Baguettes and Soufflés

Took advantage of a cold day to stay inside with Caro and Deb to do some cooking.  The result was a batch of baguettes, a beautiful soufflé, and a side of roast squash with sage cooked in brown butter.

I am reminded that food is critical part of the human energy system.  Not only do we need it to fuel our biological metabolism, but its growth, production, shipment, storage, and preparation contribute a huge amount to our global carbon output.  The very least I can do is carefully, mindfully, respectfully use the ingredients I am given.  I am thankful.  

Meanwhile, tonight's reading includes an essay on Huldufólk, the elves of Iceland.  Amazing how strongly a belief system can affect one's relationship with the natural world.  The majority Judeo-Christian view of a god-created hierarchy with nature subservient to man is the cause of much of our 21st century woe.  

Right now wildfires are still burning in Los Angeles and Malibu with thousands of homes and structures lost.  Like building on hurricane-prone shorelines, construction in a fire disclimax like a chaparral is a recipe for disaster.  Unless buildings are constructed to high standards, disasters will just keep repeating themselves every decade or two. 

Winter is Coming!

Once again, it's time to quote John Snow in "Game of Thrones."   Last week we were 15° above average, now this week the temperature has crashed.  This morning was chilly, but by afternoon the winds kicked up and that really put an edge on the cold.

Fluffy the feral cat has been keeping to her heated bed under the table in the backyard.  The wind doesn't blow straight in, so she's pretty well off.  I've given her triple rations this evening to keep her internal furnace burning.  

Because the winds are coming through Tijeras Canyon out of the east, we're not seeing the usual cold air pooling in the North Valley.  Instead, it's 23° up in the Heights and only 32°.  

I'm sure the local avian fauna will be glad that I filled the feeders the other day, both for gold finches and for the generalists.  The pond heater in the Bodhisattva fountain keeps that flowing, even in the coldest weather.    Fluffy doesn't mind that there's unfrozen water available.  

Weather Underground tells us that a smattering of snow is headed our way for the morning.  We desperately need moisture; we've had only a trace of precipitation here since our early November storm.  

Glad I took down most of the holiday decorations this morning.  Baldo will have the lucky job of taking down the strings of lights and boxing them away.  Thank goodness for a climate-controlled storage area; we'll be able to stash things away in relative comfort.  

There's dead-heading and cutting back to be down this afternoon if the wind abides and subsides.  It'll be chilly but not life-threatening.  With that the backyard garden will be in its stable winter mode.  The turtles are deep underground.  The bonsai are safely under cover or in the garage.  The big ones are able to handle the temperatures we've had without being moved or even covered.  I've left 2 Ginkgoes under the Chinese pistache and I expect they'll do fine, even if their pots are only moderate.  

Speaking of Ginkgo, for the day's photo, I'm including a scan of a page from John Naka's book on bonsai.  Here are his soil formulae.  

And speaking of soil mixtures, at least yesterday while it was sunny, I threw together a gritty soil mix for the bulbs.  Then we managed to get outside and get them planted.  It's a mixture of tulips, daffodils, and Hyacinth.  We'll see what comes up in a couple months.  

Baccharis species

Yesterday was the first foray of the new year out into the Cottonwood Gallery.  With construction at the Garden focused on the Heritage Farm railroad and the new Lebanese Garden, we've been able to return more or less to our path through the farm to get to our Nature's Notebook plots.  

We were greeted by the new critters on the farm and some of the old.  Bugsy the horse and the Churro sheep were in their paddocks.  Then, out past the new demonstration garden beds, the Highland cows (coos) and miniature donkeys were grazing.  

We made our observations in good time and, while we were at it, collected material for determining which Baccharis species we have.  I spent a fair piece of time with 3x, 10x and 40x optics once back at my desk.  

• Leaves:  Distally serrate with 3 nerves 
• Involucres:  Obconic to campanulate (upside-down cone or bell-shaped), not hemispheric (half of a sphere, very rounded); staminate ~4 mm, pistillate ~7 mm
• Pistillate florets:  <30
• Staminate florets:  ~20
• Phyllaries:  4-6 mm
• Heads:  Leafy paniculiform (branching on an elongated axis), not corymbiform (somewhat flattened)

All those characteristics align with B. salicina, not B. salicifolia.  

Leaf with 3 nerves and distal teeth

Obconic involucre

The Great Christmas Get-Away, Part 1

We laid our plans carefully and on Dec. 22nd, we made our escape.  By 1:30 that afternoon we had crossed the border (into AZ) and hidden our tracks in the wastelands of the Painted Desert.

Only the ravens knew where we had gone.

The La Quinta Inn at Holbrook...

The next morning we went farther west into the wastelands, stopping at Meteor Crater before turning at Flagstaff and descending into the wilds of Oak Creek Canyon.  

There we took refuge in our cabin by the stream, our get-away for the week.   

To be continued...

Happy Chriskwanzanakkuh

It's nearly midwinter's eve and the holidays are coming fast and hard.  We went to the old San Ysidro Church in Corrales for their version of Las Postadas.  Little Schlepp is decked out in his "Naughty List" sweater.  

The house is more-or-less decorated for the season. 

And the BioPark's River of Lights is a smashing success, especially the north side of the Japanese Garden. 

The Bonsai Club has held its annual pot luck meeting, complete with festively decorated bonsai. 

Tonight's Cold Moon was also the farthest north lunar standstill for the next 19 years.  I will have to be 90 years old to see the next one.

Swale Paintbrush

Swale paintbrush with Centaurium sp.

The latest news in the New Mexico rare plants world is that Castilleja ornata has been listed as an endangered species.  Prior to this week, NM had just 13 federally-listed threatened or endangered plant species.  

The location of the only population in NM is closely guarded, but from photographs on iNaturalist, Flickr, and Instagram, one can get a pretty good idea of the approx. location in the NM boot heel.  Best I can tell, the location is near Whitmire Canyon where County Road C004 meets the Battalion Road.  Of course, that doesn't narrow things down very much.

Habitat with Animas Mtns in the distance

It has been seen in Chihuahua in the Cumbres de Majalca National Park.  Otherwise, we're having to deal with just old herbarium specimens.  Speaking of which, the SEINet portal is down this evening.  I'm getting http 500 errors with my browser. 

I am Thankful

On this post-election Thanksgiving, we can still be thankful for the natural world.  Despite continued environmental degradation, an ongoing sixth mass extinction, and the expectation of further insults from 45/47, we can find places of beauty and wonder.  

I am thankful that whether 1.5°C or 3°C, 280 ppm or 480 ppm CO2, life will find a way, with or without humankind.  

I am thankful that I can volunteer as a docent in my local botanical garden, where I can help visitors understand and appreciate the wonder of our natural world, where I can help them understand the need for saving it.