Date: 2009-06-30 18:30 Subject: Three causes for celebration today Security: Public

1. Norm Colman finally conceded the Minnesota senatorial election to Al Franken, weird lefty comic. Our thanks to the Minnesota Supreme Court for definitively ending an eight-month debacle.

2. We finished priming the kitchen walls after scraping, washing, patching, and sealing them for the past few days. Anyone who has been in our kitchen knows what it used to look like. Very Italian. Peeling paint. We finished the ceiling several days ago. We also have a fully restored screen door--washed, primed, and painted--with a new lockset and screen. Now to choose the wall colors and banish that evil red pegboard to the mists of memory.

3. Anna is 32 today. Happy birthday, Anna Rose!

4. The lobe of leaves I imagined one night is now a reality, creating forest floor over the section of former grassland sucked dry by adjacent the Norway spruce.

Tomorrow, it's time to take a break from the leaf hauling and kitchen renovating and get back to work at the library, albeit half time work.

Everything is majorly lush in the natural world due to an extended period of raininess here. The action below the surface of the leaf litter is fast and furious: sowbugs compete with earthworms, fungi, molds, and various other devourers, animal and plant, in a rich multi-layered life zone of remarkable complexity. Go microflora!

Time to celebrate with a Belgian White. It's been a productive June off.

Date: 2009-06-30 18:27 Subject: Bergman Island Security: Public

Jane and I watched this documentary on DVD recently. It's an extended, intimate interview with Ingmar Bergman conducted in 2004 mainly in his house on Farö Island, his longtime home. I noticed some parallels with Leonard Cohen as a result of watching I'm Your Man, a recent documentary on Cohen's life. This version of the video is condensed from the original Swedish television version that ran three hours. Recommended.

Date: 2009-06-21 14:07 Subject: June rain Security: Public

Cloudy with an inch and a half of rain over the last four days. Temperatures from the upper 50s at night to the mid 60s in the afternoon. A much-needed rain that has watered the plants abundantly. It's also nice not to be roasting in the heat, given the high humidity. Even 66 degrees can be quite warm when it's this moist; call me slightly poached and wrinkly fingered. I'm happy for the plants. The tomatoes are biding their time until the sun returns (probably tomorrow). The astronomical summer begins.

Date: 2009-06-18 21:14 Subject: Frogs in the dark Security: Public

One mild, humid evening in Vermont, well after sunset, I walked up the hill from Bill and Nancy's cabin on Lake Champlain to hear a frog chorus. The air was thick with the smell of blooming clover. There is a small pond on Whipple Road about two-thirds of a mile from the lake. Each time I pass this spot during the day, I inspect it closely because something is always going on there. It's a focal point for birds, amphibians, and insects. As I approached the pond in the darkness, I could hear the frogs from some distance away. When I arrived by the water, the combined sounds of the frog vocalizations was very loud, thrilling, and nearly overwhelming. Individual songs piled on top of each other, creating waves of shuddering sound that cascaded over me and pounded my ears like breaking water. A continual undulating cacophony.

I stood by the water listening and marveling as long as I could. Against the last, faint light from the cloudy sky, I watched a lone bat circling endlessly over the pond eating mosquitoes. Eventually the mosquitoes drove me away. In the distance as I walked back, I thought I heard an owl call.

Date: 2009-06-17 16:22 Subject: tomatoes bulking Security: Public

Back in Ithaca, the tomatoes are bulking up nicely, even though the weather has been quite cool and cloudy. They are blooming, and I am pinching and tying already. The hybrid vigor of the JetStar variety in evidence, no doubt.

The climbing rose is in full bloom now. The later peonies came into full bloom while we were gone. The gill over the ground is its usual reliable self, sending out runners and blooming away.

The deer are nibbling on the redbud. :-(

I like cool summer weather. :-)

Date: 2009-06-15 17:27 Subject: Vermont/Boston update Security: Public

Live from Boston, we are in the Boston Public Library, reading and web surfing in comfy leather armchairs. The VT trip involved kayaking, swimming, birding, walking, eating, and drinking. Back in ITH tomorrow to see how my garden grows. This is short because I'm posting from my iPod Touch.

Date: 2009-06-09 12:13 Subject: central Ohio weather Security: Public

Today is the first real day of the weather summer. After a humid, warm night of showers and thunderstorms, the morning air is thick with humidity and the odor of flowers, organic matter breaking down, and all the little helpers chewing, digesting, and excreting--earthworms and other little invertebrate critters in the soil, ants, beetles, sowbugs, fungi, mold, mildew, and bacteria all doing their busy work. They love warmth and moisture. Along with the tomatoes. Not my body's favorite weather. I console myself with the fact that humid air lubricates the world as the world digests itself.

Date: 2009-06-08 22:21 Subject: Vacation report, 10 days in Security: Public

I've been taking advantage of the good weather to walk with Jane in the Plantations, up Six Mile Creek, and out South Hill Recreation Way--birding, plant-watching, and sometimes just walking. I'm rediscovering the pleasures of sitting in one spot and waiting for the world to come alive with birds, insects, reflections, the wind. Twice I had visits from Louisiana waterthrushes while sitting by the water.

It's been deeply pleasurable to really focus on the yard, experiment, try new plants, move plants, import various mulches, and build things. This spring the yard hit critical mass--the cumulative effect of planting, mulching, trimming, and tending. The peonies are growing increasingly robust and bloomful. Our strategy of encouraging and planting the mint family in all its variety is really working. Except only the bergamots, the deer are leaving them entirely alone. One of the sages that wintered over from last year has been blooming continuously for weeks now as has he gill over the ground. They are attracting a lot of bees. The sweet woodruff, rhododendron, European ginger, oyster fern combination in the front yard is naturalizing beautifully.

I have finally gotten serious about protecting the beech, serviceberry, and witch hazel with six-foot fencing and bamboo poles. No more deer attacks there. Today I planted two small pawpaw sprouts to see if they will take. There are only a few of them around Ithaca. The leaves are very magnolia-like and the flowers are a deep purple, akin to our native ginger.

On Thursday we are off to Vermont for a few days on Lake Champlain. I'm especially looking forward to floating through a heron rookery on the Missisquoi River near its outlet into the lake. The river has created an extensive delta that stops just south of the Quebec/Vermont border. I kayaked there maybe fifteen years ago, and it was a glorious experience. Onward.

Date: 2009-06-02 13:22 Subject: Moto's Security: Public

Kate and Lucy steered us to Moto, a small bistro/cafe/bar/restaurant in the South Williamsburg section of Brooklyn on Saturday night to see and hear the Cangelosi Cards, a small group consisting of a guitarist, a bass player, a harmonica player, and a violinist with a singer who reminds me a bit of Edith Piaf. 1920s and '30s dance music performed by jazz musicians with exquisitely voiced vocals. Wow.

Plus the food was good and cheap and the company was the excellent. A memorable night.

Date: 2009-06-02 13:07 Subject: vaykay Security: Public

A cool run of weather to start my vacation month. We walked out South Hill Rec Way yesterday to spotted 20 bird species and identified seven more by ear. Jane and I are developing our ear for bird vocalizations as part of our paying attention project, and it's coming along.

The plants at Water and State are looking the best they have since we moved here nineteen years ago. The cumulative effect of adding plants; steering the preexisting plants through selective weeding, leaf mulching and mowing; encouraging volunteers; making peace with the deer (a project still very much in process); and learning what grows well here in this place, with this kind of exposure and climate, has begun to make a visible difference.

Jane and I trimmed two high limbs from the Norway maples yesterday to light up the understory a bit more and open up our views. Ultimately I want to replace the Norway maples with oaks, magnolias, and more bird-friendly plants--hawthorns maybe, or flowering plums, cherries, or crabapples. There's a whole world within a yard.

Date: 2009-05-24 10:04 Subject: Langorousness & tomatoes Security: Public

Yes, a langorous Sunday morning, a little damp, a little cool, a little warm, a little breezy, and a little sleepy. I'm getting so much sensual input from the rapidly evolving plants that it's hard to do any blog writing-- it seems so indirect in the face of the air, the colors, the smells, and the feel of full-blown spring. A little cuppa good Sumatran coffee from Gimmee beans will get me going, I'll bet.

Jane and I planted the rest of our acquisitions from the plant sale yesterday. Plus additions. The red Salvia attracted a hummingbird onto our porch this week while it was still in its four pak. We were sitting four or five feet away watching it climb the flower spikes, feeding on the nectar in the blossoms one by one. Wow. So I bought four more plants at the Farmer's Market yesterday. We set them in long planters lashed to the railing with the waxed twine that we use to tie bamboo. The welcome sign is out.

The tomatoes are in the ground. Originally I planted three Jet Stars on Tuesday. Then I saw a huskier set at the FM and replanted two of the three yesterday and added a fourth. Unheard of--digging up plants that were doing OK to set out a stronger replacement.

Here's what we set out this week, some from divisions of existing plants and some from boughten plants: basil, red creeping thyme, regular low thyme, two kinds of Monarda (bee balm), two kinds of catmint, a Bolivian hot pepper (K'omer uchu) which we bought last summer at the FM from organic farmers had lived in Bolivia and brought it north, Thai basil, more culinary sage, hyssop.

The black locusts are just starting to bloom. We had an early red peony bloom once this week. The Rosa rugosa is blooming. The creepers continue--sweet woodruff in full white bloom, gill over the ground--the low geraniums are out. The Narcissus continue.

The yard has turned some kind of corner in richness. The mint strategy is in full implementation. In Arkansas in the mid-1970s, Jane set a goal of learning all the plants in the mint family; we bought Steyermark's Flora of Missouri to help with the IDs and Jane started an herb garden. After that long-ago start, we are renewing the relationship with the mints (driven to it in part by their unattractiveness to deer predation), learning by populating the yard with them.

Gotta get back outside.

Date: 2009-05-18 20:12 Subject: frosts and freezes Security: Public

Last night the NWS broadcast a freeze warning for our area with predicted lows in the upper 20s. It was cloudy overnight--probably a result of the cold air picking up moisture as it crossed Lake Ontario on its way here--and it only hit the mid-30s--37 degrees F. on our back porch thermometer. We brought all the plants that we bought on Saturday at the plant sale into the house. Tonight, it's supposed to be around 30. It looks more likely to be clear, so the plants are spending the night inside on the dining room table again. Thursday it's getting up to the 80s. So these plants are going into the ground soon--the tomatoes tomorrow.

It's been fun having the plants visiting us indoors for the last two nights.

Date: 2009-05-14 20:41 Subject: The mid-May yard report Security: Public

After cycling up the College Street hill for a mocha nut cookie at Collegetown Bagels and continuing upward to inspect the dark purple flowers on the Collegetown pawpaws on Oak Street, I returned home to wander in the yard and admire our resident plants (hmm, can I get a pawpaw to grow in our yard?).

Here's what's blooming right now on State and Water: gill over the ground, the ever-lovely and delicate windflowers, myrtle (Vinca minor), a tiny speedwell, the last of the violets in the grass, the tiny yellow spheres of least hop clover, the very last of our newly planted second star magnolia (Magnolia stellata "Centennial"), sweet woodruff and European ginger (two ground covers that thrive in shade along with the myrtle), the narcissus we planted last fall (the heirloom Narcissus poeticus var. recurvus which I remember from my childhood), and our two lilacs--one a very deep and rich purple with a hint of red and very fragrant, the other a light violet. The flowering crabapple we just planted with one of our neighbors is still in bloom across the fence in her yard but in full view from our porch: she has written a lovely piece about it on her blog. And two quince bushes blooming so red in the neighboring yards. And the booby prize goes to the very invasive garlic mustard which, while I have almost eradicated it from our yard, is much in evidence near by.

The ever-shrinking areas we still have in grass are satisfyingly invaded by several species of violets--the odoratas are first to bloom then followed by the big violet-colored guys, and the reddish ones, a white that is polka-dotted with blue. We have no yellow violas nor any spurred creeping varieties, not yet anyway. Clover is increasing, spreading nicely--mostly the white-blooming type.

The volunteer milkweed are just bursting out of the ground in their location under the Norway spruce; I hope to see more Monarch butterflies this year. The latest of the ferns--the autumn ferns and our one maidenhair--are sending up fiddleheads. The other four fern varieties are leafing out already.

The deer badly predated our small beech tree again and wiped out the leaves on the bloodroot. Will have to rethink protection for them. The mint family project is coming along extremely well, though. The deer basically leave the whole family alone, so we are steadily planting more varieties and more plants. Take that you deer! The biggest new success story is Nepeta, or catmint. Going to plant much more of that. And spread the thyme, the various sages, rosemary, tarragon, lavender. The peppermint, catnip, oregano, and marjoram spread themselves without any human assistance. The bergamots are the only mint family plants the deer deign to touch. Hummingbirds love them so we are motivated to discover the variety or varieties that the deer will leave alone.

Saturday is the annual plant sale at the high school. Sheer heaven. I was so excited to go this year that I went a week early by mistake. I wondered why no one was there. However, I made the best of it by garnering some excellent oak/pine mulch that had washed into one corner of the parking lot over the winter and stuffing it in the trunk (which I had presciently lined with a plastic tarp thingy). I've become quite the connoisseur of free mulch--primarily leaves--can you believe people just throw that stuff away?--but also spruce and pine cones, hay and straw, and (very occasionally) grass cuttings. I love eastern white pine needles for mulch. They smell wonderful, and the acid-loving plants, the rhodies and Pieris japonicas, appreciate them.

The peonies are all coming on well this year. We're up to nine plants now and trying to figure out where else we can squeeze some in.

Soon it will be tomato-planting time. One of the more remote (in distance, not warmth) neighbors asked after them tonight as she passed by on the street--are you going to plant more tomatoes this year? You bet your bippie I am. Just got to get my secret sauce--well-aged sheep shit from my secret supplier on Bald Hill.

Well, that's the yard report for May 14th. It's yard heaven here.

Date: 2009-05-06 17:09 Subject: black morels Security: Public

It's been a banner year for morels here. On Saturday, April 23, Jane and I were on a geology walk with a retired Cornell geology prof and a few other folk on South Hill Recreation Way, and I spotted two morels as we were walking by. The group went on ahead while I briefly (and surreptitiously) scanned the area for more, but no luck. These guys were growing right out of the cinders on the edge of the former railroad grade that is now a walking trail. Then on May 1st, when we were walking by again, I eyeballed the same area and spotted two, right away. We ended up with 17 altogether. At home we sauteed them gently with some olive oil and put them over whole wheat angel hair pasta. Yum! Then Sunday we found one more that we missed on Friday, but it was pretty far gone by then. Seems awfully early for morels. But what a treat.

I think I'm beginning to get the pattern of the morel cap properly imprinted in my brain. It's akin to bird watching. I can identify certain birds now with a lot less information than I used to need to notice their presence. Recognizing certain subtle visual cues against a similar background seem to develop through practice, repetition, and reward. I'm convinced that some people are born with this knack. When we were kids, Mark was a champ at spotting morels.

Date: 2009-04-29 10:43 Subject: The arrow of time and the expansion of space Security: Public

Marketing approaches I haven't heard:

Old!

Nissan Minima

Now with fewer ingredients

Not tested on humans

Date: 2009-04-28 19:01 Subject: neuroenhancers Security: Public

I'm just realizing that some of the students I work with at the ref desk are on neuroenhancing drugs--Adderall, Provigil, etc. I worked with a male student last week who was overly engaged in his topic. We found some good sources for him to read, but his demeanor was off. In the past, I've had students who couldn't let go of the researching task and move on. Maybe they were "enhanced," too. But he was slightly different--overcommitted in a way that didn't square with his basic personality, it seemed to me. Reading Margaret Talbot's New Yorker article, "Brain Gain," in the 27 April issue. 

Date: 2009-04-28 09:50 Subject: heat in April Security: Public

It's been hot the last three days: high temperatures of 87, 83, and a record-breaking 91 degrees at Game Farm Road, our official local weather station, located well east of the main Cornell campus in the midst of open fields. There is another weather station at the Tompkins County Airport north of town where the high temps run a degree or two higher. It has been a dry heat with lots of wind, so it would be a lot less comfortable if summer humidity was in effect. Still, it's a shock after three weeks of highs in the 40s, 50s, and 60s.

An explosion of neo-tropical migrant birds appeared with the hot weather, riding strong southerly winds. Fortunately for the birds, the insect population has emerged at the same time. Bumblebees are particularly prominent this year.  We heard a familiar blue-winged warbler who appeared on its nesting ground on Sunday. We watched a flock of five, tiny ruby-crowned kinglets flitting from branch to branch and feeding on the insects attracted by long, fat, catkins hanging on a poplar by the recreation trail. At home on the porch I have twice seen a pair of chipping sparrows performing their vertically mating dance spiral in the air.

Saturday, on a geology hike on South Hill, I found two morels growing right out of the cinders on the edge of the trail. Since these were the so-called black morels they blended very nicely with the black cinders. It's a busy trail on the weekends; probably dozens of people passed within a few feet of them. What a treat!

I've been watching the plants in our yard closely this spring, tracking the emergence of sprouts, fiddleheads, flowers, and leaves. Because the weather has been steady and cool, it's been a slow spring until Saturday. I like it that way. The flowers bloom longer. There is time to savor the transition. The young peony leaves have been particularly eye-catching this year. I like to be in the yard. I feel at home there, close to the ground, peering at plants.

Later today cooler weather will return, bringing some much-needed rain.
 
Postscript: The cold front is lagging a bit today, Tuesday. The temp has already hit 85 degrees by noon. Make that four hot days in late April.

Date: 2009-04-19 20:36 Subject: Racing Odysseus Security: Public

Last night I finished reading Racing Odysseus: A College President Becomes a Freshman Again, recommended by my brother, Mark. The author, Roger Martin, attended St. John's College in Annapolis for a semester. It's famously a Great Books school--freshmen read the Greeks their first semester and discuss what they read with tutors who use the Socratic method.

I liked reading Martin's rendering of the seminar discussions about Plato, Herodotus, Homer. I'm surprised how much it brought back my reading of the classics in college. I had forgotten how much exposure I got at Denison. Martin went to Denison his freshman year (1961) and his experience there bears many similarities to mine (1964)--the feeling of being a clueless hick during fraternity rush and generally feeling completely out of his depth, socially and emotionally. He re-experiences some of the feelings and the distress of his freshman year when he becomes an undergraduate again at age 60.

Standing at or around the latest crossroad in my life, I'm trying to learn what retirement means for me and how to go about it. It's another growing up experience. I'm not ready to stop working in the library yet, and I've been contemplating what retirement means to me for eight or nine years now. I still don't know what I'll do, but I suspect rereading the classics would not hurt.

Martin says, "I now needed to prove to myself that I still had a future, that I wasn't on a treadmill going nowhere. That even in my sixties I could grow into a different person. For me, then Occoquan [a regatta in which he rowed on an eight-person scull for St John's] represented a victory over aging and the fear we all have that our lives will be over when we retire."

I do know that I have a lot to offer after all the years of learning and working and living, and a lot to learn still as well. Some of it is about timing. And then there are so many possibilities. Reading this book has increased by confidence that I'll be able to navigate the rapids ahead. Thanks, Mark.

Date: 2009-04-05 21:12 Subject: April love Security: Public

I walked up Six Mile Creek this afternoon, a welcome, sunny day that nudged 50. It was windy early so I napped and waited until the wind relaxed, around 4, to start. The creek was still moderately high and light chocolate-colored with sediment from the extended, light rains yesterday. The first real ground wildflowers--hepaticas--were blooming. Many mottled trout lily leaves and a tiny trillium sprout presaged some of the flowers yet to come. Lots of walkers of all ages were out and about. This year's first phoebe fee-beed.

Eventually I ended up sitting on the open hillside above the 30-foot dam reservoir, a place that consistently rewards patience and quiet waiting. Eventually a single lesser scaup male showed itself on the water and slowly oared around, sometimes riding a light west wind up the reservoir. Later it briefly visited a pair of wood ducks that appeared near the gravelly shore by the island where the creek enters the reservoir.

Two red-winged blackbirds called back and forth from bare tree tops. A single crow flew over. Later, I spotted a roost of 14 crows in the treetops on the opposite ridge. A great blue heron flew upstream, out of sight around a bend, and reappeared; slowly, slowly it described a broad spiral upward out of the valley and beyond my sight upstream. Something in me rode on its odd, flexible wingbeats.

Some time after the heron disappeared from sight, I was inundated with a sense of deep gratitude. I have lived to see another spring.

Date: 2009-04-04 13:40 Subject: At the reference desk Security: Public

So what is a typical April Saturday afternoon at the reference desk in an Ivy League university library like, anyway?

Your trusty reference librarian walks through a blustery, gray early afternoon to Olin Library.

Qeustions from my first 90 minutes on the desk:

How do you cite a 1964 Harris poll question accessed in Roper iPoll online, using the Chicago Manual of Style?

How many students are counted in the census enumeration of the City of Ithaca?

Locating a specific art journal at Cornell.

Problem finding two books entailed a trip to the 4th floor stacks (found one).

Citing e-mail correspondence, formatting narrative footnotes, and proper indentation in MLA style.