View from the Driver's Seat

[ellyssian]

I know I keep harping on the saucer magnolias, but I'm noticing more and more of them - and they are in full flower. If the two little bitsy ones I planted last fall don't make it, they Shall Be Replaced. Probably through Forest Farm, and possibly in the Fall order.

In addition to seeing splatters of pink oil paint (which is the closest I can come to describing the thick, creamy appearances of the saucer magnolia's blooms,) I've really been noticing the maple flowers. Last year, I recall noticing the red maples amongst our oaks, and saying, "Gee, they do have flowers," but this year I'm seeing lots of yellow flowers on the sugar maples that seem so large and obvious, I don't know how I ever missed them before. It's kind of (not) funny how sugar maples are prevalent all up and down my commute, right up until you get to my neighborhood, and all you get are red maples. To be fair, red maples are perfectly good trees, but I'd trade all of mine in for a few good sugar maples, if I could. Some people (such as patrixa) have more than they need - I remember hearing that they once pulled 20-50 million sugar maple seedlings from their gutters... ah, they should be so lucky! At least last year I had sweet birch in those quantities, that, and the ever-present oaks...

The apples - crab and otherwise - are in bloom, as are the pears (too many of those...) and dogwoods and whatnot. Down here in the tropics, many trees are leafing out, and I noticed catkins draping from the birch.

Some rainfall last night on the way home and this morning on the way in, which should help everything out a bit - it's been far too dry here. The entire state is in a drought warning, and I still hear people complain about rain. Moon doesn't have much rainfall, ditto Mars and a few other places. If we can get all the anti-rain folks and send 'em there, they'd have less to complain about, and the rest of us can do rain dances down here and watch stuff grow. Probably best to send those who want to pave everything off-world as well, let them build their mini-malls there. They'd be able to put up mall after mall, without the added cost and annoyance of having to cut down hundreds of thousands of collective years worth of tree and plant growth first. Much easier for them, much nicer for the rest of us.

But then I'm probably one of the few people who wouldn't complain if I had to trade my car for a horse and the highway for a dirt road (or, even better, a woodland trail...)

That's saying something, because I've only been on a horse once... didn't exactly fall off, so much as fly up and come back down again. My horse decided he didn't like the one in front, so he kicked her, and then, while I was mid-air from that, he decided the one behind him was also an ingrate, so he kicked back at that one, rising up to meet me half way. Yeouch.

Comments

[kk1raven.livejournal.com]

The entire state is in a drought warning,

Actually, it isn't. What was declared is a drought watch, not a drought warning. That kind of means, "oh, if it doesn't start raining more, there might be a drought, maybe we should ask people to conserve water just in case". (I don't think this does much good at all. Those who are inclined to conserve water voluntarily generally conserve it all the time and those who aren't inclined to do it usually won't do it just because of something like this.)

I think the state has its wires crossed though, given that our newspaper quoted some state official as saying we were nowhere close to a drought just a few days before they issued the drought watch. Rainfall for the past 6 months is higher than usual, not lower. (I'm not sure how much of the state that's true for. It is hard to tell when they throw the figures around, given that rainfall varies so much.) March on the other hand almost completely lacked rain here, and that's the supposed problem. Ground water levels are also a problem in some areas, probably because there wasn't a lot of snow in many areas this year.

[ellyssian.livejournal.com]

Knew it wasn't as strong as a full out drought, but thought they used "warning" for the terminology. Could have been I heard an overzealous newscaster, as well.

We've had exceedingly less moisture than usual - whether rain, snow, or otherwise. Most communities around here have spent more time with burn bans in effect than not, probably since around May or June last year.

[patrixa.livejournal.com]

It's awfully dry in Massachusetts, too. We were supposed to have rain the other day, but it was more like a mist. Some is due soon, I think, maybe tomorrow morn. April used to be a rainy month, so a dry one feels quite strange.

I remember the horse you mentioned. He bucked for several minutes, you'd never been on a horse before, yet you neither fell nor got thrown off. I think his problem was he was a white horse. A friend of mine, when we were about the age of you on the jumpy beast, had a white horse which only let her near him; all others, he nipped. Also, in my neighborhood, an old junk-cart man (junk carts were pulled by horses then -- late 1940's) had a white horse and she was evil, wickedly evil.

If you want I can bring you dozens of maple seedlings -- there's a lot sprouting up about now. Of course, they are still teensy!

[ellyssian.livejournal.com]

I'll take as many sugar maple seedlings as you want to bring! When they're that tiny, they're not likely to survive that well, so quantity should help the odds a bit.

With the dry spells, some of our trees - used to more cover, and not having their roots ripped apart by bulldozers and backhoes - have not been doing so well. I expect many of the current group of elders won't have an extended lifespan, and the younger oaks aren't doing so well. Increasing the maples would be a good thing, and the reds are already dominant enough.