early cold & the vagaries of LES

LES (lake effect snow in meteorological jargon)continues to pummel (favorite news reporter's meteorological verb) nearby areas of New York state, leaving us high, dry, quite cold, and very windy. We reached a high of 15 today with windchills below zero F since early morning. This is the second round of the lake effect snow no-show for Ithaca. I do wish the NWS would either back off or get more granular with their accumulation forecasts. And yet I find comfort in the unpredictability of complex, dynamic invisible air envelope that we live within and upon which we rely for life.

The cusp of December

It's the time of year when intense storms angle up through the Great Lakes states: the wind blows hard and sucks up moisture from the Gulf of Mexico, the western Atlantic, and the lakes and dumps rain in copious amounts. We've had our share this year. A six-inch rain, the re-energized remnant of Tropical Storm Nicole, on the last day of September and a two-inch rain on the last day of November with a lot of wind. Six Mile Creek flooded impressively. This last rain wound up with a couple of inches of snow and a cold spell. We've had our share of gray skies, but I like it when the wind blows hard and the skies open up.

Switching back to half-time work at the turn of the month has freed up some of my energy for cooking and for yard time. More hardwood leaves, more white pine needles, and trimming back the annuals in preparation for winter. It's just gotten cold enough now that I've switched to walking instead of cycling to work. It has been a big year for planting--nearly 100 bulbs, three trees, winter cover crop in the kitchen garden, lots more herbs--lavender, salvia, basil, the usual rosemary, hyssop, sage.

I want every drop of rain and snow that falls on this bit of the earth to stay here, to sink in, and to nourish monster plants.

frost on the punkin

Last night was a real cool deal--mid 20s for hours, cold enough to kill the tender annuals like our red sage, Thai basil, regular basil. Meanwhile the newest generation of crocuses, narcissus, and daffy down dillies are all planted in their snug little beds. The new dogwood is protected from the depredations of rutting bucks. In the Kitchen garden, the cover crop of winter rye and peas is putting up its slender purple shoots. The padrone and Bolivian pepper plants are potted and stationed at sunny windows inside. Storm windows are on. All this just in time for a cold week in Ithaca. Sigh.

The annual leaf drop is nearly done. The most reluctant of the maples dropped a ton of leaves today; a good freeze really cuts them loose. The oaks are holding on for the moment. I'm looking forward to gathering oak leaves to bed down the areas that I haven't covered so far. My longer term goal is to dwell in an earthy place that is like unto a forest floor. Something to aspire to.

Bulb-planting day

Mid-October is bulb-planting time. This year we ordered more than ever before. Today, in the cool sun, we planted 50 King Alfred daffodils. In the damp soil on little pillows of dried crab/lobster pieces, dried kelp, and peat moss. Tomorrow we plant Narcissus and Crocus bulbs. Liking fall and thinking spring all at the same time.

The new world of movies...

streaming movies from NetFlix, that is. I'm an instant convert. Been home with a nasty cold all weekend and today. Last night I watched The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. Heavy.
Today:
Iron Man. Oh yeah--boy toys times CGI equals big fun. Quel suit.
180 degrees South. Rapa Nui, Santiago, and Douglas Tompkins parque south of Puerto Montt in the Chilean Patagonia. Never thought I'd see that in a movie.
Being John Malkovich. A re-watch and well worth it.

If you have to be sick, this is a good way to improve the experience. FFFF. The new iMac as entertainment outpost.

My first view of unEarthly moons

Last Tuesday, for the first time I saw the moons of a planet other than Earth with my own eyes. I heard on Earth and Sky that Jupiter was unusually close to Earth, closer than it has been since 1963 and than will be again until 2022. And also very near the Earth moon. So I whipped out my binos and there Jupiter was in the early night sky. And right near Jupiter I saw three of its moons. Wow. Uranus was supposed to be hanging around within one degree of Jupiter, too, but I didn't see it. That would have been a first for me, as well. Saturn is the farthest out planet I have seen so far.

More info from Earth and Sky.

Here's a neat chart of where these planets are right now.

Over and out.

computer death

OK, this is not about the yard, though this is the yard values blog.

Last week our iMac died and took a lot of files with it. Actually the biggest hunk of stuff was photos that I had in iPhoto. The last photos I had backed up were from September 2009. So a lot of photos.

The last time this happened was when we first bought that iMac, and I lost a lot of photos when the motherboard crapped out--bad capacitors, I guess--then, too. And I was really devastated. But this time, I'm not devastated. Sure, I'd like to have them back, but no devastation. I'll see if I can find someone/thing that can resurrect them--Geek Squad at Best Buy, maybe--but I'm not hopeful. Maybe this means that I'm getting more comfortable with death.

Of course it doesn't hurt that I have a new iMac to play with.