Breathing Botany’s Baby Batter: A Pollen-Season Memoir (04/07/2026)

Or, the Yellow Haze of Spring

It’s spring. The days are getting warmer; the birds are chirping; the daffodils in our garden have finished flowering; leaves are popping out everywhere; the redbuds and dogwoods are blooming; the May flowers have woken up—and yes, there is pollen everywhere.

Pollen is so thick right now that our gray deck is yellow, and you can watch it drift over the boards when there’s even a slight breeze. Our concrete driveway is yellow, and the vehicles are coated, too. While the major culprit in our pollen plague is the loblolly pine, it started earlier with the maples and oaks. They announced the start of pollen season about two weeks ago.

The first time I mentioned pollen on this blog was in 2014. My first post was in June 2013 (wow—13 years ago), so April 2014 was more or less the first time I could have complained about it in these pages. I think I mentioned it every year since. Spring pollen has been a perpetual issue here in Virginia (and farther south). For a few weeks, the sky looks yellow and—somehow—everything else does, too. We were walking along the York River and clouds of yellow dust drifted over the water from the shore. When you walk the dogs in our neighborhood and a gust of wind kicks up, you get a face full of the stuff and your eyes sting from all the tiny particles. Even your shoes turn yellow after a stroll through the grass or along a forest trail.

I had a perverse sense of humor when I was still teaching—actually, I still have a streak of it. I’d ask my students if they knew what pollen was: plant sperm. Tree sperm. “Now everyone, take a deep breath in through your nose and inhale all that sperm through those nostrils into your lungs.” A few weeks later, the water in my rain barrels smells horrible. Rotten eggs smell like perfume compared to this brew. Pollen has a high protein content, and all that protein has to break down—ferment, rot, or whatever you want to call it. I’ve always assumed this liquid is fine to use on my bonsai; I’m sure it must be nutrient-rich. And, over the years it hasn’t killed a plant yet.

Soon, this pollen episode will be a thing of the past. We’ll have forgotten it until the end of March next year when it begins again. Now, the seasons will get warmer, and summer will be upon us. Heat and humidity will be there, and maybe a chance of hurricanes? Let’s just hope I can keep complaining about pollen on our deck and cars for a few more years.

Our deck covered by pollen

Save the environment (05/18/2024)

We were informed in one of the recent issues of the Washington Post that the sea level is rising faster than predicted all along the Atlantic and Mexican Gulf coasts. There are regions where the level has gone up 6 or more inches, or for my metric fans, 15 cm. Amazing to think that this occurred during the past 15 years, or less than a generation.

You probably know (from reading some of my past writings) that I have been very concerned about our global environment and argued that we are stealing from the future of our next of kin. In my posts of the past 11 years, I have 5 posts with the key word environment, 52 with environmental, 5 with environmental justice, 60 with global warming, and 39 with climate change. Some of the posts will have multiple keywords, and there will be some overlap. For example, I am sure that I will be using all these keywords for this post. I probably have missed using these keywords in some of my posts. But so be it. I have now published 545 or more posts in this blog, since 2013. This means that more than 10% of my posts somehow deal with environmental issues including global warning, or at least use one of these keywords associated with them.

Why do I harp so much on this issue? I am 70 years old, and I have no idea how much longer I will live. I will be long dead, by the time the shit hits the fan, so to speak. Our financial advisor makes me live till 94 in her calculations. May I only be so lucky or maybe unlucky. It would be fine with me if I could live till that ripe-old age and maintain some mobility and not suffer much mental decline. It would be nice to see any potential future grandchildren. Living till 94 would make the oldest grandchild a maximum of 23 when I die. Boy my daughter better hurry up. No pressure though. I am a strong believer that families should have no more than two children and admire those who stay childless by choice. One of the causes of the environmental decline is the overpopulation of this earth or exceedance of the earth’s carrying capacity as first proposed by Malthus. Malthus determined that the earth could only handle a certain number of people. If he was correct, it means that we need to reduce the overall birthrate on earth. I wrote about this <here>. However, on the other hand, I also read that we need more young folks if I want to keep enjoying my social security. We are in a pickle, aren’t we?

So, what small things am I doing to protect the environment?

1. 1. We bought a hybrid vehicle. Our car does not have the best gas mileage, but it makes us feel good. Our other car has better highway mileage, and we can now be selective about which vehicle we use for a certain trip. Yes, we have the van, which is a gas guzzler, but I wonder what was better for the environment, flying across the country for two or driving? If you read this and know the answer, leave me a comment.
2. We pick up our dog poop when we take them for a walk. This helps in keeping the nutrients out of the Chesapeake Bay, and hopefully helps the environment.
3. In addition, we tend not to fertilize our yard, except my bonsai trees. However, that should not cause a lot of runoff. Fertilizers I have includes some powdered Miracle Growth for my trees and bonemeal. We use compost, both stuff we produce ourselves and some storebought compost. Pesticides and herbicides are not available at our home. I even chase off any lawn maintenance or bug control salesperson from our property.
4. Our yard has a lot of trees, and we call people that cut the trees in their yard: tree murderers. I call it tree genocide.
5. In retirement, I am starting to grow our own food again, and I have just seeded a pollinator garden.
6. We are slowly weaning ourselves from the use of plastics. The most recent thing we did was to trash our plastic cutting boards and some of the plastic storage containers.
7. I am involved in the environmental committee of our UU church, or what is called the “Green Sanctuary” committee. We donate a lot to environmental groups as well.
8. Lastly, and I am sure I can think of more items, we try to eat organic and semi-healthy. We are not vegetarians, but we are aware of the food additives and the danger of highly processed foods. When I have time, I try to bake our own bread, which has much less unpronounceable additive in it than storebought bread.

No, we are not perfect, but at least we try to leave something for future generations to enjoy. Where can we improve what we currently do to preserve the earth for future generations? Let me know!

This cartoon shows what I am afraid of (so I stole it).  Conservatives seem to harp about deficit and money but appear not to give a damn about the environment!

My New Sermon (7/11/2022)

This past Sunday I gave a new sermon at our UU church.  It was almost impromptu, I was asked three weeks ago if I could do one based on rain.  Since I teach about stormwater, I though "what the heck."   I am not sure who ordered it, but it rained almost the entire weekend and we had stormwater galore.  

Without further ado, here follows the sermon.  I ad-libbed a bit, but kept to the outline (note the English, and grammar, etc. might not be the best).

----------------------------

I have a question for everybody.

Do you sing in the shower?

or,

Do you talk to yourself in the shower out loud, have conversations with yourself?

No, don’t worry, I will not ask your partner, or your pet if you actually do that and if you sing, if you can hold a tune.

There was a time in our life that when we took a shower, we had the keep our mouths closed; our lips tightly closely together, so that the shower water could not accidentally enter our mouth. We brushed our teeth with either bottled water or water that was boiled, filtered and then treated with iodine. Our vegetables were soaked for 20 minutes in water loaded with iodine and despite all that my wife Donna got amoebic dysentery twice. “One more time” she was told, “and you will be permanently sent home to the U.S.”

Where the heck was this? Where were we?

Well, it was in Nepal, 40 years ago. Because of the overall sanitary situation at the time all waterways, streams, creeks, wells, and even springs were severely contaminated with all kinds of diseases. Water was unsafe.

We always learn that beer making was an essential part of living in the Middle Ages in Europe. Water was not safe to drink back then and the process of making, what was in those days low alcohol beer, was a way of sterilizing water and making it a safe every day or all day beverage.

Looking from space we are reminded of one of my favorite UU hymens: “Our Blue Boat Home.” The earth looks like a blue marble, showing that it is covered by oceans. Actually, the blue we can is only about 5.8% of all the water available on this earth. 94% is locked up in rock and unavailable to us, while the remaining 6% is theoretically available to us. The problem is that 5.8% is salt water and essentially undrinkable because of the salinity. There is 1.5% freshwater which is locked up in the atmosphere, soil, groundwater, glaciers, wetlands, plants, animals, rivers, lakes and streams. It is estimated that a grand total of 0.0014% of the water on earth is potentially available for human consumption. Let that sink in a bit. And that is where I come in.

Currently, I work for the State of Virginia in the Stormwater Program as a trainer in adult education. I train folks to play nice with their stormwater. One of the main issues is that once rainwater becomes runoff and enters the streams and rivers, it can easily enter saltwater and in essence become useless to us land dwellers, at least to us living here in the Tidewater. Oh, I am not saying that the animals and plants that live in the tidal areas of the Chesapeake don’t benefit from some of the runoff, but what we are seeing is that the runoff often takes a lot of stuff with it. As I tell my students the runoff is usually cloudy with sediment and sediment does not travel alone. With it you get nutrients, animal and human wastes, cigarette butts, plastics, pesticides, motor oil, dirty diapers, used tires, and all kinds of other contaminants. According to the Bible, humans were given dominion over the earth, so is this what it means? Think about that. I prefer our 7th principle that tells me that I am an equal part of the interdependent web of existence. We need to take care of the earth and that is what I try to teach.

Now the problem is that the runoff from our land is increasing. For one, our storms are getting larger as a result of global warming. Secondly, we are building more homes, mini-malls, roads, parking lots, sidewalks, you name it. All these areas are impervious to rainwater and when it rains the water needs to go somewhere, it becomes runoff. Over time we have created more runoff. Finally, forests, areas with trees and shrubs, or wildflower areas are infiltration champions. On the other hand, lawns are not. They create even more runoff. In addition, people put more fertilizer and pesticides on lawns. In other words, you can guess what the result has been over the past 70 years, more runoff and more contaminated runoff, less infiltration into the soil and a lowering of the water table. Water needed for trees, shrubs, ephemeral ponds, and shallow irrigation wells.

With the exception of James City County, Williamsburg, Smithfield and Isle of White, most of us rely on water that has been pumped to or collected in reservoirs around us. The counties that I just mentioned have to pump their drinking water out of the ground. Their water comes from a very deep layer or aquifer that is difficult to replenish. Water has to flow underground all the way from Richmond area and that may take centuries. I am sure you can imagine that reducing the infiltration in that area does not help. But we have an additional problem on top of that. Our water table or aquifer is broken, busted, kaput. This was caused by a meteor many moons ago that was big enough to create the Hampton Roads, the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay, but not large enough to create mass extinctions. As a result, salty sea water can flow back up the aquifer if it is not replenished upstream, and herein lies an additional problem. It is not because of all the pumping and decreased infiltration I just spoke about! All those folks that depend on groundwater in our area are in trouble.

What can be done about this? For one, the Hampton Roads Sewer District is starting to pump treated sewer water back into the ground to replenish what we pump out and thus slow down what is called saltwater intrusion. Don’t worry. They claim it is safe, the treated sewage is sterile.

As part of my job I am working with designers, builders, locality officials, and home owners in handling stormwater where it is generated, on the property. Letting in infiltrate instead of sticking it in a roadside ditch or a pipe and sending it to a creek. This means less lawns, more rain gardens, bio-retention, permeable pavement, grass swales, you name it; infiltration is the name of the game.

Once runoff hits the creek, we lack the ability to clean up the water just like we cannot turn water into wine or into beer. We are no miracle workers. We need to start at the source, where it originates. We teach folks that they have to keep pollutants out of the water, in particular mud or what we call sediment. That is why I tell folks: Sediment does not travel alone, and we require things like those orange sediment fences and other measures around building sites, state-wide. I teach that and pollution prevention on a job site. All in an effort to keep runoff clean and infiltrate as much water as possible.

So what can you do?

Let’s think and talk about it.

1. In your yard

2. With the water that falls on your roof

3. With your vehicles

4. Your dog

5. When you play

A construction site down the street from my home.  Another Dairy Queen!  These are the guys that I teach or the guys that are inspected by folks I teach.

Water (12/29/2020)

It was Rachel Carson who wrote: “The edge of the sea is a strange and beautiful place.” Who am I to disagree? Having lived and grown up in the vicinity of the sea from my third through my sixteenth birthday and spending almost every day in it, I fully agree with her. I even have photographs of me as an infant at the shore of Lake Tanzania (or Lake Tanganyika as it was called in those days) one of the largest natural lakes in Africa. Technically that was not a sea, but you cannot see the opposite shore. Even later in Holland between my 16th and 22nd birthday, I was never far away from the water (those Dutch canals) or ocean. For the past 20 years I have lived on the Chesapeake Bay and have the almost daily illusion that when I am in Yorktown and look east, I actually have an unobstructed view of the Atlantic Ocean and thus can look all the way to Portugal or thereabouts. As a sailor I know I am wrong, because leaving Yorktown at the 90-degree compass bearing I would sail straight into Cape Charles on Virginia’s Eastern Shore, and never make it to the actual ocean.

This photograph was taken in August 2020 in Yorktown looking east!  Portugal I see you! (not).  But you get the picture, that is why I like living here. 

I often wonder what my attraction to the ocean or water is? I always blamed some form of claustrophobia, like the need to see the horizon. In fact, I grew up being able to see the horizon. On a clear day we could literally see the coast of Venezuela from our home some 60 kilometers (40 miles) away. Accounting for the curvature of the earth we actually saw the peaks of the coastal mountain range. This was especially spectacular at night, when the mountains got hit by thunderstorms and you could see the lightning. Pretty cool for us living on a more desert like island. But even in the Netherlands where I moved when I was 16, you can easily get to places where you can look to infinity.  Holland or the western part of the Netherlands, where I lived, is as flat as a pancake, and you can see for miles, even when not standing on a shore. 

The most miserable place I ever lived was Durham, North Carolina (sorry guys). This was probably because we lived in a rental and because we knew that it was only for three months. We lived there in the mid 1980s next to a racist who would stand in his front yard with a gin and tonic at 10 am complaining to me about those n...... But to me it was also because I could never get my bearings; too many trees, no horizon, I felt closed in. I really never knew where I was. Nepal, Yemen, Uganda all gave me a chance to look as far as I wanted.

Even living in New Mexico where I did not have to deal with claustrophobia. There were no trees in the desert, or when there were I could look around them and look far.  I absolutely loved it. But still, getting to the big lake called Elephant Bute in the Rio Grande was something spectacular to me. Open water! I wrote three posts about our visit to Newfoundland, and boy there again, the coastal areas were a delight. Oh, and coastal Scotland but then the single malt really helped too in my love affair with that country and its coast. 

Maybe, except for the single malt, what do all these experiences have in common? Water, oceans, lakes, and horizons. What does it tell you or me about me? I really do not know. That my body is comprised of something like 70 or 80% H2O? That I, like every regular human being, need to drink 8 glasses of water to survive or at least be healthy. Maybe that that like every one of you I have evolved from some lifeform that originally lived in water, especially that interface between water and shore? Getting back to Ms. Carson, that interface between ocean and land is beautiful and sometimes frightening. The area where the waves crash the algae, seaweed, oysters, crabs, etc. In evolutionary times those first creatures that ventured out of the waves onto the shores (plants, animals, etc.) to see if they could survive there. 

The horizon probably signifies my wander lust.  Not that I am any way like them, but I am sure that is what attracted the great explorers like Columbus, Cook or even Darwin.  They had the urge the discover what was over the horizon; new things to see, to experience.   More and more do I havve the need to see what is over the horizon and I cannot believe that I live in this house for more than 20 years.  Here I am couped up in it for almost a year thanks to COVID-19. I need to study these feeling and the deeper reasons behind them a bit more. 

One thing I do know is that we need to take care of our water. Water, clean water is so essential to us all, and it seems that we are forgetting this. On my daily walks I still see piles of dog shit around that people refuse to pick up. I observe litter all over the place. A lot of this, if not all of it, will be ending up in our surface water and pollute it. We need to take care of our water folks; it is all that we have. This is the only planet that we have, that our kids have and our grandkids.

Is our blue marble turning green? (8/4/2016)

"Far above the world, Planet Earth is blue, and there's nothing I can do" 

- David Bowie -

This was the view from our cockpit the other morning watching the sun come up over the horizon during an early morning sail on the Chesapeake Bay.  The water in the Bay this winter was remarkably clean and clear.

But here on earth there is a lot we can do to keep that water blue and healthy.  Although it seems to get more and more difficult.  This week's newspaper reported that the drinking water in our area stinks and tastes bad.  Our water works blames the hot weather and the algae bloom in the lakes that supply our water.  It seems that the algae give the water a bad taste and smell.

The next questions hot weather and algae bloom, what can we do about that?

By now we should have all heard about global warming; it is real and there is probably not much we can do about in the short term.  But in the long term, yes we can.  We need to get serious about energy efficiency and renewable energy; it is not only good for the planet, but also good for our pockets.  But yes it is an expensive investment in the short term and the returns are slow to materialize (it will pay you back in so many years).  For example, we are saving $15.00 every two months on our water bill since we installed two $180 low flow toilets.  This means it will take us 48 months or 4 years to break even.

The hot weather has warmed up that wonderful nutrient rich water and made it the perfect breeding ground for all those algae.  Note the words nutrient rich!  How does the water get nutrient rich?  Oh yes, blame those farmers!  Well, not so fast.  We are to blame as well.  We over-fertilize our yards, or put fertilizer where it does not belong; people don't pick up after their animals; don't maintain their septic systems; dump their fall leaves in a ditch or in the woods where they don't belong; wash their car in the street and not on the lawn or at a car wash; or poor chemicals down the storm drain.  All that stuff eventually ends up in the streams and rivers where we all get our drinking water from or that end up in the Bay.  And the algae love it!  Look for the word eutrophication that's what scientist call it.  It means enriching the water with nutrients.

Last September we went on an evening sailing trip to watch the algae at night in their phosphorescent state.  It was quite the adventure and I wrote about it in this blog posting.  Who knows, I promised a few friends to take them out if it happens again, and I secretly hope it does not, although I love to sail at night.

But lets get back to the question, is our blue marble turning green?  The earth was first called blue marble by the space program on December 7, 1972, by the Apollo 17 astronauts when they took a picture of the earth on their return trip from the moon.  Subsequently, other satellites that flew much further from earth also looked back home and took pictures of the blue marble floating in space.  (I learned about this term from Wallace Nichols' book "Blue Mind" he actually started the Blue Marble Project). 

This is a copy of the original photograph taken by the Apollo 17 astronauts.   Picture was downloaded from NASA.

My question is with global warming and eutrophication, will the blue marble stay blue or will it turn the oceans green with algae, or will it turn the world green with people who think green and want to help save and protect the environment?  

That choice is ours isn't it?

Sailing meditates me (Any open water, 6/28/2016)

One of the books I am reading discusses the healing power of water; Wallace Nichols describes in his book Blue Mind: "The Surprising Science That Shows How Being Near, In, On, or Under Water Can Make You Happier, Healthier, More Connected and Better at What You Do."  It is  a fun and and fascinating book in which I often see myself.  Nichols' book has a similar theme as Richard Louv's books on Nature Deficit Disorder in that Lowe talks about green nature and Nichols talks about blue nature.  But regardless, whether it is the greens or the blues: nature has it.

A picture I took earlier this year on Catalina Island in Maine.  This picture captures the blue and the green that are so important in my life.

What struck me in one of the passages in Nichols' book was his statement about how someone mentioned that once you are near water you do not need to meditate, but that "water meditates you."  I found that a profound statement and it stuck with me.  If you read my previous post <here> where I wrote about when I visit the beach, how I can just sit in the waves for hours; let the water wash over me; forget everything; live in the moment; wait for the next wave; yes, empty my mind; and let it be. It kind of sounds like the definition of meditation to me.  I don't do it consciously, the water does it for me, the water meditates me.  Truthfully, being in nature often does that for me too (I write about it <here>).  Probably less so, because I have to pay attention to what my dogs do, and keep up with my wife who walks faster than I do (we need to get the heart rate up, you know.  Honestly, there is a time for that too.).

I took this picture of a boot at a mooring buoy in the York River some time ago, and I am not sure if I shared it with you already but scenes like this, or doing this, meditates me. 

I was discussing this concept of water meditating me with a good friend at church the other day.  Doc Robin is a band leader, self proclaimed shaman and the leader of the Earth Rising Community in our Unitarian Church.  "I often think that church interferes with my spirituality ... The spirituality that I can get from nature", he quipped when we discussed the concept of nature (or water) meditating you instead of you meditating in nature (or on or near the water).  So there is something to it; being in nature or water, or being able to see it (even in pictures) is good for you, it heals the body and the mind, it lowers anxiety and lowers the blood pressure.

Last week I experienced this again when we went sailing.  You really cannot think about much else when being at the rudder and trying to maintain course and keeping the wind in the sail.  The winds were around 15 knots, which were fairly strong for our small 25 foot boat.  Nothing dangerous, but you need to keep attention to what you are doing, stay in the moment.  Yes, there were dolphins, birds and wonderful weather, but just looking backwards or not paying attention for a few seconds results in a course change, loose the wind out of your sail, or maybe get too much. Even occasionally looking on my tablet (GPS) to see where we were resulted in a course shift.  It could also cause your boat to come about or to gibe.  You had to be in the moment.  I really could not think of anything else that was going on in my life than being right in the moment and concentrating on my sailing, staying on course and reading the wind and the water.

You want to see two people experiencing flow?  Here you have it!  My wife and I look like we are truly enjoying ourselves and I am concentrating on keeping the boat on course and properly into the wind.

Granted, I do not have an autopilot as many people I know have on their boat.  I am not sure if I want one.  I know it would be nice when I solo sail or need to do something in a hurry, but in the past when I sailed on a friend's boat with autopilot it felt that I somehow lost that intimate touch with the water and the wind.  It was great to be on the water and I loved it; it was so much better than being on land, and of course you always have to pay attention, but still, I like the rudder in my hand.  Granted, I have not sailed in my own boat for longer than 4 or 5 hours at a stretch, so time will tell.  On top of that, I always have someone to take over when I have to take a pee-pee break.

After reading Nichols I realized that in reality, our sailing trip "meditated me", there was no time for distractions.  Mihály Csikszentmihálályi describes this as flow.  Flow is an interesting concept that I learned about from a book that he published in 1990 under the same title (boy that was a long time ago that I read that book).  When you are in flow, you are completely absorbed in and energized by what you are doing (no television watching does not count).  Healing at 15 degrees or more, with 15 knot winds and thoroughly enjoying yourself, not thinking about anything else (as I show you in the photograph above), now that is flow.  Kayaking through the marshes, looking at birds and snails hanging on to the marsh grasses is also flow.

I took this picture while kayaking this weekend of all the snails hanging on the the smooth cord grass (Spartina) during high tide.

Think about it folks, get out there, let nature meditate you!  Blue or green, it it good for your physical and mental health.  Go with the flow!

We went kayaking this past weekend.  Another advanture in the blue and green.  My wife took this picture of me, she really had to call be a few times to get my attention and take this picture.  I was absorbed by being out there in it.

Nature-deficit disorder II (6/14/2016)

What is the common thread in my life (other than my wife, family and friends)?  There are a few, but they all come down to the same common denominator which is nature.  Whether nature is green (the forests) or blue (the water or even the expansive sky), it does not matter to me, I like being out there.  I believe in the healing power of nature, it calms me down and heals the soul. 

As a teenager growing up in the Caribbean I could spend hours outside on our desert island imagining how to landscape the yard.  My parents had just built our home in this new subdivision and it was still a partial construction site.  But I just walked through the yard will all these designs in my head.  There was no day-time TV, no computer games or anything like that and yes we had to walk through 3 feet deep snow to school even in the Caribbean.  Just kidding of course.  I never go to landscape our yard; we moved away, back to the Netherlands.  But even in 3^rd and 4^th grade after school my best friend Michiel and I would be playing outside in the bush exploring things, finding what we thought to be hidden caves and beautiful flowering plants.

I still do it to present days, as I like to say to the dogs on Saturday mornings, “let’s walk the grounds”; our yard is slightly shy of a half-acre, so nothing to write home about, but I still imagine things.  I attempt to grow bonsais and I will go look at my trees trying to imagine what they will look like years from now.  One thing I do too little off during my rounds is, to my wife’s annoyance, pull weeds; I just enjoy a very slow walk and looking at nature, like the towhees digging through last year’s fall leaves that we left in all the perennial beds.  We tend not to use any pesticides or fertilizers in our yard and it usually teams with weeds, birds, frogs, toads, skinks, butterflies, squirrels, moles, voles, mosquitoes, and ticks in our yard.  We built a huge stick pile which is a refuge for all kinds of birds, a pair of rabbits, and the other day, our beagle flushed a fawn out of it.  We have a nature preserve behind our home and one of the things I do is to stand in our yard and look out over it in anticipation of fall weather when temperatures at night are low enough again for the chiggers and ticks to become dormant, so we can go out there again.

When not in the yard on his afternoon off from school, this teenager growing up on a Caribbean island was either sailing or swimming/snorkeling.  But he was always enjoying some other form of nature.  He was rarely ever brooding inside.  He was brooding outside. 

Regular readers know my love for the water and sailing.  Just a visit to the beach always amazes the family; I can just sit in the surf and never come out.  Sitting on the beach on the sand does not interest me one bit, I want to be in the water; that is where I am at home.  The same is the case for being on the water, in a sailboat. 

Extroverts need people around them to recharge.  I need nature around me to do that.  Being an introvert I wonder if all or many introverts recharge that way, or if they all recharge differently?  But for me it is nature, be it green or blue, it really does not matter to me. 

I know I am not alone in this.  When I began writing this post my wife ran into the following article published by the BBC.  It describes how exposure to nature is good for you.  It is based on a scientific research article published <here>.  It showed that people who where exposed to nature for 30 days or longer were significantly happier than before they were exposed to nature.  As I mentioned in my blog about Richard Lowe's book, he has seen the same in the research he has reviewed.  The book on the Blue Mind by Wallace Nichols has the same premise (see the list of books I am reading).  While it is slow reading for me, it is not a bad book (it is actually a great book); but I have so many other important things I am doing, like exploring nature and sailing.

A picture of this weekend's sail.  This was "Blue Mind" for sure, 15 knot winds, some fun intense sailing, we had no chance to think about anything else.  We were living in the moment.

Water (2/12/2016)

Walking in the woods this morning after a very cold morning I was reminded of one of the things I really try to push in my classes: 

“The importance of (clean) water!”

I tell my students that life is not possible without water and that one of the reasons is that water has these special properties.  One of these properties is that is expands when is gets colder than approximately 40 degrees Fahrenheit.  Below that temperature water becomes more buoyant (lighter) because of the expansion and rises to the top of the water column.  When temperatures drop below freezing water freezes on top and creates this insulated layer which allows fish and aquatic life to survive in lakes, ponds, rivers and oceans (and it allows my crazy Dutch country men and women to win gold medals in speed skating).  If water would freeze from the bottom up these water bodies would be lifeless because every thing wold freeze to death.  This is also one reason why NASA is so fascinated by the (water) moons of Jupiter and Saturn, because they are expected to have liquid water deep down.  There may be life up there!

After an night of frost you can see the small cracks that formed and refroze as a result of the expanding ice, creating this magnificent mosaic.

The photograph above gives a great example of it all.  There is liquid water under the ice.  Obviously after the water froze it got even colder and the expanding ice has all kinds of small cracks in it from expanding and now looks like a mosaic.  Really cool!  Although it may be quite disturbing that instead of enjoying nature, I am constantly analyzing things in nature, just like that cartoon that I saw on Facebook of how a scientist spends his vacation on a tropical island.

Click <here> to see the site where I found the cartoon and to see many more science cartoons!

Anyway, I do teach almost daily about the importance of water, about the importance of clean water and about keeping it clean through erosion and sediment control and stormwater management.

Expanding ice in wet soil causes what we call frost heaving.  These soil particles become very loose and can become erodible and end up in our stormwater.

What can you contribute to keeping our water clean?

1. Pick up your animal’s waste, especially when they do it on the road or in or near a place where it will readily enter the stormwater
2. Don't over-fertilize or apply too much pesticide to your yard
3. When you apply fertilizer or pesticide stay a few yards away from streets or your property boundary
4. When you wash your car do it on the lawn not on a paved surface, like your driveway or the road in front of your home.  Better, do it at a car wash.
5. Don’t poor waste oil or any other wastes down the storm drain
6. Minimize the bare soil in our yards and mulch

We all can contribute to clean water, and it is so important!  If we run out of water, our earth will turn into something like Mars, lifeless; without clean water who knows, but it will not be pretty.  As I teach my students:

"Filthy water cannot be washed!"

The big ephemeral pond behind our home has the same mosaic like features.  The water in these ponds is so nice and clean.

York River (7/3/2015)

I'm currently reading a book called: "Blue Mind" by Wallace J. Nichols.  It's is a book on man's relationship with water in particular being near, in, on or under water and it's effect on the brain.  I just started it, so no review yet, but I like the premise.  It sure is calming and relaxing to me being on my boat, kayak or even just on the beach.

Well, since July 4th falls on a Saturday this year, we got a holiday on the Friday before.  Kind of on the spur of the moment we decided that it would be fun to take the kayaks out and go play on the water that way, instead of sailing.  It promised to be a gorgeous, somewhat cooler than average day, and checking the tides showed it was ideal to launch in Yorktown and explore the area west of the Coleman bridge along the Colonial Parkway.

The tide was coming in when we launched and it was a great help pulling us up river under the bridge.   The current can be treacherous around the docks which was one reason why we chose to stay relatively clear of the dock and wear life jackets.  Still it was a little bit like being in a washing machine;we got jostled around a bit, and the waves made no sense at all.  Thing calmed down once we passed the dock and the bridge.

Going along the shore we observed a bald eagle majestically sitting on a branch overlooking the river.  There was a water-man crabbing; and we said hello as he pulled up one of his "pots."  A little further we beached the kayaks and just enjoyed the empty beach and just sat in the shade of a large tree watching the river and the boats passing by.

Me on the beach (photo taken by Donna Briedé)

After the tide turned we returned to Yorktown.  During our trip back we saw more people fishing and we got to see the Alliance under full sail.   A fun day, that we celebrated with a pizza and a beer at the Beach Deli on our return to Yorktown.

It just occurred to me that I often write about "Nature Deficit Disorder" and here I'm writing about "Water Deficit Disorder."  When push comes to shove, it is really amazing to realize what we modern humans are potentially missing if we don't make an effort to reconnect with nature, be it green or blue!  I'm sure it will not create world peace, but reconnection with these basic items and living in the moment does the soul good.

James River (12/1/2014)

I posted a small write up on the James River approximately 9 months ago (click here if you like to see that one).  However, here I go again.  It was such a beautiful day on Monday that I had to go for a walk that took me again along the James river in Richmond.  It was great to meditate on the old railroad bridge that juts out over part of the river and think about the force of that water and about where all those drops of water have been.  You can think about where the drop was introduced into the watershed, or even become more philosophical about it and wonder where those molecules have been in the past.  Were they in a drop of sweat that was beading up on the forehead of Leonardo da Vinci or where have those molecules been in the past.  I have mused about things like this before in a blog I did that I called George Washington's shovel.  But water is an amazing thing; without it life is not possible.  Moreover, the way it freezes is important.  If it froze like any other substance would when it cools down, life would be impossible.

We teach that of all the water in the world only 6% is available to us.  All the other water is locked up in ways that we cannot get to it.  Of the 5.85% is in the oceans, leaving only 0.15% usable/fresh water.  Of this fresh water two thirds of it is locked up in glaciers and the remaining is either groundwater or fresh water.  In other words 0.05% of the water on earth is available to us for consumption.  I guess this is why I am always a bit upset when I watch people water their lawns, and especially so when they do it with valuable drinking water.  It is such a waste in my eyes.

Anyway, this another picture of the James.  One of these days I am going to create an extensive post on the river; showing pictures of it's origin (headwaters) to it's outfall into the Bay.  The picture below shows the jumble of the various bridges that go across the river: the road bridge and the I-95 bridge in the far back; the old pilings of a railroad bridge to Petersburg within the back a railroad bridge to Danvville and on the side the main track from Lynchburg.  A virtual spaghetti bowl of bridges and ruins of bridges.  What amazes me that they were able to build them on the spot where the river goes over the fall line.  Just looking at the force f the water amazes me.