Kadomatsu Workshop

I've been remiss in mentioning the kadomatsu workshop last Friday at the Botanic Garden.  With the Atrium full of decorations (see below), they held it in the Education Building.  There was some confusion about the location with some people walking out to the Cider Barn before coming back to the correct location.  In the end there were about 40 participants.  

 In fact, so many visitors turned up that they ran out of bamboo, plum branches, and berries.  I took mine home unfinished and added sand cherry branches from the backyard to complete the trilogy of evergreen sprig-deciduous branch-cluster of red fruit.

I will remind everyone to get down to River of Lights while the weather is warm*.  Don't forget to check out the minimalist lighting in the Lebanese Garden and the beautiful decorations inside the Atrium.  They're both easy to miss.  Also, after looping around the Heritage Farm, be sure to go out to the pond in the Japanese Garden and then take the back path (turn west at the railroad tracks) around to the main pond.

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* Warm does not equal "good."  We've got no snowpack and no precipitation in the forecast.  Forget that White Christmas thingie.  Pray that we don't have a terrible wildfire season. 

First Flight Day

December 17th is the anniversary of the Wright Brother's first flight.  25-odd years ago we visited the Wright Memorial at Kitty Hawk.  I had not expected to be so moved.  It's a particularly special place.  

From the top of the hill, I could watch small planes take off and land at the OBX airport.  Since that day in 1903, air travel has become commonplace, drones take our point of view into the sky, and the moon is reachable.  From typewriters and horse carriages, we've come to computers and electric vehicles in an amazing century.  

Switching now to botany, in 1903 there was the publication of A Text-Book of Botany (Strasburger, et al.).  

It's remarkable how much has changed in the past 122 years:  DNA, electron microscopy, PRC, and more.  The Table of Contents has chapters on the Choripetalae and Sympetalae(!).  Systematics has definitely changed our phylogenetic trees.  Even so, I still find joy working with my plant press and my dried specimens, just like botanists have for centuries.  

War... What is it Good For?

Absolutely nothing.  

"At least 6 E/A-18 Growlers from NAS Whidbey

Island flown into Puerto Rico."

Looks like our Sec. of Defense will get his war.  Today we learn that the Navy captured a Venezuelan oil tanker.  This act may have actually had some kind of judicial warrant to give it a cover of legitimacy.  Not that they've bothered with any sort of due process for bombing a couple dozen cigarette boats.  

If this goes as well as Viet Nam 1965, Afghanistan 2001, and Iraq 2003, we should be in for a sad story of wasted blood and treasure.  Glad no one I know is in the military right now.  

Locally, the political season has cooled off until things ramp up next year for state and federal elections.  I'll take solace in our River of Lights with it's normalcy and winter beauty.  We've got our holiday decorations up, so now I can concentrate on cooking and freezing.  

 

Tuesday was a runoff election in Albuquerque for mayor and a couple city council seats.  Incumbent Tim Keller becomes the first 3-term mayor in city history.  Although these city elections are non-partisan, everyone knows who's in which party.  With a Keller victory, Albuquerque will remain a sanctuary city and maintain its blue reputation.

In the city council, one Democrat has won and the other race is too close to call.  Time will tell.  At any rate, I expect sometime in the next year for Albuquerque to face the ire of TCF and his ICE.  He won't be able to do much with the National Guard, since our governor already mobilized them in a strictly controlled fashion.  ICE will risk racially profiling everyone in the city, since we're 49% Hispanic.  For the moment we're locally about as well off as possible under the current national regime.  

What that means is that the BioPark is safe from political machinations.  Our bosque and local parks are in relatively good shape, although they are suffering under the weight of our homeless.  But then, where are the homeless to go?  We'll see if Keller and the council can come up with a solution.  

Photo of our side yard with holiday decorations for the photo tax...

Winter Has Finally Arrived

At long last our record-breaking warmest autumn ever is over and we've had not only a killing frost, but temps down into the mid 20's.  I brought the old Ginkgo and the small juniper into the garage because their pots are shallow and could be vulnerable to low temperatures.   

As the countdown continues to the winter solstice holidays, it's time for me to don my apron and get cooking.  Today's task was assembling the ingredients.  Turns out, it's difficult to find candied fruit for my Dresden stollen.  I finally had to resort to Walmart, where they had it carefully hidden in plain view.  No candied citron, though, so I'll double up on candied orange peel.  Now the mixture (a double batch) is happily soaking overnight in rum.  

I also cranked out the first batch of Chex mix, the aptly named "Glen's Merry Mix," after Glen Jones who came up with the modifications to the basic Chex recipe.  He kept it a secret while he was alive, but his widow, Peggy, took pity on me and passed it on.  

Also during this time of year, the BioPark has a volunteer reception at the River of Lights.  It was, as always, remarkable.  Here are some of my favorites.

The illuminated cherry trees looked amazing despite their particularly fake out-of-season appearance during daylight.  A lot of people walked right by some great side areas:  Lebanon, the Atrium, and even the back route behind the pond.  And surprisingly, many didn't follow the path all the way out to the Japanese Garden.  

What Is This Snow You Speak Of?

Rumor has it that it is snowing in ABQ.  Well, a little more than a rumor, there's the wx radar.  It shows frozen precipitation over most of the city right now (2:15 a.m.).  Then there's the traffic cameras for the NM DOT.  Here's the view a couple miles away and shows streets wet with rain, just like my sidewalk outside my window.   

Then there's one mile further east...

The long and the short of it is that after the main band of rain swept through late this afternoon, another piece of weather curled around from the northwest.  Where the surface was already cold, the snow has stuck, but down in the North Valley, it's going to take more time.  We'll see what the roads look like by sunrise.  

White Rabbit...

...White rabbit, white rabbit!  

Another month has come and gone.  At least I've made the proper magical incantation as the first words spoken (and written).  They say it brings good luck.  I think we need all the luck we can muster.  

December is here and with it we've finally had an official first freeze at the Sunport.  In a few hours I'll be back up and out in the Cottonwood Gallery for Nature's Notebook observations.  I've got miller mitts, phone touch-sensitive gloves, scarf, and the rest of the kit ready to ward off the chill.  

In Wisconsin, my cousin spent yesterday digging out from 10" of new snow.  A friend in Oshkosh sends photos of a white world.  Chicago's airports are a mess.  New Mexico?  Maybe some serious snow in the highlands, but for now, the famous "snow hole" appears to be keeping the precipitation away.

 

They say it's a fast moving storm and it'll be gone by the time I'm out in the field.  Let's hope that the current administration is "a fast moving storm" and gone by next November.