Heists

A quiet Saturday morning with coffee and a personally delivered English muffin (butter and orange marmalade, thank you very much).  They'll be a run to the grocers and then some plant labeling at the Garden later on.  

For now, the topic is heists.  

Quote du jour re:  Louvre jewelry theft:  "Considering the loneliness epidemic and the anti-intellectualism we find ourselves traversing as a society, it’s nice to see a group of friends get together and make museum plans for a Saturday morning."  

The convicted felon continues his grifting by announcing the donors list for the new ballroom.  Amounts were not specified, so we don't know who's first in line at the presidential favors table.  But the deed is done the and East Wing is gone.  A perfect statement of what FELON47 is doing to America:  tearing down a functioning, historic government to replace it with gaudy, corrupt bunce of sycophants.  

Ditto for his demand that the DoJ pay him $230,000,000 for damages caused by his indictments.  The domestic emoluments clause of the Constitution clearly make this illegal and the entire top level of DoJ needs to recuse themselves for the obvious ethical conflict of interest.  

For the photo tax, here's a sculpture seen at the ABQ Museum on our last visit.

Another Estimate

 One other data point that I can add to the discussion of Saturday's "No Kings" march:  a direct count.  I took a 10 second video pointing directly across the street as marchers went by.  See how many people you can count walking past. 

I counted 39.  That's 234 per minute or 21,060 in 90 minutes.  We walked among the crowd from 12:00 starting at 6th & Central down to 2nd & Copper, then back up Copper to 6th St by 1:30 while the group continued to march by.  We never got to the head of the march and never saw the tail of it either, so we don't have a good time estimate for the complete group.  

If anyone was up at the front and can tell me how long it took to complete the circuit, that would be helpful.  21,000 is certainly in the realm of numbers I calculated from the drone footage yesterday.  

No Kings 2

Which of the simulated crowds best match that seen by drone today? If 3.5 persons/sq m, then we're talking about 28,500 people on Central for No Kings 2.

And finally, my CrowdMap polygon, refined to include the crowded sidewalks near 2nd St.

This item https://ash.harvard.edu/resources/the-resistance-reaches-into-trump-country/ from Harvard's Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation published on the 16th would have estimated the turnout today to be [ABQ metro population] * 0.65% protesters.  That would've been 5953 if the metro pop. is 916,000.  We easily tripled that value with my low-end estimate, which means we're turning out 1.95% of the population.  My middle-of-the-road estimate of 24,000 puts us at 4x or 2.65%.  That means the magic 3.5% isn't out of reach.  

After the June 14th No KIngs, it took until August 12th for a solid analysis to come out -- https://wagingnonviolence.org/2025/08/new-data-shows-no-kings-was-one-of-the-largest-days-of-protest-in-us-history/.  I look forward to their deep dive into numbers from yesterday. 

Autumnal Goings-on

The equinox has passed quietly and temperatures are cooling down, albeit slowly.  Terrance has stopped eating, but Tiberius still has an appetite.  Bike rides are pleasant.  There's water in the Rio and in the ditches.  

Political protests are in the wind and old friends from Lake Elsinore are coming for a visit.  Roger Guinn might be passing through town.  Sadly, Annie's Soup Kitchen is closing.  

Nature's Notebook this morning was extremely pleasant after the hot days of data collection this past summer.  No ants to speak of.  No rain (until late afternoon).  Lots of interesting phenophases and time to catch up with Sheila, who I haven't seen since August.  

Tuesday (tomorrow) Maria and I will discuss what to do about labels for the plants in the new Lebanese Garden.  And I still have about 200 of the Backyard Refuge labels to get in the ground.  

Also in the news has been my experiments over the weekend with croissants.  I call them a success, though not as light as some store-bought.  By my calculation, there were 162 layers.  

Fall is in the Air

We've had a low morning temp down to 47° in the past week.  While it's time to start thinking about winter homes for the tender outdoor plants, the forecast has low temperatures only in the 50's for the next 10 days (and only down to 60° for one night).  

While the old Ginkgo is starting to take on a faded green as it thinks about lemony glory in a few weeks, the ones under the Chinese pistache are still quite green.  Amazing how much protection that tree gives the plants beneath its branches.  

Meanwhile, Ty and family head to Cabo San Lucas, BCS and are likely to get some stormy weather.  Tuesday and Wednesday will be wet and windy due to Tropical Storm Priscilla moving by.  She could be a strong Cat 2 hurricane by then.  A potential Hurricane Raymond is about 10 days out and it could make landfall on Baja as a Cat 3. 

Here in ABQ, not only fall, but balloons are in the air.  Day 1 of the Balloon Fiesta was blown out due to high winds aloft that continued until late evening.  Sunday, however, was totally calm and even the complex, large special shapes got off the ground.  

Backing up to Friday, we were in Los Alamos for Barbara Ramsay's funeral mass.  Then we drove home through the Jemez.  Not much color on the east side, but near the Valles Caldera and points west, things were glorious.  

Risotto

Inspired by an episode of "Jamie's Italy," I whipped up his sausage risotto.  Turned out quite well, if I do say so myself.  I was surprised at how well the Nebbiolo went with the dish.  Together with my standard focaccia from a King Arthur Flour recipe and a small side salad, it was a tasty meal.  

 

Labels and Steam

Tonight's post is being written while a delightful heavy rain is falling.  Tropical systems off the west coast of Mexico have been feeding late-season monsoon moisture up into the state.  We need the water.  

Backing up 12 hours, Ric & Kent came over and we went down to the Railyards to view the Santa Fe 2926 that was under steam today. 

She's a great hulking beast with 80" drive wheels.  Rumored to hit speeds of up to 113 mph, we're looking forward to the day when this locomotive will make passenger runs up to Las Vegas, NM for overnight stays in that town's historic hotels.  

Earlier on Saturday morning, there was the follow-up to yesterday's plant labeling.  I updated my spreadsheet and created a map of label locations of the 21 placements.  Each red dot represents a label in the ground.  

All in all, a productive day avoiding political news.  

Labeling Resumes

Last week the owner of Lark Labels (another Karl) met up with Curator of Plants, Maria, to deliver the latest box of 232 labels in the new style.  These are single stakes with scientific name, a common name, a QR code, and the image of a chickadee on a branch.  

The QR code takes one to a web page that references the Valle de Oro Backyard Refuge Program.  That makes lookup for me particularly easy in the field if there's any question about a particular plant's identity.

So the day before yesterday I moved the heavy box with all the labels wrapped in gangs of 5 from the Education Building out to the Herbarium.  Jeffery, the HDRG gardener, helped me find cabinet space.  Curiously, the labels were packaged alphabetically by common name.  

Then yesterday I gathered up my kit and began the task of getting labels in the ground.  Because of the way they were packaged, it was necessary to open up each packet of 5 to see what was in each group.  Then I would sort them into groups based on known location:  desert areas, front gardens, Cottonwood Gallery, etc.  A good fraction of them went into a pile with "no immediately known location."

As I worked up batches of 5 or so, I'd head out into the garden to track down the precise locations.  To my pleasant surprise, the single stakes were much easier to get in the ground than the previous two-pronged "staples."  Because the new label format is currently so sparse in the Garden, I made an effort to choose locations that were in high traffic areas.  Maria and Matt (Northside Assistant Director) will have to come up with some general signage to indicate what the new QR codes represent.  

There were some frustrating surprises.  What I thought was a deodar cedar near the Rosalee Doolittle area, probably is a Cedrus atlantica.  I'll have to ask about that one.  Also, I was unable to locate a scarlet claret cup, Echinocereus coccinius.  Everything I found was an E. triglochidianus.  Also, by relying on Backyard Refuge names, we've ended up with some taxonomic oddities.  Few will notice except the occasional professional passing through.  

At any rate, I was able to get 20 labels in the ground.  At each location, I took a photo of the label and its corresponding plant, perhaps a closeup of bark and leaves, and a general location shot.  I'll spend some time this weekend extracting the EXIF location data from the images and updating my label inventory spreadsheet.  

It was definitely a good day to get outside and avoid the news.  Tariffs, lawsuits, federal retribution, Jimmy Kimmel aftershocks, and hurricanes in the Atlantic have all combined to make the larger world a scarier place.  

The Passion Flower

In a few minutes we'll head down to the HOA Ice Cream Social.  Should be a nice "feed the mosquitos" event.  Nice to see all the neighbors, though.  Afterwards, its back home for gourmet crêpes.  No news tonight; it's nothing I want to see.  

After a quiet day of laundry, cooking crêpes, and turtle feeding, I read reports about the hagiography of Charlie Kirk at his funeral today.  It definitely has the feel of a Horst Wessel moment and there's even a thing called the "Horst Wessel Effect" now.  

The many Christ references from a whole host of administration attendees is particularly upsetting since I find those making the statements are especially non-Christian in their behavior.  When was FELON47 last in church?  His statement about " I hate my opponents, and I don’t want the best for them" is particularly telling.  I suppose as a registered Democratic Party member, I'm already on his shit-list.  That he hates half the country and says so is damning.  TCF continues to play the ultimate victim while claiming to be the ultimate success.  The hypocrisy is stunning.  

I'm tossing in a passion flower, just to remind people (nobody reads this blog, anyway) about the actual passion of Christ. 

Beyond Lebanon

What a curious name for the new garden at the BioPark, "Lebanon and Beyond."  I keep wanting it to rhyme, "Lebanond and Beyond." All in all, it's a young garden with its new plantings all spaced apart as per the instructions.  

Right now all the hardscape features seem too large and out of scale:  3 giant arches to nowhere, a towering chimney, and a hulking dark brown arbor.  With only young plants, it looks ridiculously out of proportion.  I hope I'm around in 15 or 20 years to see the cedars taking form.  

I took the docent training yesterday and it was an hour of minimally useful lecture and 90 minutes in the gardens themselves.  Cesar's talk about the Lebanese Garden proper was informative and helpful.  

Of interest for the herbarium, I see that the queen of the night is about to bloom, but someone or something is snatching the lotus blossoms before they can mature to fruit.  

Of interest for my plant labeling gig, the Lark labels have arrived.  It's 232 days until National Public Garden Day and I've got a list of 232 plant labels to get in the ground.  I'll be a busy boy until first frost. 

It's Always Something

As my friend Ric would often say, "It's always something."  And today proved the rule; the grinder pump has gone out.  First came the electrician because the breaker was not resetting.  Now I'm waiting for the honey wagon to clean out the pump itself, which is completely full.  On top of all that, it's raining, not that we don't need the rain, but it sure doesn't make working on a plumbing problem any easier.  

On the national front, the Kirk shooter is now in custody.  Turns out he is the eldest son of staunch Trump supporters.  Cryptic notes inscribed on the ammunition that he used points to a person with deep connections to some shadowy parts of the Interwebs.  Hide and watch while we learn what motivated his attack.  

Beyond all the above, I've got buy-in from Colin, the Heritage Farm manager, to take a shot at a BioPark conservation proposal.  It would be a local incubator project dealing with biodiversity, regenerative farming, and soil/water conservation.  If it weren't for tonight's plumbing problem, I'd be working on the proposal this weekend.  We'll see if I get a chance tomorrow or Sunday. 

As for a cover photo, I'm turning to the plants we found at Osuna Nursery this afternoon.  The idea is to get some late season color as well as to replace two sickly cascading Euonymus.  There will be some significant planting and potting in the week ahead.  

Terrorism, Lebanon, Fluffy, and Moss

Today a likely lone-wolf assassin shot and killed an outspoken MAGA activist and political commentator in Salt Lake.  Three weeks ago the head of the FBI office there was let go.  The FBI has been well purged by DOGE and a large percentage of their remaining agents are now working on immigration.  Is there any counterterrorism/domestic anti-terrorism capability left in the US government?  

Before all this hit the news, I was down at the BioPark listening to the Ghattis's talk about Lebanese history in NM and their thoughts about the new Lebanese Garden.  More training to come, but here's a glimpse of the plantings, still under construction.  Ribbon-cutting is Oct. 2nd.  

And in one more dispiriting note, Fluffy the Feral Cat has gone missing.  Last Friday she wasn't interested in her food and she hasn't been seen by us, our neighbors, or our wildlife cams in 5 days.  :-(

Just to finish on an "up" bit, at least the moss on the Ginkgo and the limber pine is doing well.  I'll be able to harvest it for the next Mothers Day Show.  

Using Our Voice

Paul Krugman published an interview with Michael Mann this morning.  It contained the following words of wisdom:

“What do we need to do to turn back this assault on science and reason and democracy and everything that we might hold dear?” There are lots of specific things that we can do right now that we should be doing, but more generally, “what's the big thing we can do?” The big thing is reclaiming our politics, right? That means turning out and voting, voting for climate-forward, science-forward politicians. It means using our voice, in every way possible, to combat against this parallel universe that the Right has created in the podcast world. We talk about social media, and the weaponization of Twitter by Elon Musk.

So here's my image for the photo tax, a Lesser Goldfinch snacking on Gomphrena seeds.  The Gomphrena is getting long and leggy, but I'm so glad we left it for the seed-eaters.  

 

The Pruning

Last Wednesday was a yard-work Wednesday with Baldo.  The #1 project was the elm trees growing in the no-man's land between the Candelaria Village wall and the Matthew Meadow wall.  This 15" wide space is no doubt a safe haven for wildlife and gives Fluffy Cat a shady place from which to watch our backyard, but it's also a catchment for elm seeds.  

The feral trees that grow there are now 4" in diameter and can grow 15 feet in a season.  It's nearly the equinox and our sand cherries, not to mention the black pine, are being shaded.  

So armed with loppers, saws, cordage, and ladders, Baldo and I ascended the raised bed and wall to do battle.  The result:  a huge pile of green wood and leaves that filled his truck to overflowing.  

The result is stunning.  Now sunlight can reach the beds along the south side.  Fluffy has been avoiding the drastic change, but she stays nearby despite the upset to her shady roost.  

The 2-story house behind us is now somewhat visible, but the sand cherries and the pine are doing a fine job of shielding that view.  At least we've avoided a large leaf-drop from the elms this fall.  

And continuing the theme of  'trees' today, I note with happiness that the Cottonwood Gallery of the Botanic Garden has at long last reopened.  Our little phenology group of Nature's Notebook has had special permission to continue making observations, but now the public will be able to see this area.  There are still some scars from the construction, but overall this should be a good place to have conversations about climate change.

Pacific Northwest Visit

Now that we've survived the trip, it seems like a whirlwind in the rearview mirror.  First class to SEA-TAC, the shuttle and ferry to Whidbey Island, then four days of beach combing, forest bathing, and NW cuisine.  

Then we took the rental car to Edmonds via Deception Pass.  Beautiful drive for the first half, then I-5 craziness for the second.  Explored the shoreline, wetlands, markets, and a wedding.  

Then, just like that, we're back on the ferry to drop off the car, followed by one last bumpy shuttle ride, a long wait in the airport, and the flight home.  

 

Positive Ecological Storyline

Nobody writes about the plane that lands... or the ecosystem that is not imperiled.  So for this year's NaNoWriMo, I'm thinking about a novella that gives hope, at least on an individual level.  It'll be the story of how I'm watching the living things around me:  the backyard, the Botanic Garden, Albuquerque and New Mexico in general.  

For a working title, I'm considering, "What is Not Measurable, Make Measurable."  Apparently, this is a paraphrase of a longer quote attributed to Gallileo.  Some say it is a misattribution, although frankly I'm not getting clarity on who said it and when.  

Here's a photo of a potentially new species of Aphyllon with the obligatory ruler for scale.

I guess the first problem to overcome will be an outline and then an opening paragraph.  Thoughts run to electoral-vote.com's favorite line:  "A week is a year in politics."  Follow that up with some pithy saying about how much things change in a week in the garden.  

Or perhaps I should dangle an "in medias res" description about some conservation action that ultimately gives way to hope.  The call out to citizen science as a way to combat the current regime's anti-science, anti-evidence, climate change denial positions is certainly one important theme.  

More to come, but for the next week, I'll be a moving target without access to a keyboard.  That means input will be via the little screen and its wonky one-fingered typing.  

Indigenous Conservation

Today I read a fascinating essay in Nature written by indigenous authors primarily in Australia and New Zealand about decolonizing conservation science.  It has given me pause to consider how this point of view can be leveraged with a grant from the BioPark Conservation Committee.  The essay highlighted eight areas where concrete steps can be taken.  

Recognize science’s colonial legacy—ensure that students learn the history of their field

Fund—increasing Indigenous representation on decision-making panels

Hire, retain, promote—bring Indigenous scholars together, such as through mentoring networks, and to ensure that Indigenous faculty members have time to build relationships with local Indigenous Peoples

Dismantle institutional racism—facilitate connections, collaborations and mentorships among Indigenous academics

Recognize indigenous knowledge—engage with the Indigenous communities who steward such knowledge, with their full consent

Create safe spaces in science—Traditional Ecological Knowledge section in the Ecological Society of America; the Indigenous Action Taskforce in the American Geophysical Union

Foster Indigenous sovereignty—including Indigenous community members and researchers early on in research projects can ensure that they are designed, implemented and reported with Indigenous Peoples’ sovereignty and well-being in mind

Move towards Land Back—free BioPark membership; research opportunities; direct research programs to serve Indigenous communities 

Of course, these days are perilous times to even mention diversity, equity, and inclusion.  That's a red flag for defunding, at the very least.  

More references and resources:  

Indigenous knowledge is key to sustainable food systems--https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-023-00021-4

NSF invests millions to unite Indigenous knowledge with Western science--https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-023-02839-4

Weaving Indigenous knowledge into the scientific method--https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-022-00029-2

Travel Schlepp, just for the heck of it

 

Dog Days

The dog star, Sirius, is high in the sky and August takes its queue from that.  The plants of summer all have their place and their story to tell. 

Passiflora caerulea, the blue passionflower

At least in our backyard, things are going well.  The passionflower is finally blooming and the late blooming flowers are holding on.  Daylilies have finished after a good show.  Cleome is doing well in the shade of the sand cherries.  Canas and Hibiscus are putting on their best display.  

Rio Chama near Pilar

Last Tuesday, Ric and I went north looking for the strange new Aphyllon species.  We headed up the Rio Grande from Espanola, first on the west bank and then on the east bank.  Checking almost every turnout with any sign of Chamisa, we eventually got to Pilar where the road went to poorly maintained gravel.  Our target species was never found.  Too early in the season?  Not a favorable year?  

Rio Grande at the Central Ave. bridge

While the Rio further north still slows freely, by the time things get to Albuquerque, all the water has been diverted to irrigation canals.  The river bed is completely dry here.  :-(
 

The Herbarium Redux

Tomorrow will be another busy day at the Botanic Garden.  First, we'll knock off the Nature's Notebook observations in the morning.  Then after lunch, we'll host a handful of High School students for a herbarium workshop.  

Last week's workshop

I've got a couple dozen pressed specimens waiting and labels printed for most of them.  We'll probably make an excursion out to the Heritage Farm and collect some cultivated crop species to get ahead of next summer's workshop material.