bracken heart

We keep walking despite the rain. Not the best weather for photos. The temperature has plunged to the 40s in Southern England, the sky is leaden and the wind is blustery. It’s a holiday weekend here – so that’s totally expected.

Update (in response to a comment):

This is a still closed furl of bracken – a big-ass fern. I fancied having some in a difficult spot in my garden, and planted some but then thought “Hmmm- this stuff covers a whole park, it grows in every nook and cranny, the deer can’t kill it.” So I chickened out -pulling the little fledgling things up. Turns out that was the right thing to do (from the Wikipedia entry):

bracken may be considered to be one of the most successful ferns. The plant sends up large, triangular fronds from a wide-creeping underground rootstock, and may form dense thickets. This rootstock may travel a metre or more underground between fronds. The fronds may grow up to 2.5 m (8 feet) long or longer with support, but typically are in the range of 0.6-2 m (2-6 feet) high

…snip….

It is a prolific and abundant plant in the highlands of British Isles. It causes such a problem of invading pastureland that at one time the British government had an eradication program. Special filters have even been used on some British water supplies to filter out the bracken spores.

Tennesse tornado

Over at Nashville is Talking, there’s a collection of tornado clips from YouTube – all in Tennessee. I knew people who lost property in the 2005 Ethridge tornado. Last year’s Gallatin tornado happened the same day my baby cousin was born. My poor cousin A was wisked to the ER to have an emergency c-section. Pre-eclampsia and extreme weather don’t mix. (It’s all OK now).

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I was telling a co-worker about my baby cousin’s birth and the tornado that bore down on the Nashville area the same day. He said “What was it called?” – I told him the baby’s name. “Was that the same as the tornado?” he asked.

I sat there puzzled, and I finally figured out that he was asking what the tornado was called.

Me: Oh, we don’t name tornadoes.
Him: I thought you did.
Me: Nah, just hurricanes. But that’s not us, anyway. That’s those emotional, coastal type people who have to name their big storms.

how much for a dead azalea?

Yesterday, I was explaining to a friend of ours how the weather in Tennessee (first the excessive warm, then the excessive cold) had had devastating consequences.

By way of illustration, I said how my mom’s flowers and shrubs (she’s a very accomplished gardener) had been bit hard and how the governor had asked for Federal disaster status.

Vol-in-Law: (incredulous) Federal money?, for the gardeners!?
Me: No, hon, for the farmers.

City boy.

Whatever the weather

On our trip to RHS Wisley (botannical gardens just South of Greater London) last week, we passed by the weather station. It’s all rain gauges and wind gauges and the weird little boxes these things are kept in (they look like cock-fighting sheds) to protect the weather instruments from the weather.

And then I noticed something odd, up on a platform and beneath a traditional weather vane.

What is that…is that a, yes it is, it’s a crystal ball.

Is that some kind of meteorologist joke? Those guys are corkers, clearly.

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On Monday, I went to the local B&Q (a kind of Home Depot knock off) and got some bedding plants. I bought some Sweet William and some white impatiens. I planted out the Sweet William, as they have some frost hardiness, but the impatiens will have to remain in their trays for a little while longer. See, I have something even better than the a crystal ball to predict the weather. I have Tennessee.

Two weeks ago, Tennessee was experiencing unseasonably warm weather.
Now in England we are experienceing unseasonably warm weather – it’s absolutely lovely, y’all let me tell you.

Then Tennessee got bit in the ass by ol’ Jack Frost.
And if trends go as they usually do, Jack’s got his transatlantic flight already booked.

Look out for frost, fellow English gardeners

Good gardening

Folks in Tennessee might be experiencing a cold snap, but here in England we’re enjoying some nice weather. That’s a great change. Usually, a holiday weekend signals the arrival of dreary, drizzly, dripping grey skies. But not this Good Friday. This year the sun is shining – and though it’s not exactly shorts weather, it’s still more than nice enough to get out into the garden and do some much needed tidying.

The daffodils have been a bit disappointing this year. Some of them even seem to be blank – though spring’s not over yet. I suspect that it didn’t get cold enough, early enough or long enough in the autumn. This has happened two years in a row. But I’m planning to do a little foliar feeding just to set the daffs up for next year.

I’m also inspecting for bad critters. Sadly, the beautiful scarlet lily beetle is back. It’s such a pretty bug, but its red color should be seen as a warning beacon. This little fellow will chew through your lilies faster than you can say lillium orientalis.

The only remedy is mechanical. That is picking the little buggers off and squishing them.

Making plans

Today we have some errands to run and plan to take a walk in the Deer Park. But I’ve suggested that tomorrow we make our way down to Wisley to stroll through the botanical gardens to see the mid-season daffodils, the magnolias and any early rhododendrons or azaleas or any late camellias.

We might also take a wee tour through the garden centre. I’m not sure what I need to get (nothing, probably) – but I must take a look for what I might want to get. I’ll have Easter Sunday and Easter Monday to get in the ground.

Magnolia

The weather has been very changeable. But today it was warm and lovely and since I’m using up a vacation day again – I was able to have lunch outside. My magnolia is going a bit brown prematurely – as we’ve had some days that were just a little too cold.

But there are still some nice blossoms.

floral competition

I took a half day leave yesterday to visit the RHS Flower Show. It was a strange combination of Mediterranean Plants and the usual daffodil and camellia competitions.

Narcissus – Aberfoyle on display – I don’t think it won – but I thought it was awesome.

I used to go to these shows to buy plants. But now my garden is absolutely chock full. I’d have to kill something to make room for more stuff. Fortunately, I’m pretty ruthless with the clippers – so that’s not such a problem for me.

And we may be facing a bit of a kill-off over the weekend and into next week. Spring has sprung (so we thought), but apparently ol Jack Frost hadn’t quite finished with his tricks and we’re in for cool weekend. I’d already (foolishly) potted up tuberous begonias for summer hanging baskets. Guess I’ll need to cover them with trash bags to keep them from freezing out.

the great global warming swindle

I’m scientific. I’ve got a degree in an applied science. I know about science stuff, or I did anyway, before I forgot it all. But the point about science stuff is that it isn’t the facts that matter so much as the approach – the spirit of scientific enquiry.

But facts do matter as well. Climate has been changing a lot since before humans evolved – so humans had nothing to do with it – and that’s a fact. There have been much wilder climactic swings than global warming gloomsbodies have been predicting. I’m reasonably familiar with these changes because my applied science was geology…a very long history of the earth. Humans tend to have a very short perspective – take a step back – there’s been a lot of climate change.

So I have this long perspective which makes me sceptical. Also, I appreciate scientific enquiry which frankly I’ve been too lazy to look into when it comes to climate change – but I can’t jump into one camp or another until I’m reasonably convinced. So I’m a global warming sceptic.

This week Britain’s Channel 4 broadcasted a documentary called The Great Global Warming Swindle. It was an interesting mix of social commentary and science. The science bit is:

• that the greenhouse effect doesn’t really work like it’s commonly understood
• CO2 is lagging indicator of temperature not leading – so causation works the other way round (heating up of the earth releases carbon from ocean – and heating the ocean takes a loooong time),
• the earth heating is caused by changes in the sun,
• human CO2 is a relatively small amount of the total so cutting back on emissions won’t make much difference.

The social science bit was:

• humans like to doom monger, this is just the latest in a long line of scary stories
• this is the cause that anti-capitalist political activists flocked to after the dismal failure of communism and socialism.
• scientists jump on the bandwagon because they’re funding hounds – and there’s now a ton of money in global climate change i.e. you want to study squirrels?, you want to get a grant? you better write a proposal that includes the effect of climate change on those fluffy-tailed rats or you ain’t gonna get no money.
• and there was a little bit on how humans are a bit short sighted – gosh, it’s an early spring this year* – I can’t remember such an early spring – must be global warming

But not many dispute that in the past few decades the earth is warming up and that there are some consequences. Particularly for humans in marginal cirucmstances – the desperately poor living in areas where climate change has the largest impact.

So the key questions still are:

• does human activity have any impact on climate (even if it’s not the major driver)?
• would changing some human behavior (e.g. consumption patterns that lead to carbon emissions) make a difference to climate change?
• is the benefit to some humans living in desperate conditions greater than the cost of changing our ways?
• if changing our beviour would make a difference to climate change, is there a sufficient benefit to humans of maintaining the habitats of interesting animals like polar bears? would we be really, really sad if they were gone? (probably)
• is it more efficient to compensate the humans who are most effected rather than change our ways?

And additionally…

• Are there other consequences to burning fossil fuels to human health and the environment?

I would suggest that there are severe consequences to our patterns of consumption – for example inner city children who suffer respiratory damage from the particulates in gas or petrol. I find it ironic that people Britain are so worked up about climate change (which probably wouldn’t affect them too much) caused by burning fossil fuels and yet were extremely late to banning leaded fuel which is absolutely proven to damage children – both to their physical and mental health. That’s just one example. If we concentrate too much on global warming, we may be in danger of overlooking other serious consequences of human behaviour on the environment and other humans.

*Note – I’ve seen heard a few comments here and there on how much earlier spring is this year and how that’s a sign of global warming. My impression is that spring is just about on time this year, but was really late last year.

For example:

Last year – the first daffodils on 25 March – and I mean the very first – and there were no others in my garden.

The year before:

the daffodils are quite well established at the end of March

And this year – first daffs at the end of February.

But I have had them bloom much earlier – even in January.

Lunar eclipse

We had dinner at the Texan’s last night. She served duck. I brought my own sausages. I’ve tried duck and wasn’t impressed. Just one of those things. Everyone else ate the duck and enjoyed it.

We kept popping outside to check the progress of the lunar eclipse. Apparently it was the first full eclipse in ages. I’m not sure I’d seen one before – but maybe I just wasn’t impressed. It wasn’t exactly what I expected. I expected a blood red moon. It’s more kind of charcoal pink. But it was pretty cool, to see the moon get eaten away from the bottom (instead of from the side) over a period of minutes not days.

We danced around the garden like pagans for a couple of minutes (it was very cold – we were all underdressed). And then we went home.

You can find out more about lunar eclipses here:

Signs of spring

This last day of February, the first narcissus in my garden was in bloom. It looks like it might be Jetfire, but to be honest I’m not crazy hot on identifying the different cultivars. I just buy the ones that have orange in the packaging picture.

The light wasn’t great, it’s heavily overcast and tending to sudden showers this morning – hence the lack of scrumptiousness in this photo. But you get the idea. I’m away to the North today so can’t wait and hope for better light tomorrow.