Adventures in bonsai 2: Azaleas (5/21/2019)

What the heck, I will continue writing about bonsais today. For one, I have been really into them since it is somewhat the height of the season. Secondly, we went to visit the club show of the Virginia Bonsai Society at the Norfolk Botanical Gardens this week. The show was nice, I may have one complaint and that was that the trees were shown in front of open windows and you had to squint to really look at them in detail. However, it was fun and there were some beautiful trees. 

A nice 22-year old Japanese black pine in the exhibit at the Norfolk Botanical Garden show.  This was a nice example of one of the older trees in the exhibit.

Coming back from the show, I was inspired and I knew it was time for me to work on my azaleas. These plants have a somewhat interesting history. 

As some of my readers know, our back yard runs into Newport News Park. A quick search on the internet shows that our park is the largest city park in the country, totaling 8,065 acres (3063 hectares). It connects to the Colonial National Historic Park (no fence in between) which is another 9,349 acres (3751 hectares) making up a connected natural area that is more than 47 square miles (70 square km) in size. This is great for us, we love nature and to hike and bike, but as you can imagine, nature is full of all kinds of pests including deer. These deer have found a highway through our and our neighbors’ yards into our subdivision. Even this morning while walking the dog, you could watch them scurrying back into the woods behind our home after a night of debauchery on our landscaping plants. Finally, an additional problem has become all the ticks that these deer drop in our neighborhood. When watering my plants, I have to be vigilant and make sure I did not pick up a few of these critters; Lyme is always lurking around the corner.

The woman that we bought our home from had planted azaleas throughout the yard, and if there is an ice cream plant for deer, well it is the azalea (and maybe the hosta). Considering we have been living here for almost 19 years, these poor plants have been hit by deer for more than 20 years. The only way they were able to survive was either to try to grow out of the reach of the deer or to hide themselves and grow as low as possible and creep through the plant litter. Over the past few years we discovered a few plants that held on for dear life (pardon the pun), and so I decided to dig them up, save them and torture them in a completely different way! I dug up three, three years ago. One did not make it, but the two that did rewarded me the next year with a full canopy of white flowers. This past spring they did it again and finally this past weekend I worked a bit on some preliminary styling and removing all the spent flowers. Because of the creeping habit one is a natural cascade, while in the other, I am trying to encourage a new leader or main stem.

This azalea has been in this pot for two years.  As you can see it is very one sided, and I therefor decided to make it a cascade.  I pruned it to develop four foliage pads and clipped off all the spent flowers (very meditative).

This azalea is two years out of the ground.  I am trying to develop three foliage pads and hoping to develop a main leader (that crazy shoot in the middle).

This winter I decided to save one more azalea. To my surprise, when I started digging, the plant had spread itself over the ground through the litter so much that some of the branches had air layered themselves. Air layering means that they had rooted into the soil while still connected to the mother plant. Two of the branches only had a few roots, but they did have some. Feeling brave, I cut those branches off stuck them into a pot with my soil mix, figuring I had nothing to lose. I am happy to report that I now have four happy azaleas growing. It will be some time, before I have something to show for, but it sure is interesting. Never a dull moment. 

This is the mother plant that I dug up this winter (early spring).  I did some heavy pruning and stuck it in a pot.  It is really doing well.  Based on the leaf color, I expect this guy will be blooming red. unlike the ones from two years ago which are white.

One of the air layers.  This one had a long bare branch with a lot of roots along it so I needed a large pot to put it in.  It is thriving.

These two air layers just had a few roots coming out of the branches and I thought what the heck, I might as well try it, I have nothing to lose.  Well, they took.  Not sure what the root system will look like in the long run.

A walk in the woods, the naturalists have it (Yorktown, 12/22/2016)

I have been reading a lot about nature.  In fact , as a biologist I consider myself a naturalist, or maybe an amateur naturalist.  I write a lot about nature in my blogs; it often revolves around the interaction between us humans and nature, or what I have started calling “nature deficit disorder.”  It is a term I stole as most of my readers are aware (there are now 30 posts on this blog where I talk about it).  

In the distant past I have wanted to become a naturalist writer.  But I am not sure if I have the quality to be one or to become one, so this blog will have to do, at least for now.  Among my favorite naturalist writers are John McPhee, Gretel Ehrlich, Sue Hubbell, and Edward Hoagland, among others.  Naturally, I devoured writings by Henry David Thoreau and Aldo Leopold. 

The last quick read I had was Hemingway’s “The Old Man and the Sea.”  A friend of mine tried to convince me that it was Hemingway’s way of telling us that a man can be defeated but not be destroyed, or as he said, maybe that it is a metaphor for Apostle Paul’s writing when he describes that outwardly a man can waste away but inwardly he is being renewed.  Santiago was reborn as a legitimate fisherman; the book ends in him regaining respect from his colleagues and of course having respect in him self.  Hemingway himself claimed there was no symbolism in the story.  I mostly read the story because it is on a list of the top 100 books, as a lover of the water, a sailor, for entertainment, and as a naturalist (I used to fish when I was a teenager).

I have so many unfinished books.  That is not because I don’t like them, but it is partially because of my varied interest and because the only time that I can read is in the evening after work when I am tired.  I usually do not read novels, but read, you guessed it, naturalist and non-fiction books.  Right now I am trying to concentrate on a book on human psychology (Thinking Fast and Thinking Slow by Daniel Kahneman) hopefully it fits in with my study of humans and the idea of nature deficit disorder.

To me nature is very important for the human psyche; whether it is that freshly fallen sassafras leaf in the fall; the timing of the pine pollen in spring (mostly on my Instagram Pictures); my frequent walks along the New River Trail in far Western Virginia (7 entries); being out on the water in my kayak or my sailboat (too many to count); or examining a pine tree that apparently snapped in a recent storm (during my latest walk).  I like it all and I need it!  I like to take my time and enjoy taking it all in; the sights and sounds; the feeling of just being immersed in nature, being one with it.

Sunrise on the trail in the woods behind our home.

Take this past Sunday.  It promised to be one of those rare early winter days when the temperature was going to be above 70 degrees Fahrenheit.  We decided that there was no better way to get our spirituality that day then to get out in nature and we went for a two hour hike in the woods behind our house (no church for us).  We went off the beaten track on a trail that is not traveled on by many people.  

The trail leads from our home by some ephemeral ponds that so often write about.  This time of the year they are not as full other years.  They were fuller a month ago, and the water level has slowly been dropping.  These ponds are groundwater fed, meaning the water level in the ponds are as high as the groundwater and we've had a dry month and a half.  Groundwater levels usually rise in the winter and reach their highest level around the middle of February.  All trees are dormant at this time and throughout the winter.  There is little transpiration from plants and the evaporation is at its lowest as well.  By early April the groundwater levels and the levels in the ponds start dropping and the ponds dry up completely by mid to late June.  By that time the water level has dropped almost 6 feet.

Examining a pine tree that must have snapped during a recent storm this past Sunday.  This was on the trail.

The rest of the walk takes us by very young pine forests where the woods were cleared in 2003 after Hurricane Isabel devastated a certain area, through a shallow stream valley, back up to what is my favorite area: a wooded section with huge tulip popular trees.  I would estimate that these trees are close to 300 feet tall and probably more than 100 years old.  After that the trail descends into a mixed forested wetland that is often difficult to cross.  It is wide, dark and wet and often has shallow running water in it.  After passing through the wetland it becomes a fun trail and passes by a heron rookery that appears to have been abandoned in the past two years, and a large swamps where we love to watch redheaded woodpeckers and all kinds of ducks.  Eventually the trail end up in the Battlefield National Historic Park and from there the hiking and biking choices are limitless, but well defined.

A piece of broken off bark covered with lichen that I found lying on the forest floor.  I just loved the color contrast between the bright green and the leaves.  I want to bet it was knocked off by a woodpecker of some kind.

It was a great day for a hike!  Walking around you find all kinds of treasures, large and small, up high and down low.  Getting back from the hike I had my daily 10,000 steps, but the exercise was not the most important.  I felt mentally and spiritually recharged.   

Try it yourself, get out.  It is not scary out there; if you have not done it in a while, start in small doses or just go for a walk in your neighborhood and observe people's yards, the plants, trees and birds.  Take it all in.  Cure your Nature Deficit Disorder!

Just standing still and looking up in the woods is nice!

Newport News Park (3/22/2015)

It is always absolutely wonderful to go for a walk in Newport News Park.  We drove to the entrance along Jefferson, and decided to take our regular walk backwards and visit the swamp to look for bird.  When were walking along the swamp we got the wild hair up our but to walk home from the park a walk that was approximately 5 miles.

The walk we took was fun.  We ran into all kinds of interesting things.  The following photos are just an example what we ran into: evidence abound about beaver activity.  The three photos below show the swamp that is partially dammed of by beavers.  I like the black and white picture a lot, but you can see the evidence of beaver in the foreground of the color picture.  Further along the trail you see the stumps of trees that look like sharpened pencils sticking out of the ground.  Again evidence of beavers handy work.  Park rangers are obviously trying to protect trees and there are a lot of trees that are wrapped with metal screening material; guess that beaver teeth don't like to gnaw on metal.  The last picture shows the lake that was obviously created by their activity.

The park is also the site of the struggle between the north and south during the civil war (and also the revolutionary war); and there is evidence of fortifications everywhere.  It is amazing to see all the trenches.  As one of the signs say, it must have been boring trying to defend the lines along the Warwick River.

After crossing into the National Park it was a scenic walk through the woods and we were finally able to cross the swamp to the union side where we were welcomed by an egret.

It was a pretty and also a pretty darn long hike, that we have done before by bike, but never by foot.  Worth the trouble.

Newport News Park (10/26/2014)

Some fall we are having; blue skies and delightful temperatures.  Who needs more reasons for a nice walk in Newport News Park around our drinking water reservoir.  The reservoir is an interesting place.  It is a dammed off section of the Warwick River, and it actually has a lot of significance.  Picture more than 100 years ago this area was the site of a civil war battle between the Union and Confederate Forces.  They were dug in on both sides of the river and gunning for each other.  I understand there were much fewer trees around and it must have been an interesting sight; not something I would want to experience.  But now it is all water under the bridge, or should I say into the reservoir.

The reservoir is fed by a few stream, but mostly by a pipe line that brings water from 40 or so miles away.  From here it goes into the water treatment plant and comes out of our faucets.  While these pictures show the lake and it's surroundings in full glory, it is actually the areas far away from the dam that are the most fun.  We can reach these areas from our home as well as from the regular parking area, and we have spent a lot of time in those swamps looking at red-headed woodpeckers, herons, gannets, wood ducks, Canada gees, bald eagles and even at various plants like lizard's tails.  We have been standing in the swamp in February doing the great back yard bird count ankle deep in mud and chilled, but thrilled at all the birds.  That bird count is always on president's day weekend and it is so appropriate to count in a park where George Washington hung out at one time to make the life of the Britts miserable.

At one point the swamp/lake is fed by a spring that is located in the Yorktown Battle Field National Historic Park, a place I have written a lot about.  This spring is actually located need the encampment that George Washington used during the revolutionary war.  I am sure he drank from the spring.  This is another subject I wrote about in a post called George Washington's shovel.  The area is full of remnants of these two major wars that were fought on the Peninsula.  It is really a neat place to live and experience.

It is actually amazing knowing that drops of water that we drink and molecules of air that we breath have all passed through the body and lungs of people like George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Hitler and people alike.  We are such a closed system, that we better take care of it.

Yorktown Battlefield National Historic Park (9/1/2014)

Labor Day weekend was spent as a Briedé family triathlon.  On Saturday we sailed, on Sunday we split wood, and on Monday we biked 28 miles (45 km) in preparation of a century ride we will be doing at the end of September.  Although it seems that spring is finally over and summer started, the ride was fun.  (If you live in our neck of the woods, you know what I mean: we had a very mild summer, and temperatures are finally going above 90°F.)  I am sure that many climate change deniers have a lot of fun with our mild weather, but it looks like it was a warmer July for many on the globe except in the eastern US, Siberia and northern Italy.  I am not sure what August will look like.  Oh well, it seems that a lot of us try to grab at straws to prove their point and I am probably one of them, but there is nothing as aggravating to me as people just following what the pundits say on radio and television without researching it themselves.

The photo below was taking during our ride from a bridge in the colonial battlefield park.  I took pictures here before of the lizard tail, but this was such an idyllic sight: a heron standing on a fallen tree.  I did not have my SLR with me, so you cannot really zoom in on the heron, but it is still nice.  Moreover, it is tough to carry a heavy camera on the bike, so my phone will have to do.  As I mentioned before biking itself is sometimes taking you life in your own hands.  Roads are narrow and drivers seem aggravated by cyclist and don’t respect them.  On almost every ride we come by areas where bikers were killed or hurt by a vehicle; although in not every circumstance was the driver at fault.  Cyclists need to be careful, as well.  But it always gives me chills driving by a site where a cyclist was killed.

I was struck by a letter to the editor in this morning’s newspaper (not yet published, but it should appear here).  In this letter the author wrote about a cross country running team from a local high school and how they were running along a narrow road without a sidewalk, where drivers can drive 55 miles per hour.  I think that is so common for our area, nowhere for citizens to go from one place to another to go without the mighty car, truck, minivan or motorcycle.  Life would be so much nicer if we could walk, bike, or use public transportation.

Yorktown (8/24/2014)

It was a great weekend for a bike ride.  The weather was unseasonably cool but it was a bit windy.  After we left home we first did what we call the tour road, which is the tour road in the Yorktown Battlefield.  It was a busy day there, lots of runners and bikers.  The sky was absolutely gorgeous, clear blue with nice puffy clouds.  From the tour road we biked on to the coast guard station, where we stopped to look over the York River at the Moore House, a nice colonial house located on a site with considerable history.  The photo below was taken at a small cemetery near the Moore house.  We parked the bikes and went to look over the York River.  The other photo is looking over the York River.  After our stop we continued our bike trip along Wormley Pond, a place I have taken pictures at before (see my post of 4/2/2014).  We biked a total of 18 miles, a nice training ride for our yearly trip to Salisbury, MD to ride the Seagull Century. 

During our ride I still cannot believe all the trash along the road.  It is really amazing the crap people throw away, but on this trip Bud light won the prize.  I want to bet that some teenagers needed to clean their car before they got home.  It is amazing to see what people throw out.  I need to do a week-long series on trash I see during my walks, bike and car trips.  I should title it scenic trash.  Who knows stay tuned.

Lizard's Tail (6/22/2014)

What a great name for plants that look like this.  We decided to take the bikes out this wonderful early summer day, and bike the tour road in the Yorktown Battlefield National Historic Park.  Stopping on the bridge over the Beaverdam Creek we saw this gorgeous looking plant in the water and we had to stop and take some photos.  Lizard’s tail or Saururus cernuus is an aquatic plant that grows in the water.  It seems when the flowers dry up, the green seed heads look like lizard tails, hence the name. 

The tour road on the battlefield is one of our favorite bike routes.  It is approximately 10 miles and mostly has a number of memorial plaques that tell you the story of the battlefield.  There are a number of nice vistas; tow places with canons; a memorial cross; and a big round-about marking George Washington’s encampment.  It is very nice; however, I can imagine that tourists who are used to the other battlefields will be kind of bored driving this route.  It is therefore very quiet and great for biking.  My wife and I often wonder if the park should consider erecting more statues etc, to make it more attractive to tourist; but then, it is our road!  Surrender Field is a different story; that area is very attractive and very impressive! 

Sunday was a great day to bike and get some exercise.  We had a quiet ride; a fitting closure to a action packed weekend.

Yorktown (6/2/2014)

Early in the morning it was time to pay some bills and stick them in the mail box in Yorktown.  Coming down the hill there was cruise ship, a big sail boat, and a number of replicas of older sailboats docked in the harbor.  I took this picture from my sunroof, while driving down the road.  Just an idea of what was there.  Not the best picture I realize, but it gives you a good idea of an early morning in our sleepy little coastal town.

In that day, Yorktown was preparing for the arrival of the French.  This was a celebration of the Independence war and the help of the French with the war (La Fayette).  It seems that a French Navy vessel was going to stop by that day for a ceremony and a 21 gun salute.  Pity I missed it, being a working stiff and having to get going to Richmond.

Yorktown (4/13/2014)

It was absolutely beautiful on Sunday, and we decided to go for a walk with the dogs in Yorktown proper.  We parked up in the higher part and already when we opened the car door we were welcomed by the sound of bells ringing from the Baptist Church.  I assume it’s a large speaker system that puts the sound out over the village, but still it set a good atmosphere for Sunday morning.  When we got to the river (around 9:30), people were already staking their claim on the beach.  Also there were the guys with their metal detectors, looking for the things yesterday’s crowds had lost in the sand.  We had a great walk along the water and back up to the car.  In all we walked more than 7000 steps according to the fitbit that I wear, which is pretty darn good since my goal is 10,000 steps.  As I tell people, I am trying to get my girlish figure back, but it is a struggle, especially after a weekend of gluttony and wine tasting.

Yorktown is full with older buildings some of which are owned by the park service and others by individual.  There are also not so old homes, and even some older apartment buildings.  It is a nice combination, and a pleasure to walk.   The photo here is from the Nelson House, which dates from 1730 (here is another reference for the Nelson House).  It is a nice historic building that gives you a flavor of the importance of Yorktown in its hay days.  It’s amazing how fleeting some of these things such as fame and fortune can be, and only some will be kept in our memories forever.  People build monuments to themselves, such as ex-governor Nelson who seems to have built the largest house on Yorktown, or maybe the largest surviving house in Yorktown.  Guess we still do this in modern time, but I assume that most of the McMansions here in the US that are stick built, will eventually deteriorate, and few will remain as monument to their owners.  This is so very unlike the Europeans who built with brick and stones and where you still see many old buildings.

Now in modern time we have other means of leaving a legacy or our own monuments.  Some do it with the (non-biodegradable) trash they throw out of their car or fill the landfills with (my wife and I generate less than 2 bags of trash each week and compost all our food waste).  Others do it by writing, blogging or maybe even through things like facebook, twitter, or any other electronic way.  It should be interesting to see what will remain 100 or more years from now.  I personally hope that some of my writing (a few book chapters on scientific items), this blog, my photos on flickr or even facebook will give me some form of immortality.

Oh well, enough rambling.  We walked back by the beach an hour later, we were tired; the dogs had been swimming in the river and were wet.  Metal detector guys were gone and there was nothing left for future archeologists.  A lot more people were on the beach, ready to enjoy our first really warm day in the sun.

 

George Washington's shovel (4/4/2014)

I live on the edge of the Yorktown Battlefield section of the Colonial National Historic Park, and often when I walk the woods and see a big tree, I wonder if George Washington peed against that specific tree.  I sometimes think the same thing when I take a leak in the woods behind my house (just like every guy does at various occasions).  This is absolutely ridiculous, I know, since none of the trees in these woods date as far back as George, or the battle of Yorktown.  But it is still fun to fantasize about this.  The other day while digging in the vegetable garden I found a really old leather shoe (at least 20 or so years old), and we immediately coined it “George Washington’s shoe.” 

The woods here are full of redoubts, or what I would almost call trenches, and every so now and then I think you can see someone trying to looks for artifacts.  Not long ago there was a gentleman with a copy of an old map looking for an old encampment.  This is highly illegal but it does happen.

During my walk this morning I saw this somewhat familiar piece of a shovel laying near the trail.  We have seen it before, but it was foggy and it just caught my eye.  Again the thought came up that this must have been George Washington’s shovel.

Wormley Creek, Yorktown (4/2/2014)

Having a few moments to spare, I decided to drive through the Colonial National Park today.  This photograph was taken at the dam that goes over Wormley Creek.  Supposedly there was a dam at that location in the 1700s and it featured in the Independence war.  Just an idyllic picture and a nice place to visit by car, bike, or foot.

There was a biked who appeared to be feeding the swans.  As I said idyllic, were it not that swans are in invasive species in our area and push out a lot of the native water birds.  Being a darn biologist, I can not look at these swans just for their beauty, but I always have to bring in mind that they are out of their place.  Kind of a shame that these elegant, stately birds are actually a pest.

Yorktown Battlefield National Park (3/15/2014)

Walking through the woods this weekend you run into old dead stumps such as this and you wonder how old this guy was when it died and how long it has been standing here while dead.  Still seeing remnants of trees that I know came down as the result of hurricane Isabel in 2003, you can only speculate that this guy most likely died more than 15 years ago.  Even as a dead tree it served as a very valuable part of the community.  There is so much evidence of woodpeckers and other birds in the area and you know they feasted on the bugs that were feeding on the rotting wood, or maybe on the organisms that were breaking down the wood.  I have always been fascinated by mushrooms and they are definitively also part of this process.  It is an amazing microcosm of life that lives on a tree, while alive and when dead.   So much proof that everything in this living world has some important function or is good for something; although that might be counter-intuitive when I walk these woods in the summer when I get attacked by ticks, chiggers and mosquitoes.  It is so important to understand that every organism is part of that web of existence; we need them all for this world to function.  Yes some species are out of whack, such as the deer population, but that probably we disturbed the natural balance, like the removal of predators, forced changes in migratory habitats or simply urban sprawl, just to name a few. 

 

Yorktown Battlefield (3/9/2014)

Walked the dogs on the battlefield this morning.  It was a beautiful day and took this pictures of two joggers coming by.  A great day for exercise.

Yorktown (2/16/2014)

This weekend was the “Great Backyard Bird Count”, and we tried to participate in my household.  The weather did not cooperate on Saturday, but that was ok and par for the course.  On Sunday morning we were sitting at the breakfast table and there was the attack of the Common Grackle.  I think there were a few hundred on our bird feeders.  Behind them in our vegetable garden there was a mixed flock of Red-winged Black Birds and Brown-headed Cowbirds.  Lots of noise and they chased all the other birds away.  A half our later I went to walk the dogs in the woods behind our home, and the birds were waiting for me (a friend posted on my face book ... "paging Mr. Hitchcock, come and get your birds").  The woods were full of these guys.  The next day we went to the swamp a half hours walk behind our home and saw large groups of the Red-winged Blackbird and American Robins.

This count is every President’s Day weekend for us living here in the U.S. and we have participated with it for five or more years.  This year we had the lowest count.  I am not sure if the weather was an issue or if we are just getting fewer birds.  Most troubling was the lack of Red-headed Woodpeckers and Wood Ducks in the swamps behind our home.  We usually see them there, but this year they were not to be found.  I’m sure we will check again a few weeks from now to see if they have returned.

Yorktown Battlefield (2/7/2014)

This is what is called a “widow maker”, or one of those trees you do not want to cut down. This photo was taken in the Yorktown Battlefield National Historic Park.  Interestingly I am here near the border of the National Park and Newport News Park.  On the Newport News side trees like this are cleaned up, in the national park only the trails are kept open, but parts of the woods look like pick-up-sticks.  I don’t mind that at all, since it is more a natural appearance and provides a lot of habitat from birds and critters.  It may even provide some protection for plants from the ferocious deer we have in our area.  These deer will eat anything they can find and there is very little regeneration (except for plants they do not like) and very little herbaceous understory.  I kind of wish there was a way to cull the deer so close to the neighborhood.  On the other hand all these fallen trees make for an immense fuel load, and if we get a fire this will be the crown fire of the year and I fear for my home and that of our neighbors.  One of those Catch 22s.  One day I spent some time in an old growth forest stand in Ohio, and I still hope our woods would look like that, but the accumulation of leaf litter, the lack of ground fires and the deer seem to make further evolution of these areas into an old growth forest more difficult.