Year-End Review

It's time to put a pin in 2021 and relegate it to either the dustbin of history or the bonfire of public health.  Here are a few thoughts that I'm drafting rather extemporaneously during the week leading up to January 1, 2022.  

When I flip back through the early January posts, I'm impressed at how much detail I put into each day's writeup.  I'm sadly reminded that unbeknownst to us, we would lose Paddy this year.  The aftermath of the November elections would shake the world and vaccines would finally become available to most Americans.  At the time, we couldn't foresee (but should have guessed) that Delta and eventually Omicron would appear.  

2021 Saw my baguette skilz mature. 

In the Botanic Garden, they closed to the public even outdoor areas on Mondays and Tuesdays for the first half of the year.  As the Plant Label Guy, I was able to go in on Monday and get a little labeling, engraving, or mapping done.  I held back from Nature's Notebook until after I was fully vaccinated in April.  Since then I've been taking my usual place in the rotation.  

The CWG in November

February brought abnormally warm weather and then snow followed by a bitter cold snap.  I kept busy with NM Native Plants and my monthly rare plant essay on FB.  Monthly presentations to the Bonsai Club continued as well as participation in 3rd Saturday workshops via Zoom.  

A late season storm brought cold and snow to much of NM.  We only got a wee drizzle in ABQ, but between that and the October 2019 freeze, there was damage to some bonsai.  Later in early June, a freakish hail storm would further damage the broadleaf bonsai and other garden plants.  

Construction on the house next door continued and by April, with the back wall completed, we could start on the raised bed.  It was quite successful and we continue to experiment with its unusual combination of sun and shade.  

I hit 50,000,000 AP in Ingress on May 23rd and decided to recurse, setting things back to zero.  Since then I've managed to climb back to level 11, a happy (and powerful) state of affairs.  I continue to enjoy Ingress due to its combination of enjoyable and surprising portal locations and the spatial awareness that it requires.  Perhaps it will stave off dementia.  

By June tours had resumed at the Garden and by July we had held a NW Abq PAG picnic at the Matthew Meadow Park.  Johnny Heal and his wife Ela would visit and things looked to be getting back to normal.  Board meetings at the Zoo resumed.  Grocery shopping wasn't with Doordash any more.

There were unmasked birthday parties with dozens of guests at Nikki and Bob's place.  Caro's birthday was just 4 of us:  Debbie, Caro, Cecile, and me.  Outdoors at the Garden no longer required a mask (but indoors still did). 

In the fall Sheila and I had a student volunteer to help out in the herbarium.  The herbarium had been relocated to a small room near the HDRG and for a while, access was a problem.  Now that Maria has given me keys, things are much more convenient.  

But then Delta reared its head and, eventually, Omicron.  As infection rates picked up again, we pulled back.  We boosted and started to do at-home tests, both PRC and antigen versions.  Masking had never gone away, but by year's end, I'm using K-95's all the time.  

Henry Cat has had ups and downs all year.  He has gotten quite vocal, either when hungry or when climbing up on his various perches, yet his activity is nearly normal and his weight is 13 lbs 8 oz.  We've got him in remission from the lymphoma.  

In the late summer Deb and I took up bicycling to our benefit.  Only in November did cold weather finally stop us.  That said, it's only been 16° a couple nights and unseasonably warm and dry all fall.  We're expecting rain followed by 11°, the coldest yet, on New Year's morning.  

So let me ring out the old and ring in the new with a photo of Le Sommelier Stella, the neighbors' cat, who has gotten quite a Facebook following for her exploits with tasting our wine.  Cheers, everyone! 

Dec. 30

Today is the 30th, that bastard stepchild of New Year's Eve.  Earlier this week we learned that E. O. Wilson of conservation and island biogeography fame had passed away as well as Thomas Lovejoy, champion of Amazon biodiversity (he introduced the term).  Great minds lost.  

I've decided to take a hiatus on my Native Plants of NM monthly rare species Facebook postings and to cut back on bonsai club presentations.  Instead, I'll be devoting some CPU cycles to regional and community conservation issues rather than highlighting individual species, fun as that is. 

 

Ninja Grill

I have yet to take this bad boy for a spin, but there are a couple of ribeyes in the freezer that I'll try on Wednesday... 

 

Platinum Epoch

Back on Christmas Day, I hacked the last of my current 7-day streak.  That gave me 30 completed streaks and earned me my Platinum Epoch badge. 

The Onyx Epoch badge requires 30 more 7-day streaks, so it's unlikely that I'll chase that one.  Perhaps in a couple years I'll nail that one. 

Meanwhile, on tap for this evening is a holiday dinner and gift exchange with Cousin Kathy and Blake.  We'll reprise our earlier holiday menu with the Political Action Group:  ham, spanikopita, etc. 

E. O. Wilson

I learned that that powerhouse of evolutionary biology, E. O. Wilson, passed away today.  His specialty back in the day was ants and sociobiology.  Later in life he took up the dual causes of conservation and biodiversity.  Until I read his obit in the NY Times, I did not realize that he was the sparkplug behind the Encyclopedia of Life (EOL.org).  Even though he wavered on the subject of inclusive fitness, he is still considered one of the greats of modern biology.  His influence will long be remembered.  

The Last Sunday of 2021

I suppose I should write up some clever retrospective of the past year and get ready to publish it on New Year's Eve.  I've largely managed to post every day for 2021 with a couple missteps that I was able to backfill.  I'll have to give the matter some thought.

Meanwhile, I plan to take a vacation from my NM Native Plants monthly posting and probably back this one off to once a week.  I'll also be dialing down my Bonsai Club video presentations.  

So here's a toast to 2021:  may we never see your like again (except for Biden getting reelected). 

 

A Pandemic Christmas Day

Hunkered down on a cloudy, cold Christmas day in our wonderful home.  Safe.  Warm.  Overly well-fed. 

Ty and Nirankar are off to California to visit her grandfather.  They met snow in Flagstaff.  

 

Yuletide

Terry dropped by with a big plate of baked goodies.  Yumm! 

Getting set for a visit to Deb's place this afternoon.  All tested and ready to go.

Happy Christmas, everyone!

Happy Festivus!

Santa's elves have been busy...

 

Bonsai Board Zoom Meeting

 

Plotting the first quarter agenda for the Bonsai Club with the new board members.  

Biodiversity

Biodiversity and climate change are finally getting some attention.  

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/dec/20/2021-world-finally-woke-up-to-dangers-aoe  

But with fossil-fueled nonsense like Senators Manchin and Sinema, what chance do we have?

Argemone pinnatasecta

Herbarium E-mails

It started with an e-mail blast from Bob Sivinski on the NM Rare Plants list-serv.

From: NMRAREPLANTS-L <NMRAREPLANTS-L@LIST.UNM.EDU> On Behalf Of Bob Sivinski
Sent: Friday, December 17, 2021 2:18 PM
To: NMRAREPLANTS-L@LIST.UNM.EDU
Subject: [NMRAREPLANTS-L] NM Herbarium Speciments

External                                                              

  [EXTERNAL]

After relying on SEINet for studying so many aspects of the NM flora, I decided to take a quick look at the number of herbarium specimens and observations for NM counties in the SEINet consortium (attached).

As expected, the counties with mostly private land in the eastern plains are the least collected areas and counties with universities or mountain ranges with National Forests are the best represented. Some of these numbers are a bit overblown because of numerous specimen duplicates being sent to various SEINet herbaria. Still – you can get an idea of where we might start putting in a little more effort to better sample the state.

NM plant collection intensity fluctuated over the years. It started a downward slide in the 1980s, but picked up again around the turn of the century with Ron Hartman and his student’s efforts in the northern mountains and the Heil et al. expeditions to more thoroughly collect NM. Recent years, however, show NM collections waning again. UNM herbarium receives fewer specimens now and NMC stopped contributing NM collections to SEINet in 2015. Fortunately, SJCC, Jemez and SNM (especially bryophytes) are still fairly active. BLM collections are increasing at various district offices, which unfortunately are not lending institutions. A surprisingly high number of NM plant specimens end up going to herbaria in Arizona.

Maria Thomas picked up on this and chimed in with a kind word about our Botanic Garden herbarium.

On 12/18/2021 8:34 AM Thomas, Maria J. <mjthomas@cabq.gov> wrote:

Hello,

Karl Horak has been spearheading an herbarium here at the Botanic Garden. This is something I think we could definitely assist with. CC’ing Karl to get him excited about the idea. I know UNM has a herbarium as well but it may be beneficial to keep samples in multiple locations.

-Maria

To which I replied...

Happy Christmakwanzakah, everyone,

We continue to be enthusiastic about the little BioPark herbarium.  With a retired archivist and an eager student from SIPI helping out, we've been making good progress on mounting the backlog of specimens that were waiting in the presses when Covid shut us down. 

So far we've exclusively collected from the Botanic Garden, focusing on rare plants and specimens that we think would be helpful in educational programs.  We're also trying to get a wide representation of the plant families that are here at the Garden. 

Meanwhile, between Clay Meredith's IUCN red list work on medicinal species, the citizen-science work with Nature's Notebook, and the Botanic Garden's seed bank, there's plenty of conceptual room to expand.  That's even if our cabinet is only half-height (https://www.southwestsolutions.com/divisions/museums/herbarium-botany-storage-cabinets/stacking-counter-height-museum-cabinet-specimens-collection-preservation-storage/).  While that link shows our model, I have no idea where the Rotary Club purchased the kit that we have.  It would be nice to think that in some future upgrade of the Botanic Garden there could be a dedicated research center.  Maybe we can get Dr. Spellenberg out of retirement to help out. 

Cheers!

Karl

And finally, a suggestion from Bob.

A good idea to have dried specimens of all the plants in the garden plus the common landscaping plants about town. Might get a lot of public inquiry and use.

Cheers for the Holidays,,, Bob

 

Sunday Recovery

You wouldn't know that there had been a gathering on Saturday.  Every dish has been washed, all the plasticware put safely away in recycled/recleaned storage, and Henry Cat released from kitty confinement.  

Stella admires the treat table

Holiday Gathering

After 2 weeks of planning and prep, we'll be hosting a gathering of friends from our political action group.  A few have declined to come for fear of the contagion despite the fact that we are all getting tested beforehand.  True, the false negative rating means someone with an active infection might be in the group, but it is only ten.  

Photos and immunologic reports to follow...

Kadomatsu

There will be a Kadomatsu workshop in the HDRG Atrium today.  Caro and I plan on attending.  

Holiday Baking, Parts 4 & 5

I've already knocked out the Stollen back in November and finished off koulourakia.  Debbie and I made a huge batch of finikia last week.  Today we'll be baking pecan dreams and Pizzelles.   

Winter Rain

After a surprisingly warm day (high of 58°), we were expecting a windy cold front.  So far, we've gotten a fair bit of rain, maybe 0.05".  We'll see what the dawn brings.  

As it turns out, it was incredibly windy over night well into the early morning.  It was blustery all day, too.  Apparently a huge old tree in front of the cathedral in Santa Fe was blown down as well as a tree on James Robinson's property in Los Alamos.  No issues for us here in the Near North Valley, though. 

Stella did show up and spent some time on our porch, enjoying the heated blanket that Caro got for her.

 

 

Gary Schroeder

From a very talented illustrator and terrific human being... http://www.gschroeder.com/blog/2021/12/10/how-an-infographic-comes-together  

In other news, two days ago I checked off Recursed Level 11. 

Year-end Phenology

Today is the last observation period for me for Nature's Notebook  2021.  The rest of the team have their rotations for the next two weeks.  I return to the field on January 3rd.  

Also today is likely my last garden tour of 2021.  I'm just short of 118 service hours.  If I can put in 10 more hours, this will be my second best year.  Of course, my best year was my first when I had requirements to fulfill and wasn't spending any time on plant labels.  That was 227:30.  

Here Sandy and Sheila watch a porcupine in Siberian Elm #1 while four cranes fly overhead.  

The porcupine was surprisingly active for a daytime porcupine, moving among the branches, eating elm buds and bark.

Henry Cat

Henry's weight is up and here's a photo of him enjoying the sun...

 

To Infinity and Beyond!

Friday is for Fake Tours

New docent training this year has placed much emphasis on shadowing the other more experienced docents.  I've volunteered to give a version of an evening tour that mimics our summer night walks in the Garden.  It will take some imagination considering that it will instead be 10:00 in the morning and, if the forecast is to be believed, with howling winds.  

Right now I have two students signed up for Friday shadowing:  Vikki Ratliff and Ilona Montera.  We'll just have to see how this goes with the weather.  I just now (Thursday early a.m.) checked Weather Underground and KRQE.  The forecast has been updated with less precipitation and wind in ABQ arriving later on Friday instead of Thursday afternoon.  As it turned out, 5 signed up and we all survived the blustery winds.  

The big news is the temperature drop.  While it will be near 60° Thursday, we might see 18-22° Friday night into Saturday morning.  Time to move the old Gingko and the dwarf Wisteria into the garage.  Others might get covered or have their pots wrapped in bubble-wrap. 

Meanwhile, for your viewing pleasure, here's a Romanesque broccoli head that we consumed the other night...

Thursday is for IrisBG

Last week's IT meeting at the Botanic Garden was postponed as Mario had technical difficulties.  We've rescheduled for 9:00 Thursday.  While Maria has IrisBG now on her desktop computer, there are other machines that need to be configured.  

Also on the docket will be working on Floria, the smartphone app that connects to the IrisBG backend.  That's exciting because it will allow gardeners and visitors to touch the data.  While the gardeners will have the ability to update the database, visitors will only have read-only access.  Most exciting will be the ability to view maps on mobile devices.  

_______________

Today is also our anniversary, so Caro and I will be spending the evening at home with a delicious charcutery board and Champagne. 

Wednesday is for Water Heater

This morning the water heater will be serviced.  Interestingly, the descaling solution is considered ecologically friendly.  Eugene just dumps the used solution in the gravel of the front yard.  

MTA Mike, the bug guy, will also drop by.  I'll be riding herd on all the activity at the house while Caro is at her first physical therapy session.  With any luck, that will have an impact on her headaches, which have plagued her for months now.  

Then in the afternoon Debbie is coming over to help bake finikia, the wonderful Greek cookies stuffed with nuts and cinnamon, soaked in honey and lemon water.  

Schadenfreude without Shade

https://dev.lareviewofbooks.org/article/schadenfreude-without-shade/

Yes, prophets (and artists) are without honor in their own country. 

Today will be busy with Caro's car in the shop.  I'll need to drive her to a training/familiarization session at the new gym.  (Sad that Fifty and Fit has closed.)  

Finally, late in the day, the BioPark Board will have the last meeting of 2021 via Zoom.  

Phenology Monday

My rotation has come round again, so off to the garden I go for a splendid morning of observation and a stroll.  

Actually, all the leaves are brown.  This is from 3 weeks ago.

Afterwards, I hit up Walgreen's and John Brook's before heading home for lunch and a nap.  Then out again to mail a package to Athena and pick up Caro's Rx.  

During all this, I continue to chip away at levels in Ingress.  Almost to Recursed 11.  

 

Sunny Day Musings

My early morning kitty care dealt with cleaning a litter box in the middle of the night (don't ask) and feeding Henry Cat a 3:30 a.m. snack.  Now he's wandered back to the bedroom and is snuggled up to Caro.  I get to continue my midnight readings.

One that I found fascinating was an article on what a sustainable diet might be for the planet in view of food supply chain carbon emissions...   https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-021-03565-5.  The bottom line is eat less meat and more fruits and whole grains.  

Another article, apparently one that went viral quite some time ago, is "How to Do Nothing."  I'll have to give it a detailed read later today.  For now, I've skimmed it mostly and only occasionally taken a deep dive into one section or another.  At the end, a lovely quote from “Nature Manifesto” by Elisabeth Nicula, in which she says:

The act of observation inserts a separation between the self and nature, protecting nature. Observation inserts nature between the self and the unknown, protecting the self. I’m not embarrassed to love nature, wild animals, and plants. I love them as individuals and as ideals. There is no hierarchy of creatures. There is no hierarchy of rocks, water, air and skin. (“Nature Manifesto” in LRLX’s State Change) 

In a final note, today is the Botanic Garden's 25th anniversary.  Aquarium, too.  Happy Quarter of a Century Celebration, everyone.  

 

Sir Henry du Gray

I should mention that we got good news on Wednesday regarding Henry Cat's blood tests.  He's holding steady in all the important metrics, which means he is in remission for his lymphoma.   

Freya's Day Musings

Another episode of "Pollinators in the City" and a photo of Stella sniffing around my afternoon glass of sherry. 

 

Thor's Day Musings

I managed to catch the "Pollinators in the City" webinar and contribute to a Sandia / Davis Management Group video chat.  Not a bad day.  

The weather remains warm, easily 10°F above normal.  No snow, barely freezing temperatures at night.  

Le Sommelier Stella seems to spend a fair amount of time on the heated pet blanket that Caro put out for her.  

SIPI Tour

Melanie arranged a tour of the Botanic Garden with her teacher at SIPI for the other 5 students in their Natural Resources Program today.   I brought along a copy of Watkins' 1886 paper on Navajo plants and their names.  Turns out it uses a older style of transliteration that was difficult for the one Diné native speaker to read.  Perhaps there's a project out there to update this information and connect SIPI with the Botanic Garden. 

We spent a good bit of time in the herbarium out by the HDRG.  That leads to discussions about biodiversity, ecology, sustainability, endangered species, and even careers in botany.