Inconvenient Truths

Autumn has taken a turn towards winter.  Temps are expected to dip into the low-mid 20s in the early hours of Tuessday morning.  Fortunately, it'll be near 40° when we're out in the Cottonwood Gallery for Nature's Notebook on Monday.  Similarly, it'll be about the same on Tuesday evening when we're heading out for the River of Lights.

The BioPark is operating under its winter scheduled and is closed on Monday during the day (but open in the evening for RoL).  We'll have the entire place to ourselves.  Let's see what wildlife takes advantage of the quietude to come out.  

Meanwhile, yesterday the White House rolled out a new web feature:  its list of "Media Offenders."  Such a blatant disregard of the First Amendment is outrageous.  Even TCF's cheerleaders at the WaPo and Grey Lady are on the list.  One might assume that Bondi will soon be instructed to prosecute each instance on the list.  

I for one see the list as a badge of honor for the media included there.  It's not a wall of shame but a role call of First Amendment defenders.  I expect a strong response on this morning's political television.  More to come.

In Today's Ecological News

I read with distress that Africa's forests have gone from being carbon sinks to carbon sources.  Researchers found that between 2000 and 2010, tropical forests sequestered carbon, but since then have been releasing more than they capture.  Forest loss like this has inspired Brazil to create its TFFF (Tropical Forest Forever Foundation) to combat tree loss, but is it too little, too late?

Also in environmental news, pundits are still trying to put an optimistic spin on COP30.  I remain unimpressed.  Tronald Dump's administration continues to undermine not only democracy in general, but environmental protections specifically.  The Endangered Species Act, a landmark piece of bipartisan legislation, now includes "economic factors" in evaluating listed species and critical habitat.  That opens the door egregious abuse by those with the financial resources to basically bribe the system to discount inconvenient endangered species.  

And speaking of endangered species, we learned this week that threatened species will have fewer protections than endangered ones.  This overturns long-standing policy that treated both the same in terms of protective actions.  

A likely endangered new species of Aphyllon

 

I am Thankful

So much to be thankful for on this Thanksgiving and so much to be distressed about.  The oddest thing is how normal the day to day is while democracy is being torn apart by those in power (or those who cede their power to autocrats).  

The house is warm, electricity flows conveniently to lights and appliances, water appears at the flick of a tap.  This computer connects me to the greater world from a comfortable chair.  In retirement, we can spend a day in our yard among our beautiful garden, preparing the beds for winter (finally).  Birds sing in our trees and cranes fly south overhead.   

But TCF continues to rail against his perceived enemies.  Sitting Senators state the Uniform Code of Military Justice and are condemned for it.  Two National Guardsmen are shot in DC and are critically injured.  ICE continues their inhumane methods to reach their artificial body counts for deportation.  Red states continue to gerrymander districts to the GOP's advantage.  The economy sputters along, held up largely by $$ spent on LLM data centers.  Grocery prices creep upwards while morale among government workers plummets.  COP 30 ends with a depressing lack of political will to overcome the forces of greed who extract and lay waste to the very world that sustains us.  Humanitarian aid is cut off and hundreds of thousands suffer or die.  The rich get richer at everyone else's expense.  

The holiday boycott of Target, Home Depot, and Amazon has begun.  Who knows if it will make any noticeable impact?  We enter the dark, cold months when it will be hard to gather the tens of thousands of protesters to match the enthusiasm of the second No Kings march.  Fingers crossed that Albuquerque keeps a Democratic mayor.  

But I remain thankful.  I've learned that our Nature's Notebook group will be part of next February's Urban Tree Care Conference.  The forecast for Monday's observations is partly cloudy with temps in the 40's.  We watch, measure, and record.  

In the kitchen, I am thankful that my experiment with whole-berry cranberry sauce worked well.  Sweet potatoes are baked ahead of a whiskey-inspired casserole.  The turkey is defrosted and a compound butter awaits.  Friend Debbie will be joining Caro and I for dinner in the afternoon.  

Ty and his family are busy hosting a gathering up in Chamita.  Nirankar's pregnancy is continuing apace.  Ric and McGoey are staying in touch regularly while Kent stays busy with his projects.  Others in our circle of friends are well, or at least on the mend.  The various parts of Clan Horak are doing well despite concerns in Charlotte for Hannah.  The weather in Wisconsin is probably dreadful this morning, but people there are used to it.  Kathie and Blake are enjoying Las Vegas.  So much is going right.  

Winter?

Still waiting for a serious freeze.  2:30 a.m. and only 36° outside.  

But today was chilly with a high only in the 50's and a steady north breeze that put an edge on everything.  Luckily, all I had to do was make a run to the dentist and then swing by our storage unit.  Let's hear it for climate control!

The weekend's storm brought a healthy amount of rain, some cloudy days, and pretty much knocked all the leaves off the Chinese pistache.  A few neighborhood mulberries and ash trees are clinging to their fall foliage.  Marcescent cottonwoods will probably still be decked with brown leaves in February.  Even the Ginkgoes have finally dropped their leaves, but the Cleome and Salvia are still in flower. 

The fireplace in the living room is a welcome bubble of warmth on cold mornings and cool evenings.  Indoor exercise is becoming the norm.  Of course, the television is giving us problems now.  That'll be the thing to debug later today.  Harrumph! 

Autumn Acequia Walk

We're on track in ABQ for the warmest fall on record.  Here in the North Valley, we've not had a killing frost, although basil, Coleus, and tender Hibiscus have been nipped.  The turtles are deep underground and I mulched their bunkers last week.  A couple bonsai-in-training are in the little plastic pop-up greenhouse, but the door has been left open so they get some hardening off.  All the hardy bonsai are still outside.  The old Ginkgo out in the open has lost its leaves, but the two younger ones remain lemony yellow.  The 'Autumn Flame' Euonymus is bright red.  Even our canas are still blooming and there are buds on a hardy Hibiscus.  The Cleome shows no signs of slowing down and is a glorious riot of white blossoms.  

With that sort of background, you can understand why we were eager to get outdoors today ahead of Sunday's storm.  We may not get much rain, but things should cool down from our record-breaking mid-70's.  

Our target was the acequia just north of Los Poblanos, opposite the service entrance.  The west bank isn't weedy at all while the east bank was heavily overgrown.  Following the path north along the Griegos Lateral, it eventually turns a corner, heads east and meets up at a 3-way intersection as the lateral from Matthew Meadow splits off to the north and Tinnin Acres. 

There we turned south along Eakes Road past amazing contemporary mansions and old adobes that probably date back a century or more.  The trees were glorious, some shedding their yellow leaves in the light breeze, others having gone bare.  But most were in their autumn finery.  A splendid walk indeed, if only one and a half miles.  

Murmurations

Today's National Phenology Network webinar is about newsletters.  I sometimes consider writing something on a more regular basis, maybe a Substack.  

The natural science news of the day is the massive solar flare.  On Tuesday it resulted in an aurora that was visible (barely) in the middle of Albuquerque.  The Kp index was 8.67! A repeat was predicted for Wednesday and we were on hot standby.  Unfortunately, it was much weaker with a Kp index of 7.3.  If I'd had the energy, I would've driven north to get a better view far from city lights.  There were reports from rural New Mexico of pretty solid red washes across the sky.  

My buddy Ric was following my aurora-chasing antics and he reminded me that the International Space Station was going to be visible overhead.  Right on schedule it appeared, crossed the NW sky, and faded out as it entered Earth's shadow.

Fall color has been tremendous this year.  Maybe it's due to the long, mild autumn and helped out with some much-needed rain in Sept.-Oct.  We still haven't had a killing frost and the official ABQ weather station has yet to record first freeze.  

My 38-year old bonsai Ginkgo is out in the open and its leaves turned first.  The younger Ginkgoes in training pots under the Chinese pistache are about 2 weeks behind and still holding on to their leaves.

Fallen Ginkgo leaves collected and brought inside.

Ginkgoes behind the still-flowering Salvia and mums.

The forecast is for a cold front rolling in over the weekend, but it's a maritime one, so not particularly cold and possibly wet.  We need the moisture.  

In other non-botanical news, the government shutdown is over with 8 Dems folding.  The base is furious.  The only good I see is that the GOP now fully owns the huge increase in health insurance premiums and that Adelita Grijalva was sworn in to the House.  The Epstein discharge petition has hit 218 and how the entire House will be on record as pro or con pedophilia.  Hide and watch.  

A Study in Contrasts

Today I spent the morning collecting phenological data at the Botanic Garden.  The Cottonwood Gallery was in particularly high form.  Golden cottonwoods, orange crabapples, yellow maples, blue skies, cranes flying overhead.  After a cold start, the NM sunshine warmed things up pleasantly, but a jacket was still needed.  

Meanwhile, in strong contrast to that pastoral morning, 8 Democrats broke ranks and let the GOP end the government shutdown.  The rank-and-file party members are furious at this betrayal.  One can only hope that the release of Epstein files is worth the failure on policy.  

On top of this, our feckless leader has managed another insulting round of pardons, releasing or commuting another tranche of felons convicted of January 6 crimes.  I'm sure the timing is to try and get this under the radar of public perception.  I'm sure most media is covering the shutdown story, so this gets little attention.  The sad news is that the message it sends is, "Subvert an election and I'll get you out of jail."  The bitter solution is left up to the blue states to convict these people of state crimes that FELON47 can't pardon.  

I continue to be amazed that democracy can be completely off the rails in a few short months as a fascist takes over our country, while daily life for me goes on seemingly unaffected.  Sure, grocery costs and energy prices are climbing, but we are among the lucky ones with resources to weather the storm.  Turmoil in Washington seems far removed, yet I know there are still 3 more years of his madness and mental decline.  

Did people in Weimar Germany feel this way while the Nazis subverted their nation and led them into a disastrous war?  The Convicted Felon bends the Justice Department to his every whim, the Supreme Court obliges him, and the Republican majority looks the other way while our country is run into the ground.  Education, research, health, international respect, and the economy are all suffering harm that may take decades to repair.  

A Day in the Kitchen

Yesterday had an early start as the delivery men for our new washer showed up at 7:40.  That set me up for an early cuppa coffee and a trip to the market for a few baking supplies.  

By 11:00 I had my high altitude-adjusted version of King Arthur Flour's London Fog tea cake in the oven.  Then it would take another 90 minutes to cool down enough for glazing.  

I took advantage of that time to hit the Co-op and snag some wild-caught salmon for dinner.   Lemongrass, ginger, parsley (subbing for cilantro), and chili jam made up the remainder of the ingredient list. 

By then it was time for Caro and I to deliver the tea cake slices and some flowers to Jane for her birthday.  Between Caro's lingering cold and Jane's stomach upset, there wasn't much socializing, but I hear via txt that the tea cake was a success.  

Dinner was one of Jamie Oliver's 15 minute meals, but our version took 75.  Our wild rice / brown rice blend cooks slowly.  I also roasted a head of cauliflower and served that over an easy remoulade sauce.  Then the salmon patties took a quick 6 minute trip to a dry skillet.  The raspberry-chili jam was the surprise ingredient that worked particularly well.

Autumn Color in the Garden

I was out in the Botanic Garden yesterday placing the new QR-coded labels on plants.  It was a splendid (if abnormally warm) day.  Zelkova leaves fell like orange snowflakes in the slightest breeze.  'Autumn Flame' Euonymus were indeed flaming. Cottonwoods were heading towards peak goldness.  Ginkgoes had finally turned their unique lemony yellow.  The bald cypress was a stunning burnt orange.  

Ginkgo and cottonwood behind River of Lights display piece

'Autumn Flame'

Serviceberry, Amelanchier

Ginkgo and Take-Akari

More 'Autumn Flame'

Past the pond

Still more color

Shumard oak, Quercus shumardii

The back path

Croodling through the gardeners' "spy route" between the Sasebo and the Cottonwood Gallery turned out to be a riot of color with smoke trees glowing in the late afternoon sun.  With November and the return of standard time, the sun stays low in the sky all day and makes for golden side-lit views everywhere.  

A brilliant day.  

November Elections

Normally, off-year elections would hardly get a glancing mention on the news.  But this year is not normal.  Every pundit is watching local elections, especially in NY, NJ, VA & CA, with an eye towards gauging the Dem/GOP power balance.  With the shutdown in full swing and rapidly approaching the 35-day record from TCF's first term, one wonders which side will blink first.  Needless-to-say, a Democratic Party run will energize them and probably give the GOP pause to really negotiate.  

SNAP benefits went away and possibly are back at 50% levels, possibly with a weeks-long delay.  After all, 50 states plus various territories will have to modify their benefits distribution software.  Will have to up our contribution to little food libraries.  Already upped our donation to Roadrunner Food Bank.

Health insurance also is on the line.  ACA rates have been published and sent out for open enrollment.  How long before that makes an impact?  Many folks won't look at the numbers until the last week.  

Despite all this, life in my lane goes on apace.  Still consulting at Sandia and getting paid to label plants at the Botanic Garden.  Tagging the newly potted plants in the Lebanon Garden is my current task.  Will get back to the Lark labels with QR codes next week.  

All the tender plants are safe, like the Croton above.  But a few stragglers have been left to fend for themselves:  a couple canas, hardy Hibiscus, the Black Lace elderberry, and a geranium.  I'll probably move the geranium into the cold frame and then bonsai it next spring.