost had rain!  There was some precipitation and, oddly, the plants in the garden appear to have actually grown afterwards.  Yesterday there was not enough lettuce to harvest, today I have a big bowl full. And where did the new 3ft shoot come from that rose? Hmm?

Anyway, in celebration of seeing actual clouds and not just a lingering marine layer: color today.

In bocca al lupo.  m (no v)

Windmill

Still working on the barn project.  One of the few local windmills that still operates.  I don't know how much water it's pumping.  Texas is underwater and California is becoming a dust bowl.  Is there anyone out there who still doubts that there are some changes occuring to the climate?

In bocca al lupo.  m (no v)

Today 3/30/15 Apple Trees, Fog, and a Rescue

Sunrise in the apple orchards of Corralitos, California.

Fog along the jetty in Moss Landing

And a reminder that this is a world in crisis.

Warmer waters are possibly the cause for so many stranded sea lion pups this year; the most in recent memory.  Normally the cold currents infiltrate the bay, causing an upwelling of nutrients from the bottom which attract fish into the bay making for a cornucopia of delights for all manner of marine life. They also create the winds that we usually experience in the month of March.  No winds.  No replenished food for the marine animals and mother sea lions are having to travel further and further to sea to find nourishment. This is happening up and down the coast of California, not just the Monterey Bay. Marine Mammal Rescue was alerted to this little fellow's plight and hopefully he'll thrive under care.

In bocca al lupo.  m (no v)

Today 3/14/15

The Marine Layer tried to float in last night, but whatever is making this summer in winter has defeated it yet again.  And to think, I used to complain about it...

Don't move to California.  If you are cold and there is snow on the ground, at least you have water...we don't.

In bocca al lupo.  m (no v)

School in Session

A group of fish do not expect other fish to pick up after them.  We have a lot to learn.

In bocca al lupo  m (no v)

Close Encounters

Yesterday morning, as I sat at the kitchen table writing a "to-do" list for the garden, I had a surprise visit from one of my most important and newest garden helpers.  In broad daylight Baby suddenly appeared at the bowl just outside the kitchen door.  For the past four years we have had the pleasure of opossums in the garden.  Generally they come at night.

Our first encounter was with Arthur.  We were returning from an evening's rehearsal at our local community theater.  Upon entering the kitchen we found all three of our cats and Hannah the dog, sitting at the kitchen door looking outward.  At first I thought there was a tiny kitten looking back in at them, but when I turned on the back porch light, lo and behold, it was a tiny opossum!  He just sat on the other side of the glass door watching all of us watch him.

That was my first encounter with a live opossum, and I wasn't sure what to think about it. He was very tiny and unaccompanied.  Research told me that he would be a benign visitor.  During a conversation with a fellow volunteer at the Monterey Bay Aquarium about wild visitors to our gardens I mentioned Arthur and her first response was "then you probably don't have any snails!".  Well, as a matter of fact v and I had been remarking about the fact that the hundreds of snails we used to deal with had disappeared mysteriously.  I wondered if this were a sign of global warming. Were snails becoming extinct?  How bad was that?  Well, mystery solved! And Arthur was an honored visitor, as were any of his relatives who happened to accompany him from time to time.

I believe we met his mother and there was a gnarly older, and much bigger guy that showed only once (I'm glad) that may have been his father.  An old, rheumy looking fellow with a portion of his tail missing showed once or twice as well, we called him Uncle Nestor.  Last spring a new baby showed up with dark legs and a deep widow's peek, Rosie.  And now Baby.

Even though the literature tells us that opossums have a very short life span, Arthur was a regular visitor from when we first saw him peering in at the cats four years ago, til very recently.  I have no evidence that he has died.  Rosie comes frequently and Baby has been sporadic.  We used to see Arthur during daylight hours, but until Baby showed yesterday morning he was the only one.  We've never attempted contact, though the cats and the neighborhood Tom have all spent time sitting quietly by of an evening while Arthur munched away on leftovers in their outside bowl.

Some might be aghast that we welcome these little marsupials to our garden, but they are clean and benign visitors.  I don't have to put out snail bait or any other form of pest control. My vegetable seedlings sprout and grow with nary a leaf chewed.  Earwigs must be a treat as well, because they no longer consume the tender sprouts or hide in between rose petals.

Far from being the ugly, naked faced animal I used to think opossums were, Arthur is graced with a sweet face.  Baby resembles him.  Rosie has stronger features, but she's still a pretty opossum.  No, I don't really know the sex of each, I just guess and may be quite wrong.  Arthur could well be the mother of all the rest.  Whatever...his family is welcome in our garden.

In bocca al lupo.  m & v

Warm and Warmer

Finally the fall leaves I was looking for back in...the fall.  News reports have been full of the reports that 2012 was the hottest year yet recorded in the contiguous U.S.  It certainly stayed warm through to November.  Now a drive through the countryside reveals the late fallen leaves.

The world is heating up.  The acceleration began in the late 80's and into the 90's.  I'm going to ask that you think about something else here. Just like the effects of sun damage on skin takes years after exposure to develop,  our current rapidly accelerating global warming is not happening because of the damage we inflicted on our Earth last summer (and we continue to inflict plenty).  The resulting effects of our current contribution will not be felt for about fifty years.  When I heard this I had to reflect on "what was going on 50 years prior to the onset of that sudden, and continuing, acceleration of climate change back in the late 80's to the 90's"?   World War II and the atomic bombs, and all of the other catastrophic bombing that occurred in that and subsequent wars.  Also, bombs aren't dropped just in combat, they must be developed and tested.  

I am concerned about all the attention, albeit important, put on "how do we stop global warming?", instead of serious discussion of just plain "how do we adapt?"  Because adapt is what we have to do.  If we stopped all activity that causes accelerated global warming tomorrow we are still facing steadily rising temperatures for the next 50 years. Is anyone really willing to do what needs to be done?  We can't even agree on the causes anyway.  Bombs aren't going away, planes aren't going away and cars aren't going away.  The world as we know it is going away.  In the mean time the east coast of the United States is facing seriously rising oceans and yet after the devastation of the storm Sandy people who can afford it are rebuilding right on the coast; homes and businesses.  It seems always to be someone else's problem.

In bocca al lupo.  m & v