Does the natural world communicate with us? (1/10/2026)

I have started to read a book by Robert Macfarlane entitled “Is a River Alive.” In the introduction he writes that his 9-year-old son asked him the title and premis of the book, and when he told him, his son said: “well, that is going to be a short book, of course it is.” Reading this I wondered whether nature or the natural environment is talking to us. I am a pantheist and would like to argue that even rocks, stones, and clouds are alive and communicate with us, even though they do not have DNA.

This idea reminds me of a post I wrote some time ago entitled: “Does the world love us.” These are interesting questions. I know that I love the world. I take a walk with my dogs in the woods behind our home almost every morning. I wrote about this in 2018 (The Old Man and the Woods), where I describe taking a walk with our previous dog Jake. To think I called myself old more than 7 years ago. I had just re-read Hemingway’s book “The Old Man and the Sea,” and felt inspired by it. I just used the title to spin off the title of my post.

I try to live in the moment whenever I am out in nature. I always look around, take it all in and try to learn. For example, I love large beech trees; I like their elephant skin like bark, and I love their root spread. During the past years I have tried to make an inventory of the large beech trees in the woods behind our home. I do this by getting off the trails and bushwacking. To date I have found 17 bigger trees. I have no idea how old they are, but I always wonder if they were planted by folks that lived back there before it was converted to park land, and unlike the pines, oaks and maples these beeches were never harvested.

One of the beeches I found the other day

I am in LOVE, whenever I am in nature. Even in times like the other morning when we ran into Blondie, the blond coyote and our two dogs go absolutely insane. But as the song goes “Love hurts,” and I often find it more entertaining that aggravating, even if their howls and barks are deafening and they are trying to pull your arm off (yes, we always walk them on the leash). Those coyotes are getting bolder. Early in the morning, around 2 am on January 1 and 3 they were in our neighborhood, just a few houses over. Their howling and japing woke our dogs, and our dogs woke us. It was crazy.

But back to our woods. Before the invasion of the English settlers, the woods behind our home were the home of the Kiskiack tribe, a group that was part of the Powhatan Confederacy. Kiskiack means wide land or broad place in their native language, and it also seems to be the name of the town they lived in, near the current Yorktown. From what I can determine, the woods must have been cleared in spots for agriculture using slash and burn. Corn was their main crop. The area was also used as hunting grounds.

The Brits eventually cleared large tracks for the cultivation of tobacco. Our woods were part of something that was called the Edgehill Plantation, although there was no actual plantation house. The area was straddled by two roads: Warwick to York and Hampton to York (later on Warwick was incorporated into the town of Newport News). During those times, our region was a very active participant in the Revolution and later the Civil War. I wrote a tongue in cheek post about it once <here>.

I do not exactly know what happened after the civil war. It was around the 1930s when our immediate area was taken over by the National Park Service and most likely the Newport News water works. Recently, we examined the tree rings of a large pine that had fallen across our trail, and someone cut the trunk to allow passage. Dating it by counting the tree rings showed us that it was approximately 80 years old. It appears that the tree probably germinated around the 1940s and was allowed to grow without much interference. This again dates to a time just after the annexation of the area by the Park Service. The tree was one of the bigger ones and is located in an area with some of the largest trees in the woods behind our home.

There is so much to explore and think about when I walk through nature, listening to nature talking to me and to each other.

The beeches so far

A good haul today, we found 3

James River State Park Squirrels (10/13/2024)

“Wow, look at those branches swaying around. Oh, it is a squirrel.” We were sitting on the terrace/porch at a cabin in one of Virginia's State Parks. I sat on my rocking chair nurturing my beer, watching a squirrel run to the end of a branch, grabbing what I assume were acorns, scurrying from a branch at perilous heights to the bottom of the oak tree and after a few minutes speed back up to the end of the branch and repeat the process. It is early October and time to prepare for the onslaught of winter and store food.

We were spending a few days at James River State Park. A new one for us. We have really enjoyed every state park we spent time in and this wasn't an exception. Donna told me that this might be her favorite (a five star). I hate to assign favoritism to any state park in Virginia; however, this one definitely ranks up there. I need to update my list of Virginia State Parks one of these days.

Back to the squirrel, the reminded me that fall is rapidly approaching here in Virginia. The temperatures were in the low 70s during the day and low 40s at night. This time last year we already had colors on the leaves when we spent time in Natural Tunnel State Park in the mountains of SW Virginia. Here in the Piedmont we noticed a faint bleaching of some of the leaves, and the dropping of dried out leaves from some of the trees. My ex-colleague Doug who lives nearby in Lynchburg reported that this area was affected by a severe drought this summer, which may be the explanation of the dried out leaves raining down on us during sections of our hikes the past two days.

The squirrels also took me back to some research we did in the mid 1990s. I was working with a group that needed to restore 440 acres of wetlands just outside Indianapolis. The airport was expanding and they needed to mitigate for filling in some wetlands. We were restoring 400 acres of forested wetlands and 40 acres of emergent wetlands (swamps). As part of this effort, we needed to monitor the recruitment (invasion) of plants in our plantations. We planted some 16 different tree species in a random pattern. Recruitment patters we noticed were that species with heavy seeds (i.e. acorns) invaded closer to the boundary with natural woods or hedgerows. We assumed that these seeds either rolled in or were cashes stored (planted) by squirrels. Maybe the previous winter was mild, and the squirrels did not need all the stored food, or maybe they simply forgot where they buried those acorns. Lighter seed, like those from maples, appeared to have flown in and these plants dispersed further into our plots, while plants that were fruit baring were scatters throughout our plots. We noticed that the fruit baring species invaded mostly around the tallest seedlings that we had planted, or at least the ones that were growing the fastest. We surmised that fruit eating bird landed on the tallest plants and used these as lookout posts, in the mean time pooping out seeds from the fruit they consumed. Interesting to see how natural succession takes place.

This all came back to me watching that squirrel doing its job in securing a stash of food for the upcoming winter. Obviously, we had such a relaxing time at James River State Park that it allowed for these memories from long forgotten time flooded back into my head. Those were fine times and so are the present. Guess it is nice to be retired, slow down and remember the yesterdays. Interesting what a visit to a State Park does to you.

James River State Park is a "dark sky park" which means that on a cloudless evening the sky is amazing.  I tool this picture of the Milkyway with my Samsung telephone camera.

Mushrooms

Donna and the dogs at the Tey overlook.  There are some really good hikes in the park.  Day 1 we hiked just over 4 miles and day 2 we hiked more than 5 miles along the James River (picture below).  Evidence abounds that the river just retreated from a major flood stage, probably caused by hurricane Helene.

Embraced (7/18/2024)

In the more recent posts, I have mentioned that we had a contractor install a fence around our backyard. It was finished a little more than a month ago and we are really enjoying it. I have always been somewhat against fencing the backyard; however, now I am a convert. Our dogs Jasper and Radar enjoy the freedom of being able to roam our albeit small back yard chasing squirrels, howling at the trees that the squirrels escape into, as any good treeing coonhound should, and at deer outside the fence. Radar dapperly joins in, although he does not howl. In addition, the dogs have rip-roaring wrestle matches. I think at least three or four per day.

Since part of the backyard is in the shade we had a lovely cover of moss instead of grass. Well, that was completely torn up and destroyed by our canines and their wrestling matches. Oh well, as they say; we all enjoy a good fight. Us watching it and the dogs performing it.

We built an additional fence with sticks that fell out of all the trees in our backyard. It serves somewhat as a divider in the yard and a place for birds to hide and hang out. We planted pollinator plants along a path that I put in along the stick fence in the hope that one day it might resemble something like an English cottage garden. The area is being overtaken by a gourd of some kind. It was in our compost and based on our dietary habit, I expect that it will be acorn squash. Our green tunnel is being colonized by tomatoes and green beans. We have been eating grape tomatoes and snacking on the miscellaneous green been. It is an experiment that we will repeat next year.

I have noticed that we spend a lot more time in our backyard, now that we have a fence. The major reason is that the dogs can be with us. Jasper the hound is a runner and hunter. Radar cannot be completely trusted, and we were afraid that would attack people and other dogs that wander by. Before the fence we would either put them on a running leash or leave them inside when we went out. Inside, they would be barking to let us know that they wanted to join us. Outside on the long leash they would constantly wrap themselves around our seats, shrubs or trees. Now they are free to roam and wrestle.

The other night I had decided to go outside to urinate and was struck by an epiphany. Like every other full-blooded man, there is nothing better than pee against a tree and ruminate at the same time. Yes, I announced recently that we had a powder room again and my forays into the backyard to micturate were over. However, I still enjoy going wee-wee in the natural environs. One evening while taking a leak against a tree I had a flying squirrel scamper down the tree to see what all the rustling noise was all about or maybe it was protesting my use of its tree as a urinal. We met eye-to-eye and after further inspection the squirrel climbed back up the oak.

Back to the subject at hand, the epiphany. So, what was that realization that I had? Sitting on the concrete garden bench in the dark in front of our Buddha statue, for the first time I felt like the garden was embracing me. While I could not even see the statue in the dark, I felt one with nature, the world, with the yard and everything in it. I suddenly realized that without a fence our backyard had no limits; there was no cohesion to it all. Somehow that night, the fence gave me a feeling of a hug, of keeping me in her bosom and not letting my mind and spirit wander all over the place.

Now you all know that I am a strong believer in and practitioner of “Forest Bathing.” I have given a sermon on the practice and written 54 posts on the subject. I love wandering in the woods behind our home and absorbing nature. In other words, this feeling of being embraced by the fence came as a surprise and I have not been able to shake it. Three of four times per day I enjoy walking a circle through the yard, inspecting things; pulling a weed or just sit on a bench or a chair to take it all in, fantasizing bout what to do next in the yard or just meditating. It is an amazing feeling and I guess it is still forest bathing since the yard has many trees and we still border the woods. I am enjoying it; let’s hope those feeling does not go away.

Our volunteer gourds

Night in the yard, it was at that time I had the feeling of being embraced!

Black-eyed suzan and the stick fence on the left.

Welcome to Mars (6/13/2023)

Welcome to Mars, at least that is what photographs from New York City look like. Here in coastal Virginia, I am not so sure what the sky equates to. A combination or hybrid between Mars and the old Los Angeles? These is just a grey haze outside, like it is supposed to be very humid. However, it is slightly orangey or pinkish. Moreover, it is not warm, as in warm and humid. On top of that, the air smells.

You must be living under a rock if you do not know what this is all about, the Canadian wildfires. Although, on our neighborhood’s Facebook page, one lady actually asked the question what was wrong with our air. The other day we received the wrong newspaper and the Wall Street Journal, which we normally don’t read, had an editorial in which they blamed poor forest management for the fires. It is like a country that has 40% of its landmass covered by forest and has roughly 38 million people can manage all those forests. Moreover, all those forests are usually covered by snow for a couple of months a year and therefore inaccessible. The truth is that there is a heat dome parked over Canada, this early in the year. Couple a very (record) warm May with an extensive (record) drought and you create a tinder box. Nothing or very little to do with poor forest management. But it is easy for the right wing to blame everything on poor forest(environmental) management and absolutely ignore any sign of climate change or global warming. Moreover, they are convinced it is cyclical.

Heat and drought in Canada? How come? Well, I have written a lot about climate change, and guess what? Voilà, more evidence. With climate change or global warming, it seems that the northern latitudes warm up faster than us in the lower ones. This is the phenomenon we are experiencing. Hopefully this past week’s experience will wake up a few, although it seems we have a lot of political distractions lately.

I downloaded this photograph from MSN news who got it from Reuters News..  If this is copyrighted, I am sure they will let me know.  However, to me this shows me and the world what it was like in New York City this past week as a result of the Canadian wildfires.  It also shows you why I titled my post "Welcome to Mars."

Winter, love it or hate it (1/20/2023)

Having been born and grown up in the tropic I never particularly like cold, cloudy, dreary weather. As a novelty it is fine: a “snowstorm”, a few inches of snow, a day below freezing and a night around 10 degrees Fahrenheit (-12 degrees C). But to me it gets old very quickly, I like it above 80. Strangely enough, winters in Gallup, NM were tolerable. There nights might dip to 15 below zero Fahrenheit or negative 26 C, while during the day it would still go up to 40 degrees (4.4 C). The advantage of living in the high desert of New Mexico (7000 feet or about 2100 meters above sea level) is that it was sunny almost every day and that compensated for a lot of the temperature swings we experienced.

So, was this feeling of dread in the winter caused by seasonal affected disorder (SAD) and the lack of sunshine, or my hatred of the cold winter season? I really don’t know, maybe both. I know one thing, ever since COVID I have been working at home and my home office has a lot of my tropical bonsais and plants around. Yes, my greenhouse is too small to house them all. I run several grow lights on timers to allow these plants to survive, and I am constantly radiated by these lights when working here in my home office. I know that my mood has been much better in winter since COVID and maybe it is all these grow lights, who knows? Maybe it is all the oxygen I am bathing in released by those plants in my home office, or the walks with the dogs in the woods behind our home I have every morning. Or all the above?

Believe it or not, this was not what I wanted to write about when I started this morning. But if you know me, a mind is a terrible thing to waste, and my fingers tend to go where no fingers have gone before, on this keyboard at least; this is what came out up to now.

Back to the subject “du jour,” or subject of intention. What I do like of winter is my ability to see the branch profile of trees. As a dilettante in bonsai, I have this perverse interest in the profile of trees, and the best time to examine this is in winter. You can clearly see the branch patterns, the ramification of the branches, basically how the canopies of the trees are constructed. I can learn how to duplicate that in my trees. Study how oaks do it versus maples, even versus pines. You can see oddities that you might want to try to copy on your benches. More and more growers aim to mimic the natural growth habit of their miniature trees to what the mature counterparts look like in nature. In the past they wanted to make something strange, now it is more “does it represent what you see in the natural environment?” I love it.

I find that there is always something different and new to see in winter. In the summer many of the trees and canopies are obscured by leaves (you must be my age to notice all my hidden rock music and other non-original references/plagiarisms today). It is important to be able to see things in real life and on the trees on my benches. This winter I have been studying both and slowly pruning the trees on the benches. I might actually start thinking about repotting some of my trees, if it was not going to rain this Sunday. I need to get a jump on the season, this year I have a lot that need work done. There is of course a risk of some heavy frost until the end of February; however, if I keep track of the ones I repotted, I could move them into the greenhouse or the garage for a night or two if it gets too cold.

Concluding, while I miss the tropics and used to loath the winters for it’s cold, damp, dismal, dark and dreary days or even stretch of days, I am starting to appreciate them for what the bring when I am out and about. I also like it because it allows me to see the profile and structure of my trees unencumbered by leaves and it forces me to prepare for repotting season.

I just enjoy looking up to see how the branch structure is in trees because that is what we try to mimic in our bonsai.  This simply profile is just nice to look at.

This is a closeup of the picture above.  Somehow two trees grew together and formed this bizarre looking tree that almost looks like a man with two legs.  During the summer there is a hedge here and this was the first time I discovered it. 

Bonsai Philosophy (11/7/2022)

During the recent meeting of the bonsai club that I am a member of, I asked one of the members for critique on one of my trees. It is a willow oak that I dug up out of my back yard and have had in a pot for about four or five years now and it is doing really great. The trunk of the tree is still fairly thin and here in lies the rub.

The member that I asked the critique or help from is advanced; I consider my skills somewhere in the middle, having gained a lot of YouTube knowledge. He is part of a bonsai club in northern Virginia and gives workshops up there. He is very good. In other words, I appreciate his feedback. His first remark was that based on the circumference of the trunk, “the tree should be approximately 4 inches tall to be in proportion.” My tree right now is two feet tall. While I agreed with him, if I want a finished tree; however, this tree is in development and hopefully by letting it grow tall, I can get some girth on the trunk. Cutting the tree that low is scarry to me. I do not see any leaf scars down there and I am not sure if it would back-bud or die when cut that low. I am not sure if I am prepared to risk it.

The next discussion point was movement in the trunk. My tree has a double trunk that are both about as straight as arrows. The discussion was about using very heavy copper wire to put some movement in the trunk. The following discussion ensued. A lot of bonsai artists including my advisor likes to put in exaggerated movement into trees to represent the age of the tree, ravaged by time and the weather. They also reflect the artist’s ability to work with the plants. I am not sure if I am a huge fan of all these trees with strange twists and turns that all these bonsai “artists” put in their trees. One of the YouTube channels I watch is the Bonsai Zone by Nigel Saunders. Nigel used to be a model builder, and his philosophy is (as I understand it) to create trees that are a copy of what they look like in nature. Well, I hardly see a contorted twisted willow oak in nature. My mentor for the day pulled up some pictures of mature willow oaks on his phone and had to agree. Trunks are mostly straight, and the canopies are brought.

Personally, I have a few trees that I am twisting and turning, but most of mine are clip and grow, like Nigel. Mine are mostly small. While I would love some larger specimen, being almost 70, my time to grow and lift large trees may be limited. Being a naturalist, a biologist, I like to recreate nature and walking in the woods, the day after the meeting I noticed that 90% of the trees had arrow straight trunks. Some of the understory trees were twisted: maples, ironwood, pawpaw, hornbeam, etc. They were looking for light, those sun flecks.

Naturally, making a forest like bonsai with multiple trees, we need to start thinking about making trees with relatively straight trunks. That is what we see in nature, the competition for light. But then, are there twin trunk oaks? I actually have a triple trunk oak in my front yard, and one of the tallest oaks on my favorite trails behind my home is a twin-trunked red oak. I did learn something. I am not yet going to cut off the leader (which I had planned to do) in the hope to develop a thicker trunk. Moreover, I am going to plant it on a rock!

All together it was a win-win meeting for me. I really encourage everyone to join a bonsai club, if you grow then and have not joined one yet. 

The willow oak of today's discussion.  As you can see the trunks are too thin and the side branches are not well developed.  My fear is letting the top grow too much might kill the side branches.  I put the rock there just now as a trial.  It is too big, but that is what we were thinking about with root over rock. 

This is the only strangely shaped oak that I know in the woods behind our home.  My wife calls it the howling dog tree.  It is in one of the ephemeral ponds and I assume a regrowth from a stump that broke off.

The twin-trunked red oak in the woods behind our home.  This tree is at least 300 feet tall, and the trunk is huge; you would need at least four persons to span around one of the trunks. 

Autumns of the past, present and future (10/27/2022)

I somehow enjoy autumn, fall or whatever you call it. I prefer the British word autumn over the harsher word fall that they use is this country. I understand a lot the leaves must fall, and that juxtaposition is not lost on me; but still, the word autumn sounds so nice.

As a kid I never experienced anything like autumn, or at least I don’t remember it, growing up in the tropics. I know that as a two-year-old I must have spent a change of seasons in Antwerp, Belgium, where we lived for a year. I remember seeing pictures of me in the snow, but I do know that we were back in the tropics before fall arrived the next year because my brother was born in early December. You were not allowed to fly when heavily pregnant back then (air pressure changes would make the baby pop out in the 1950s), and from what I know, we arrived back on our tropical island around August or September. Actually, my brother was born on December 5th which is Sinter Klaas (Saint Nicolas’ birthday) for us Dutch folks and that was a bitter disappointment to me. I had asked the good old wise guy for a sister, and he had delivered a brother to the hospital, or at least that was what my father told me. That is still the first memory I have; I was three and a half years old.

Our vacations, a few months back to the Netherlands every four years, never coincided with autumn; I think. Although I do remember briefly going to first grade in Terbregge, a suburb of Rotterdam, during our first vacation. This must have been in September, so I guess, theoretically it was fall in Holland. My luck, I came down with mononucleosis or kissing disease, a six-year-old kissing? Obviously, it was a vacation to forget! Moreover, I remember running home after school, to my grandmother’s home, where we were staying that vacation, and pooping in my pants; I had to go so badly. Yup, forget that vacation.

After that though, I do not remember any autumn visits to the Netherlands until I moved there after my 16th birthday. I lived with my aunt and four cousins that first autumn and I remember that she rented a cabin on or near the Veluwe in the center of the Netherlands. De Veluwe is a natural area that has a sandier soil and consist of woods and heather. Part of it is a National Park or a nature preserve. I remember walking through the woods often alone, (my cousins were not outdoorsy) during that week looking over fields of blooming heather. It was foggy at times and for the first time I heard the call of the coocoo. It was absolutely magical and amazing for a lonely, 16-year-old introvert who had just arrived from the tropics where it was always summer and was now temporarily living with five females (women and girls).

Autumn, a time of death, recycling, eventual rebirth, Halloween, the rutting (breeding) of deer, bucks will shed their horns (a.k.a. racks) to build back larger and better, even our elections, you get the idea (hopefully not the death of democracy as we know it). Farmers are harvesting, the grapes are coming into the wineries (ah, Beaujolai), the first beers are being brewed from the fresh grains (what I knew as Bock Bier in Holland, although it was usually released after the New Year). It is a mystical time and a time of hope, rebirth around the corner.

Walking through the woods behind our home I notice that the colors are more intense, partially because of the lower sun angle, and partially because of the changing leave colors. I don’t think we have seen the sun in three or four days now. It has been a bit dreary, but that makes it even more fall-like with temperatures in the low 60s (around 15 degrees C). In my days in the Netherlands this was the time for foggy days.

The seasons, the diurnal fluxes (day and night) and even the differences in day length between summer and winter are fascinating to me. This is what triggers autumn. Some of these triggers will probably never change, while seasons may change over or maybe even within generations, partially as a result of climate change. Sitting here writing this, I come to remember my college plant physiology courses where I learned about the mechanism of day length or better night length on hormones and plant response (read leaf color and plant senescence/dormancy for the winter). For example, maples start changing color when the days and nights have the same length (September 21), while oaks generally do it around the first frost.

But enough science speak. It just made me wonder how organisms or plants would or are adapting on other planets in other solar systems where there is a different gravity, season length, day or night length, year length, light intensity, wavelength of the light being emitted by their sun or suns, composition of their atmosphere, and soil types. I expect that those organisms have evolved there over a long time and should be adapted. They should probably thrive. In our case, because of human manipulation of our environment, the changes might be going too fast for some of the organisms to adapt, which may lead to mass extinction. Punctuated evolution anyone? Who knows?

Read up on that, I might write about that one of these days a bit more. Right now, I am just enjoying autumn; however, you know me, my mind cannot help wandering and wondering a bit. It is autumn, time for death and rebirth!

Nothing better than an early morning autumn walk in the woods with the dogs.  As most of you know, this is my passion, experiencing the sights, sounds and smell of the woods behind our home.

This picture was taken mid-afternoon, during a lunch walk.  I just enjoyed how the two trunks (the young and the old) mirrored each other.  As a bonsai guy, this is what we are after when we try to create movement in our trunks, or trees in general.  As I mentioned I am always, studying and wondering.  I also let my mind wander. 

Mushrooms (11/04/2021)

In our area autumn is a great time to walk in the woods and hunt for mushrooms. No, I don’t hunt for edible ones, my wife is way to skittish and we would meet an agonizing end to our lives munching on a poisonous fungal cap of some kind. However, this past week I have been laying on my stomach in the woods examining them and taking pictures.

Here I am laying on the ground in the woods examining a cluster of oyster mushrooms.  These are edible; although since these are mature (as big as my head), they are tough!

My view from below, the oyster mushroom.

I was always impressed by mushrooms; I took a short course in mushroom growing in 1976 and got a certificate in it (official “mushroom grower”). From horse poop to your plate. It was part of my Agricultural Engineering degree. It was a week’s course and at the end you brought home a mushroom kit to grow them at home, under your bed. Boy, we feasted on mushrooms for months. I finally got rid of the textbook a few months ago.

In the late 1980s and early 1990s I had a post-doctoral job where I worked on mistletoe. Now mistletoe is not a mushroom, but as part of the job I assisted in teaching a class on parasitic plants, plant epiphytes and symbionts. Mistletoes being the parasites and mushrooms being symbionts. We were still starting to understand the whole mycorrhizal world of fungi, and after a stint in the mining industry I more or less left the field. I did a lot of ecosystem restoration, in particular wetland restoration but mycorrhizae were somewhat pushed back in my brain. Only when I started teaching and talking about stockpiling topsoil did it pop back up. Finally, the book “Finding the Mother Tree” by Suzanne Simard explained a lot of what had expired in the past 30 years in mycorrhizae research, and it only had gotten better. My appetite was awakened by the book called “Overstory” by Richard Powers, who has a character who is very loosely based on Suzanne Simard.

Mold, fungi are a powerful group of organisms in the world. They are the ultimate undertakers. It is amazing, over time they are able to break down everything that is organic. But then, at the same time it appears they form this almost neural underground network between plants that give forests almost a sense of intelligence. Trees seem to be able to communicate with each other, feed each other nutrients and water, by way of mycorrhizal fungi. These fungi have invaded the roots of the plants and thus connect one plant with another. There are two types ecto- and endo- mycorrhizae. If you are interested look up what the difference is. Maybe one of these days I’ll write more about that. However, today I want to write about mushrooms.

Because all those mushrooms we see pop up in the woods, in our lawn etc. are the fruiting bodies of the mycorrhizal fungi and some other fungi living in the soil. When the temperature, soil moisture and humidity are just rights, strands of fungi get together and decide it is time to procreate, make babies. That is what those mushrooms are all about. Just like under my bed. They bundle together, pop out of the ground, out of a log or whatever, and loo there is a mushroom. Mushrooms have gills and in those gills is where the babies are. Thousands if not millions of spores which get disseminated by the wind and when the land in the right spot, they become mold threads again and infect wood or tree and plant roots, helping the forest do its thing.

Some more photos that I took this past week in the woods.

Far too often when I walk my neighborhood and see sick or dying trees I wonder, has the homeowner been treating their lawns with fungicides and killing all the mycorrhizae in their yard, basically cutting their trees off from their peers? This of course can not be proven unless we dig the trees up. But this is why I do not use pesticides and fungicides in my yard. I want a healthy soil where I can and will allow that worldwide underground web to exist and allow those trees to communicate and help each other. Together they much more capable to fight drought, disease, insect attacks than alone and deprived of their mycorrhizal support network.

Stream buffers (5/17/2021)

In a recent opinion piece in the “Bay Journal” an online weekly “news” paper, Beth McGee from the Chesapeake Bay Foundation writes that of the Bay States it appears that only Maryland is somewhat meeting its requirement of reforesting its stream buffers. Virginia is a distant second (33%) and Pennsylvania seems to have only met 20% of its assigned goal. Stream buffer planting seems to conflict with the agriculture use of the land and nibble away at the acreages of land that can be cultivated or grazed. In other words, it is difficult to promote or enforce.

In a way, it is all understandable. An acre of land used for crops might just be what a farmer needs to make a profit; although if that is what does it, he or she should probably be in a different business. On the other hand, for land developers, an extra acre could result in one or two more residential lots. This would raise the company’s profit margin on the project. Conversely, for a commercial site it would mean more parking and therefore a larger footprint of the industrial or commercial project.

However, little do folks realize what buffer zones do and what they contribute to the environment. So, let’s take it apart. As I mention in my classes, I will try to keep it simple; I am sure there are many more facets to this, but here are some of the important points.

I want to start with the environment. Trees in general are much more efficient in sequestering carbon and thus cleaning the air than agriculture land and pasture. I teach my students in one of my classes that the net primary production or the amount of carbon (CO2) fixed by agriculture and pastureland is between 600 to 650 grams per square meter per year, a forested buffer can produce between 700 when it is young to 1200 grams per square meter per year when it has matured. In other words, a mature buffer can capture almost double the amount of CO2 than a pasture or agriculture field. I don’t have hard numbers for subdivisions and industrial areas, but you can imagine that they capture even less carbon than agriculture fields.

Now let us look at the runoff from all these areas. Forested areas have a higher infiltration rate than agriculture land, pastures, or lawns. Moreover, all the leaf litter will help filter some of the water, and these buffers are generally not fertilized and often not sprayed with herbicides and insecticides. In other words, streams surrounded by wooded buffers receive less polluted runoff. Note that I do not mention the word less or more runoff. These streams will most likely receive less runoff. The water will infiltrate and be taken up by the trees and other plants and used for photosynthesis and transpiration. However, some of this infiltrated water will make its way to the stream in a much slower fashion. It will flow through the soil as opposed of over the soil, being filtered even more. In addition the water will be released more slowly to the streams, thus reducing the chance of flash floods during and just after a rainstorm. Concluding, forested buffers keep the water levels in streams more stable and keep the water in streams cleaner. Finally, trees may actually shade the stream, keeping the water in the stream cooler, which is healthier for all the creatures living in the stream.

A second point, organic farmers know that hedgerows along agriculture fields are very important. Hedgerows provide nesting sites for birds, and birds eat bugs, bugs that harm crops. Wildflowers in these hedgerows attract pollinators and maybe even predator insects, again something that is very useful for your crops. Hedgerows may actually reduce wind damage. In other words, a wooded edge along your field or between the field and the creek may bestow you an advantage.

Developers, you too should encourage stream buffers. People whose home borders the woods and look out on the woods usually pay a premium for their home. These buffers can be used for recreation by putting in walking paths, again increasing property values. When used correctly, buffers can often be used in stormwater calculations and used to offset the need for large stormwater facilities, saving acreage elsewhere. I have seen instances where we were able to change our underground piping for stormwater from large concrete pipes to smaller plastic pipes, saving the client thousands of developing dollars.

You get the idea; wooded stream buffers are really not as bad as they are made out to be. They are environmentally important, and landowners can use them to their advantage.

On a final word, naturally I am biased and over-simplifying here. Regular readers know, I write a lot about trees, stormwater, the environment, etc. In fact, the half-acre lot that our home is on is almost completely wooded, to the extent that I can hardly grow a lawn, or barely have enough sun to grow my bonsai trees. I often rail against and complain about the folks in my neighborhood who cut most or all their trees. The current book I am reading is about trees: Suzanne Simard’s book: “Finding the Mother Tree, Discovering the Wisdom of the Forest.” In other words, I am a tree hugger as I describe in this post and I will keep fighting for them, I honestly know this is one important way to save the earth for future generations.

Our back yard.  We have been laying gravel paths this spring.  Partially so that we don't drag in muddy feet but also in the hope to keep the chiggers and ticks at bay.  As I mentioned before I hate picking up leaves.

Winter is here (02/03/2021)

Winter has come to our corner of the world.  Not like the rest of the East Coast where they got up to 2 feet of snow yesterday and today.  We just got flurries and cold wind.  Of course it was on the day of the great rodent weather prognosticator, the wood chucks.  Strangely enough we all know that the astral spring is March 21, which is about 6 weeks from now; in other words it would make sense that it will stay somewhat cold for the next foreseeable few weeks.

I took this picture late last week after our first decent snowfall in a few years.  Decent means one or two inches.  The wind came up and blew some of the snow off the tree limbs and it was just beautiful and magical.

Teleworking is still interesting during these cold days.  My wife works down stairs, and I am sorry (for her) to say that the heat rises so she is cold and I am pretty comfortable up here in my perch.  We tend the run the wood stove only in the evening since it is in our library or what we call the stove room.  That room is the furthest removed from where my wife works, so it would have little or no effect on her warmth.  Moreover she would need to keep the darn thing loaded with wood.

Walking the dogs is fun now.  Jake the old guy loves this weather.  While he was on death's door a year ago and was given only a few days or weeks to live (read this post of last year), he is holding on, now a year later.  He absolutely loves this cold weather and actually is frisky.  He wants to join us on our lunch time walks and is genuinely disappointed when he has to go on a smaller walk in the morning before work.  He is just very slow.

I don't mind being slow when going out back into the woods.  I still like it when nature comes over me and when I have a chance to enjoy the sights, smells and sounds of the woods.  It never gets old, no matter what the weather is.  Right now, it is very wet out there and we are avoiding it somewhat; however, on the weekends you can find us somewhere in the woods.  I cannot believe there is anyone who can live without seeing or experiencing nature.  It is so darn important to get out there folks, there is beauty everywhere.

One more photo from our winter hike a few days ago.  Our favorite pond.  It has not been cold enough for it to freeze over.

Reading that post I wrote about Jake, now almost a year ago, I am not depressed.  Maybe it is because I have a powerful grow light next to me that helps with my little tropical bonsai trees that are next to me on my desk.  Maybe it is because of the change to a more emphatic political climate; although there are still a lot of nut cases out there.  But I try not to let it bother me right now; I have more work to do than I had in the past few months.  This, as the saying goes, should "keep me out of trouble".   As long as I can get out into the woods.  I have plans to get a few airlayers from a beech this spring.  Stay tuned.

So how is your first pandemic going? (3/30/2020)

So how is your first pandemic going? At least for many of us it is, unless you are 102 years old and reading this darn blog, and if you do, you are out of your mind. I guess I am not counting HIV, SARS, Ebola and whatever else we had between 1918 and now. I am not telling you that those were not severe, but this one eats the cake. 

I have been social distancing for two weeks and a couple of days now. At least I get to see my wife at the end of the day. When I walk the dog, I get to see the regular folks walking down the street, and we greet each other from a distance. I also get to say hello to my coworkers every day during our check-in. This weekend we had a virtual dinner date with friends where we sat down on “WhatsApp” and had dinner together. Then we had a Zoom church service and a Zoom church meeting afterwards. While fun, rewarding and satisfying, nothing beats a one on one meeting with friends or colleagues. So, euphemistically, I will keep calling it house arrest. 

So how else do I cope with it all? I noticed that I am reading more. I am really enjoying a book entitled “The Invention of Nature, Alexander von Humboldt’s new world” by Andrea Wulf. I have increased my time on the social networks, watch more bonsai video podcasts and while in the beginning I did watch more news, that has diminished somewhat over time. I know the drill now, I know it will be a matter of time we are all going to get Covid-19, or the Corona virus. 

Why am I so certain about catching the darn virus? I think it is unavoidable. I just hope that I don’t catch it when the virus is at its peak, and I need to fight someone for a ventilator. I also hope that when I get it, they figured out what the medicine is to treat it, or maybe that they have developed a vaccine. Lastly, viruses that don’t mutate very fast, and this one does not seem to do that, are supposed to lose their potency or virulence after some time; that is after replicating in other people’s body over and over. In other words, the famous flattening of the curve. But enough of that. I want to report how my life in the pandemic is going. 

It was nice this week to be able to get out twice. I quickly ran out to mail two letters, get fertilizer for my bonsais and medicine for Jake the dog. It was nice to see people in real life, let me tell you. The second time was to take my father-in-law to the ophthalmologist. I stayed in the car but managed to sneak away to the Starbucks drive through for a cup of coffee. A real treat after two weeks without a Starbucks visit! It felt awkward to drive; the roads were relatively empty, except of course the drive-through at Starbucks. I think it took me 10 or 15 minutes to get through it. But it was worth it. 

Finally!  My first store bought Starbucks in a cardboard cup in two weeks!  I missed that face so much.

At home, life has changed; I have graduated from weekend cook to almost fulltime cook. I bake bread whenever I think it is needed. In the past it was mostly on Fridays. I am now the main dog walker and do not have any issue getting my daily 10,000 steps in. 

The latest bread I made: an 80% biga bread.  We are really enjoying this one.

While as a boy from the tropics I do like the heat, I don’t like it that it is getting warm that quickly, because it means that tick and mosquito season is almost here. It means that our back yard and the woods behind our home are going to be that haven for those pesky critters again. It means either pesticides on your body or no more walks in the woods until sometime in October. No we do not treat our yard, because we have bees. It means walking through the neighborhood with all its excitement as I mentioned in a previous blog post <here>. But truthfully walking in the neighborhood is fun. You learn a lot about talking with your neighbors; you need some social interaction. 

Probably the strangest thing is that I have taken up the routine of showering around 4 pm in the afternoon. It was something my mother used to do, and I am not sure if it is genetically ingrained or why it is. There are not many things that my mother did that I am particularly proud off and would like to mimic. However, it allows us to sleep a little later, get the coffee going and my wife of to work and get my day started. On top of that I always remember overhearing Jo-Jo, a female co-worker of mine in the 1990s telling Kathrine, another female co-worker how she would never allow a man sleep in her bed who had not showered before getting in bed. Moreover, if he blew his nose in the shower (without a tissue I assume), he would be kicked out of the house immediately; I am not sure if she even allowed him to put his clothes on. The idea of getting in bed clean always stood with me; I wonder if that is why my mother did it. But sorry, I do blow my nose in the shower; I know, this is too much information. 

I have cleared this nose in plenty of showers and sinks in my life and will continue doing so.

Oh well, just reaching out to all my readers about my (and your) fucking first pandemic experiences. Are we worried? Not for ourselves as much as for our 93-year-old father-in-law who is getting more and more depressed in self isolation. Hope you are all doing well medically, physically and mentally. Hope you all have enough toilet paper and have not yet killed a spouse, kid, pet or other loved one (canary?). Stay tuned and let me know how things are going with you.

Au Naturale (10/18/2019)

The nice thing about teleworking or telecommuting is that it allows me to go for long morning walks with my dog Jake (I wrote a long post about it here). As I mentioned in my previous posts, we have cold mornings again, which knocks down the chigger, tick and mosquito population, and I can go out back into the woods again. One of my walks is about a mile and a half (2.4 km) long. It brings me through our neighborhood and then into the National Park which runs in the City Park. The City Park or Newport News Park is the woods I write about in my blog all the time. 

The look back after just entering the National Park from our neighborhood.  Don't tell anyone, but here is when Jake is off the leash and allowed to go his own pace and forest bathe as well.  He is too old to get in trouble and just enjoys smelling and looking around as much as I do. 

I noticed today during my walk that the second that I stepped over the boundary between our neighborhood and the National Park that my gate slowed down, my shoulders relaxed and even my breathing calmed down. I felt that my jaw did not clench and the space between my eyebrows relaxed. It was actually amazing. I was suddenly going for a stroll. 

Now when we walk our dog(s) (our other dog died almost a year ago now) in our neighborhood, we go with a purpose: to walk the dog, and/or to get some exercise, get our steps, raise our heart rate. In the woods, I go forest bathing, experience nature, enjoy myself and let nature come over me. I realize, when I walk through our neighborhood things have gotten slower. Jake has gotten older, and my knee has not been very happy lately. 

But it is somewhat boring walking in our development, you have seen that front yard only so many times; you meet the same people (dog walkers). Only once in the nearly 20 years that I have lived here have I been met with excitement; well actually three times, counting the other two times that I was almost run off the road, once actually breaking my ankle. The really exciting time was when I saw a well-proportioned nude lady walking through her living room. This happened about 15 years ago, so who knows, since I have been living here 20 years, maybe within the next 10 years I will be confronted with such a delightful view again (no nude guys please). I wonder if this is why I am somewhat tight when walking through our neighborhood, full of anticipation?  I just hope my poor old heart can take it when I get my next view to a nude lady in a window and that this millisecond exposure is not the end of me. While this may be the ultimate existentialist experience as I describe in a previous post <here>, I don’t want to go into cardiac arrest for something minor as that. I want to go out in a big way. 

However, it is those strolls in the woods that keep me going. Every day, I am just amazed by how the sun comes through the trees. What leaves have fallen off the trees. Yesterday, I was greeted by the call of a hawk; actually, it was probably warning me to stay away, or warning others of my presence. Today, I heard the call of birds that mimic the call of the hawk: blue jays. There was a caterpillar hanging by a thread from a leaf of a wax myrtle. There is always something to see or to explore. 

One of my favorite (small) forest trees, the sassafras is shedding its leaves.  Stay tuned, I am planning to write a post about this species one of these days.

Sunrise in the woods, I love the way the sun comes through the canopy and plays with the fallen leaves on the forest floor.

Folks it is really true, nature is not scary; it actually is good for you to go out there. Nature is good for your health and a one-time exposure can last you a week to two weeks. Just be safe and when you are a newbie to nature, go with someone you who has experience and who you trust. Lastly, enjoy and stroll, don’t be in a hurry.

2019 Here I come (1/9/2019)

It has been somewhat of a New Year's tradition of me to look back at the previous year, and even prognosticate a bit of what the new year may bring. I was not sure if I wanted to do that this year, but I got so many hits on last year's review in the recent days, that I almost felt I needed to do it again.  It seems that my readers are wondering what my thoughts are.

Breaking a little with the tradition, I want to tell you about the famous resolutions that people make at the beginning of the year. Well, I don't believe in them. Having been member of the YMCA in Cincinnati and now an active yoga practitioner at our community center, you see them come right after New Years, and after a month you are there again with the same crew for the remaining eleven months of the year. There may be a slight uptick in May or June, just before beach or pool season, but that's it.

My New Year's resolutions?

1. Not to die this year!
2. To be more active in preserving the environment.

These are my two major goals. That simple!

Goal number one needs little explanation. I hope it is something we all want. I have blogged about death and suicide before and I am not going there this time. I need to live to be able to work on and achieve goal number two! Naturally, I may stray so now and then, so be it!

Like this triple-trunked red maple in the woods behind my home I want to reach for the sky this year and work on fighting for the environment.  Teach folks more about it, talk more about it, before it is too late, and that time is rapidly coming.  This past year there has been an all-out assault on the environment by our political administration, supported by the far right, and industry.  In wetland science, we use this triple trunk is an indicator that the area it is growing in, is most likely a wetland.  Here, I am using it as an indicator that there is something very wrong with our environment.

So how about goal number two? In my eyes, the environment is under siege! As I also mentioned before, I absolutely do not understand those folks who used to scream about the federal budget and our children’s future but then are completely silent or sometimes blatant hostility when it comes to discussions about the environment and those same children. Although in today’s political climate those same folks are awkwardly silent when it comes to the budget and their offspring.

As a provider of environmental workshops I do my best to provide as much basic theoretical information as possible to my students; however, my reach is limited. In addition, with this blog I get between 200 and 400 hits per month. Not bad, but I wonder how many actually read them versus just browse it. I purposely do not advertise. Maybe I should; I wonder if the Googles of this world would send more folks my way, if I did? In addition, I would make a few cents. But for right now I’ll keep writing and trying to educate as many as possible (you all) about the beauty of nature and the importance of preserving and protecting nature. To me telling my readers a little bit about the science behind some of these things I see in nature is so important. I really think that this understanding helps people see the beauty, cultivates the love the love of nature and helps with the motivation to preserve nature.

So what am I going to do about preserving the environment? I hope to intensify my blogging effort about the environment. I will try not to be too political, but I will let the chips fall where they may. Regretfully, it seems that one political party seems to be more cavalier about protecting the environment than the other; I will keep calling them out. So be it! My wife encouraged me to volunteer a newspaper column on the environment. I am not sure if that would conflict with my job, and I am sure I could not make a living writing for the newspaper and from this blog, although that would be the ideal world. An occasional letter to the editor may work.

However, one thing is for sure we all need to roll up our sleeves and do something about our deteriorating environment before it's too late. Reports abound that tell us that our kids and grand-kids will suffer the consequences if we do not it serious and start taking drastic steps to protect the environment within the next few years. I want to be part of protecting this earth for them. It's the only one we they have!

I took this photograph this morning while walking in the woods.  I am lucky, my job allows me to telecommute.  This saves gasoline and saves the environment.  It is also good for my mental health.  The sun had just come up in the woods and I was ready to get to work.  Walks in the woods do a number of things for me: they help me focus on the day's task ahead; they help me think through things I am currently working on (like the course I am developing); the calm me inside and lower my blood pressure; and it is great exercise.  The rising sun against the trunks of the trees symbolize to me the intentions expressed in this post, my New Year's Resolutions.  Bring them on!

The old man and the woods (12/27/2018)

It was early in the morning, the old man and his dog decided to go out for a walk in the forest that was located behind his home. The air was crisp this particular morning in December. The soil was moist. Actually, it was very wet. It had been a very wet year, and all the rains this autumn had not helped. Sections of the trails were flooded and when you got off the trails, you could never see what was hiding under the dense layer of fallen leaves and pine needles. Not that this is all bad, this part of the world is known for its “bottom land forest” and these woods are definitely part of that ecosystem. The old man’s home should have never been built where it was, in a wetland ecosystem, but it was built before there were any laws that prevented or at least regulated that.

Jake the dog was easily bored and when he noticed that the old man took his regular trail, the old man’s canine companion hesitated. Like some other times he just stood there in protest ready to turn around and go home. While it is a requirement in these woods to leash dogs, the old man hardly ever leashes his. Jake does not stray far from his side, and the only real mischief he gets into is eating deer pellets or what the old man coins “doggie probiotics.” So, there is no way for the old man to force the dog to join him.

There are; however, two remedies to entice Jake in joining the old man on his walk in the woods. That is bribing the dog with cookies or going off the trail and bush whacking. So, off the trail it was this time. However, the return trip always involves the trail anyway. While simply walking down the trail is often meditative, having done it so many times, bush whacking is always fun. There may be a rotten out stump hidden under the leaves and then all the sudden he would sink ankle or even sometimes shin deep into the ground. Having the groundwater only an inch or two under the surface would mean shoes full of muddy water. In addition, the woods are littered with fallen trees and branches. Sections of the woods have a dense stand of low bush blueberry, the only plant that the deer in these woods do not seem to browse. While this does not slow down the old man, Jake has trouble with the blueberry plants the branches are touch and they hit him in the snout and eyes, and the old man tries to avoid the densest stands as much as possible. However, the lowbush blueberries grow in the driest parts of the woods, which is nice on these wet days. 

Nature is still very active in the woods observes the old guy. While most of the deciduous trees appear dormant, the pines may still have some activity during the warmest parts of the day. A close observation of one of his favorite beech trees in the woods the old man stood still to examine the bark. There he observed insects that where hiding in the crevasses of the bark. At first look they appeared to be dormant lightning bugs that had bedded down for the winter. Birds abound in these woods and little warblers appear to have an eyesight in a wavelength that allows them to pick out bugs like this from the crevasses in the bark from quite a distance away. Obviously, the birds had not discovered these guys yet. Maybe they’ll survive till spring.

A little further in the woods, the man discovered group of yellow coral mushrooms poking out through the leaf litter. A wet log was covered by tiny small paper-thin mushrooms and a little further down the trail he discovered a tree trunk that had the white hairy mass hanging from it. Hen-in-the-woods, an edible mushroom; but let it be. 

Coral Mushroom sticking its head out from in between the leaf litter.

These little (papery-thin) guys were growing on a rotting log

These hen-in-the-woods were growing on a dead trunk of a maple tree.
The trunk closest the camera was still alive.

It was an exhilarating morning, walking off the trail, just anywhere where there was no standing water. But now it was time to find the regular trail and return. For the man it was time to hit a familiar path and enter a somewhat meditative state and for Jake to linger behind once he noticed this was the road back home which was worse than taking a familiar path. It was a time to absorb what he had seen and experienced that morning, to be in the moment, and not to have his thoughts clouded by what was going on it the world around him. Clouded by the pressure that these types of lands will be under in other states thanks to the policy of this insane government of ours.  Or clouded by the thread of having to postpone retirement and an even  longer working career because of a bizarre stock market.

Thanks heaven these thoughts were interrupted by some other shit, or better by what appeared to be coyote scat (or shit) on the trail. It could be fox scat as well, but it was the size of what a dog would deposit.  The poop were full of hair; whatever deposited the turds there must have swallowed the poor animal skin and all. The last interesting find in these woods before returning home after a satisfactory walk.

Still not sure who laid that heap of scat.  It appeared to consist of mostly hair, so it was a predator (a fox or a coyote?). 

Nothing better for Jake than to explore one of the ephemeral ponds out in the woods.  While Jake is not a hunter he enjoys the shallow ponds and just drink some of the water and smell the banks.  He does not like to go too deep.  Being a male dog, his wee-wee is his depth gauge.