Thursday, April 30, 2015
Wednesday, April 29, 2015
Jackson Harbor beaver
My friend Jane Masterson saw a beaver swimming in Jackson Harbor this week. Here is her video:
Pointy-hatted Princesses
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| Photo: Marge Ishmael |
Today we had a lot of fun reading Nick Sharratt's Pointy-hatted Princesses:
www.worldcat.org/title/pointy-hatted-princesses/oclc/...
Monday, April 27, 2015
Sunday, April 26, 2015
Turkey vultures
This pair of turkey vultures were perched on the edge of our wood this morning: http://www.audubon.org/field-guide/bird/turkey-vulture
Saturday, April 25, 2015
Royal Purple Smokebush
Today we planted a new smokebush to replace the one that died last year. Cotinus coggygria "Royal Purple" flowering shrub. Beautiful, velvety, dark purple foliage throughout the growing season with panicles of smoky purple to beige flowers blooming in mid-summer. Hardiness: Zone 5-8. Drought tolerant. Deer resistant. Height: 8-10'. Spread 8-10'.
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| Photo: Marge Ishmael |
Thursday, April 23, 2015
Chile's Calbuco volcano erupts
SANTIAGO, April 22 (Reuters) - Volcano Calbuco in southern Chile erupted
for the first time in more than five decades on Wednesday, sending a
thick plume of ash and smoke nearly 20 kilometers into the sky.
Calbuco had another spectacular outburst early today, lightning crackling through a dark sky lit orange-red by the explosion. As the ash cloud spread, "people went into a state of panic," said Miguel Silva Diaz, 28, an engineer who lives about 14 miles from the volcano.
Calbuco had another spectacular outburst early today, lightning crackling through a dark sky lit orange-red by the explosion. As the ash cloud spread, "people went into a state of panic," said Miguel Silva Diaz, 28, an engineer who lives about 14 miles from the volcano.
Oklahoma officially blames fracking for earthquakes
Abandoning years of official skepticism, Oklahoma’s government have embraced a scientific consensus that earthquakes rocking the
state are largely caused by the underground disposal of billions of
barrels of wastewater from oil and gas wells.
Monday, April 20, 2015
Earth Day - April 22
This Wednesday, April 22nd, is Earth Day and I've been looking for an interesting Earth Day poster:
Started in 1970, this designated day of April 22 has become an annual reminder of our responsibility to be good stewards of the Earth. You can contribute to a healthier Earth in multiple ways: plant a garden, pick up trash, purchase biodegradable products, and commit to reduce, reuse and recycle.
Started in 1970, this designated day of April 22 has become an annual reminder of our responsibility to be good stewards of the Earth. You can contribute to a healthier Earth in multiple ways: plant a garden, pick up trash, purchase biodegradable products, and commit to reduce, reuse and recycle.
Sunday, April 19, 2015
Milk Carton Kids
Another recent discovery - the Milk Carton Kids:
Wikipedia: A refreshing alternative to the foot-stomping grandeur of the so-called folk revival, an understated virtuosity defines The Milk Carton Kids to the delight of traditionalists and newcomers to the folk movement alike. Indeed, Garrison Keillor has called them absolute geniuses in close-harmony, and has invited them onto A Prairie Home Companion three times in 2013, while cultural purveyors like T Bone Burnett and Billy Bragg continue to refer the importance of The Milk Carton Kids among a group of new folk bands expanding and contradicting the rich tradition that precedes them. The Los Angeles Times lauds their latest Anti- Records release, The Ash & Clay (March 26, 2013), as displaying absolute mastery of their craft while Paste emphasizes the "intellectual sophistication of their songs".
Wikipedia: A refreshing alternative to the foot-stomping grandeur of the so-called folk revival, an understated virtuosity defines The Milk Carton Kids to the delight of traditionalists and newcomers to the folk movement alike. Indeed, Garrison Keillor has called them absolute geniuses in close-harmony, and has invited them onto A Prairie Home Companion three times in 2013, while cultural purveyors like T Bone Burnett and Billy Bragg continue to refer the importance of The Milk Carton Kids among a group of new folk bands expanding and contradicting the rich tradition that precedes them. The Los Angeles Times lauds their latest Anti- Records release, The Ash & Clay (March 26, 2013), as displaying absolute mastery of their craft while Paste emphasizes the "intellectual sophistication of their songs".
No Oven, No Pies
A friend posted this on Facebook today. The Everly Pregnant Brothers and No Oven No Pies:
Saturday, April 18, 2015
Gorilla breaks zoo enclosure and, for a moment, we see ourselves...
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| www.thedodo.com |
"Gorillas — whether it be those trapped as living exhibits in captivity
behind glass, or those in the wild on the front line of extinction — are
no strangers to the less compassionate side of humanity."
Friday, April 17, 2015
Trophy hunting - giraffes
Just when you thought our species couldn't stoop any lower, here's a depressing photo of a trophy hunter with a dead giraffe.
"What would you do if you had a million dollars? Maybe
go on one of those fancy safaris with a rifle and a ready supply of
exotic animals to terrorize and kill -- while snapping lots and lots of
pictures?
Yeah, same as us. Yet there do seem to be a lot of idle and affluent hands in the world. And plenty of places to satisfy that slaughter-lust. This photo, for example, pretty much says it all. A woman, with a high-powered rifle, astride a dead giraffe, wears the winningest of grins. She did it. She's come a long way. She has triumphed over an unarmed, minding-its-own-business giraffe in what was likely a staged hunt." [Huffington Post] http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2014/03/24/woman-shoots-giraffe_n_5018520.html
And actor, Ricky Gervais, shames another recent giraffe killer: http://www.smh.com.au/environment/conservation/ricky-gervais-shames-giraffe-killer-rebecca-francis-on-twitter-20150416-1mm8lm.html
Yeah, same as us. Yet there do seem to be a lot of idle and affluent hands in the world. And plenty of places to satisfy that slaughter-lust. This photo, for example, pretty much says it all. A woman, with a high-powered rifle, astride a dead giraffe, wears the winningest of grins. She did it. She's come a long way. She has triumphed over an unarmed, minding-its-own-business giraffe in what was likely a staged hunt." [Huffington Post] http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2014/03/24/woman-shoots-giraffe_n_5018520.html
And actor, Ricky Gervais, shames another recent giraffe killer: http://www.smh.com.au/environment/conservation/ricky-gervais-shames-giraffe-killer-rebecca-francis-on-twitter-20150416-1mm8lm.html
How the World Bank abandoned the poor
HOW THE WORLD BANK ABANDONED ITS MISSION TO HELP THE POOR "Over the last decade, projects funded by the World Bank have physically or economically displaced an estimated 3.4 million people, forcing them from their homes, taking their land or damaging their livelihoods … The World Bank has regularly failed to live up to its own policies for protecting people harmed by projects it finances." [Sasha Chavkin, Ben Hallman, Michael Hudson, Cécile Schilis-Gallego and Shane Shifflett, HuffPost]
Thursday, April 16, 2015
Wednesday, April 15, 2015
Farm Aid - 30th Year
Willie Nelson, Neil Young and John Mellencamp organized the first Farm Aid concert in 1985 to raise awareness about the loss of family farms and to raise funds to keep farm families on their land.
http://www.farmaid.org/
Magnolias in bloom
The magnolia bushes and trees are all in bloom in my neighborhood: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnolia
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| Photos: Marge Ishmael |
Saturday, April 11, 2015
Daffodils
The daffodils were out in Indiana today:
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| Photo: Marge Ishmael |
William Wordsworth:
I wandered lonely as a cloud
That floats on high o'er vales and hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host, of golden daffodils;
Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.
Continuous as the stars that shine
And twinkle on the milky way,
They stretched in never-ending line
Along the margin of a bay:
Ten thousand saw I at a glance,
Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.
The waves beside them danced; but they
Out-did the sparkling waves in glee:
A poet could not but be gay,
In such a jocund company:
I gazed--and gazed--but little thought
What wealth the show to me had brought:
For oft, when on my couch I lie
In vacant or in pensive mood,
They flash upon that inward eye
Which is the bliss of solitude;
And then my heart with pleasure fills,
And dances with the daffodils.
That floats on high o'er vales and hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host, of golden daffodils;
Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.
Continuous as the stars that shine
And twinkle on the milky way,
They stretched in never-ending line
Along the margin of a bay:
Ten thousand saw I at a glance,
Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.
The waves beside them danced; but they
Out-did the sparkling waves in glee:
A poet could not but be gay,
In such a jocund company:
I gazed--and gazed--but little thought
What wealth the show to me had brought:
For oft, when on my couch I lie
In vacant or in pensive mood,
They flash upon that inward eye
Which is the bliss of solitude;
And then my heart with pleasure fills,
And dances with the daffodils.
Friday, April 10, 2015
Thursday, April 9, 2015
Wedge tornado rips through Illinois
A massive wedge tornado ripped through Illinois tonight. http://www.accuweather.com/en/weather-news/what-is-a-wedge-tornado/6235796
Wednesday, April 8, 2015
Where the Wild Things Are
President Obama was reading to children in the White House garden when he was interrupted by bees: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/barackobama/11518786/Bees-interrupt-Barack-Obama-storytelling-as-children-scream.html
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| http://childrensbooks.about.com/cs/picturebooks/fr/wildthings.htm |
Tuesday, April 7, 2015
Polar bears face starvation
Polar bears face starvation as their frozen habitat shrinks because they cannot adapt to land-based food, according to new research. http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2015/apr/01/polar-bears-face-starvation-unlikely-adapt-to-land-based-diet
Monday, April 6, 2015
Horned Grebe
This afternoon we spotted a "critically endangered" Hooded Grebe at the Wooded Isle:
http://www.birdlife.org/datazone/speciesfactsheet.php?id=3645
Update: no we didn't! It was a Horned Grebe: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horned_grebe
http://www.birdlife.org/datazone/speciesfactsheet.php?id=3645
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| Photo: Marge Ishmael |
Update: no we didn't! It was a Horned Grebe: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horned_grebe
California water crisis - fracking vs fruit
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| Photo: Huffington Post |
Interesting piece from last Thursday's Huffington Post: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/04/02/fracking-california-water_n_6997324.html
This reminds me of an article that appeared in Mother Jones last summer, when people were worried about the prospect of paying $7 for broccoli and the rising cost of other fruit and veg:
http://www.motherjones.com/environment/2014/06/california-drought-water-produce-fruit-vegetables
Sunday, April 5, 2015
California's four-year drought
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| Photo: New York Times |
A punishing 4-year drought is forcing a reconsideration of whether the aspiration of untrammeled growth has run against the limits of nature: http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/california-drought-tests-history-of-endless-growth/ar-AAaropT?srcref=rss
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