These Beauties of Spring

 I'm rewarded for my troubles, not with morels, which were the reason for my spending time in the woods, but with the blanket of spring beauties (Claytonia viginica) that hug the soil. They're tiny flowers - no more than half an inch across - and they come in a variety of whites and pinks. A few have veins of deep pink, almost the color of creme soda.

 I think of these minuscule plants, grown from tubers buried just beneath the soil, buried all summer in weeds, often deep under winter snows, and yet each spring they reach for the sky again, as muted as the light is through the burgeoning trees. And yet they never give up trying.

A member of the Purslane family, these are as delicate a flower as I think possible. They can barely be touched without damage. And so I don't, except with a camera, year after year.

 I understand they are edible but who would trouble themselves with something so tiny? A single tuber might have the volume of a sunflower kernel. Surely if the Indians ate these, it was an act of desperation?

 Conditions seem ripe for mushrooms. The ground is wet after the night's rain and the temperature is already a balmy 64°. What are the morels waiting for? I understand they're being found in Michigan, weeks ahead of schedule. I have not had a chance to look before today but I spent some good time amid the chirping birds and the majesty of these tiny flowers. But that is all I came home with.

 I'll wait a week or so. Surely the morels will be early this year. Or will they be not at all?

Stormy Day

 It's just mid-March but you'd think we were already in June. Our high yesterday was 76° and the day's average temperature (66°) was 28° above normal. It looks like the week ahead will be warmer.

 What's to be expected but storms? Surely we are already in tornado season. Yesterday a Severe Thunderstorm Watch was issued to run until 10 pm but it was cancelled early. At 7:15 pm, it looked as though we were going to get pounded.

 I walked to the back of our property to observe the sky. Tornadoes certainly weren't out of the question. Heavy, ponderous thunder boomed to the southwest and to the north. Brilliant lightning pierced the western sky. This bank of clouds, due west, was actually moving slightly north of east and would skirt by me along US 35 in New Lebanon.

 I noticed as I took these shots that the afterglow of sunset was still visible to the camera. I could not see it - or maybe just not so well - with my naked eye. I suppose the camera is better suited to low light, else the sunset has some infra-red in it which the camera does not fail to record.

 About the time I took this shot, rain began pattering the bare field. They were isolated drops and not enough to get me wet. I was standing there in PJ's and a robe so I decided to head back for the house anyway.

 I took this final shot to the northwest because that's where the most severe part of the storm was heading. The clouds were literally torn apart by high winds but down on the ground, things were calm and warm.

 We got no more than a trace a rain. Other areas received upwards of 3", I've heard. I'd have liked to have my new onion sets and radish seeds watered but I suppose the rain was too light for either to even notice. After this line blew east, the Severe Thunderstorm Watch was cancelled. I was in bed by 9:45 pm and asleep a few minutes later.

 An exciting - and then quiet - end to the day.

Daffodils in Bloom

 Here we are, mid-March, and the daffodils in the meadow are in full bloom. I love the clumps of lemon yellow buried among last season's dry weeds. How the squirrels have failed to find these bulbs, I don't know. Maybe daffodils are not one of the spring bulbs they eat?

 Here, then, is the progression of the blooms - backwards in time. They popped above the soil very early this year but they apparently were aware of their mistake and kept themselves closed until almost the normal date. Nature is pretty smart!

03/11/12

 Here the daffodils are in full bloom on Sunday. I have five clumps of these bulbs, planted there many years ago and expanding with each passing season.

03/08/12

 Going back just three days, shows the buds just about to open. Cold nights have retarded their growth for more than a month.

02/17/12

 Back in mid-February, the clumps already had buds. But the plants apparently do a good job of testing the weather and decided it wasn't time to push them open ... not just yet.

02/03/12

 I first saw the daffodils push through the soil in the first few days of February. Already the buds are visible but they'll wait another five weeks before opening. Considering their height here is already several inches, I'd say they were really above ground in the final days of January.
 To say the least, it's a remarkably warm winter and the plants are good evidence of it.

Aftermath

 It was a day of wild weather. Tornadoes and deaths to our west. Thunderstorms crept to our very doorstep but then hightailed it east with only a light shower. I, in fact, never heard thunder. And for so stormy a day to the west, we were spared.

 I drove through Miamisburg early in the morning, heading to Bob Evans to meet two relatives for breakfast with Mom. At about 8:30 am, near the intersection of Central Avenue and 4th Street, this is how the sky looked to the northeast.

 The clouds had angry swirls and striations and seemed to almost touch the ground in the distance. But an hour later, the clouds had mellowed, had settled down to a uniform gray. But by late afternoon new storms were just west of us, promising serious destruction. Yet as quickly as they marched towards us, the threat began to dissolve. Just before 6:30 pm, I was outside watching a final renegade storm just to our south approach, coincident with sunset.

 Directly west, the sky was becoming calm and the clouds were breaking. To the southwest, the lone storm approached quietly.

 At times like these, the sky takes on a special majesty while the ground sinks to insignificance. It is the sky that commands our life, the sky alone.

 As the sun sinks, the final remaining storm glows apricot. Lower clouds darken in the shadows of night.There is an eerie windless calm.

 The storm stays silent and drops no rain on us. It seems to break, else slide quietly east, staying to our south. By evening a cold front skids across us, ripping my outdoor thermometer clear free of the kitchen window in a 43 mph blast. The temperature meanwhile plummets, the house rocks, the trees sway.

 We are safe. Less than 1/5 inch of rain has fallen and no tornadoes have dropped from the sky near us. It is as though a line were placed upon the Ohio/Indiana border that said, "Here. Stop. No more."

The Alignment

 I've been following the alignment of the moon, Jupiter and Venus for several days now and last night was spectacular: clear, not so cold, calm, quiet. I walked into the backyard and was struck by the absolute majesty of the sky, deepening to a blue-black after the sun set and allowing the brilliance of the three celestial objects to dominate the western sky.

 Here's last night (02/27/12) on the right and the plot for tonight (02/28/12) on the right. Both frames are for 7 p.m. local time.

 You can see how the moon is moving farther away from the plants and how Jupiter and Venus are huddling closer. Also compare the objects to the two stars on the right and you can see how the position is shifting somewhat. Tonight it'll be cloudy so my view last evening was even more special for being the last.

 First, a shot through some of the trees at the western edge of our property.

 And another.

 The three objects are brilliant behind an Austrian Pine.

 And then backing off a bit to give the view some perspective. The sun has set 40 minutes earlier but the horizon still glows a cheery orange.

 This is my favorite shot of the set. The two front windows (living room) of Pinehaven glow an inviting yellow while the night sky outside takes on a deeper, colder hue. The two planets and the moon seem to have drifted lazily, like smoke, from our chimney and have begun wafting south.

 Another similar view ... this "my" living room window beside the couch. My bedroom is directly above. It is an inviting view, I think. But I also consider the sights I miss every night while I am asleep.

 This wide view is the final I took as I stepped into the backyard a final time. What wonders the universe dangles right over our heads!

Added 02/29/12:

 I looked out the back door again last evening and thought I'd walk out for one final look at this fine sight. Here's what Stellarium told me I'd see at 7 p.m.:

 The moon has moved quite far away from Jupiter and Venus but the three remain is a fairly straight line. Now they're high overhead and not so easy to photograph. But I aimed up through our maple tree and this is what I saw from the north lawn:

 That maple, by the way, is at the northwest corner of the house and is where we hang the suet feeder. While I stood there in the near-dark, leaves and twigs snapped in the meadow to the north. I suppose a deer or some other animal was watching me. I made a few noises so it could be sure where I was and let it go at that.

 Finally, from the front of the house, I shot upwards and caught Pinehaven's chimney at a sharp angle. After a high of 71° (a record tied from 1976), the evening was pleasant though a little breezy. During the night I heard the wind howling and it was just 35° when I awoke at 7 a.m.

Twist & Shout

 It was a quiet Sunday afternoon and we were out of bagels. So, soft pretzels came to mind. Mom gathered the dry ingredients into a measuring cup and I mixed the dough, rolled it out into long ropes and formed it into pretzels. The result?

 We turn the oven's broiler on for the last few minutes and create the dark brown crust. A light colored pretzel doesn't appeal to me like these do. Crunchy with salt sprinkled atop - and warmed again in a microwave - they seem fresh even hours later (leftovers are best frozen).

 Here's the just-made dough, lightly floured so that it can be handled and then dropped into a greased bowl. We warmed the oven (just slightly!) and placed the bowl there for an hour. When I took it out, the dough had doubled but was somewhat sticky. I added a slight amount of flour to my hands and worked the dough a little more. I've found that rolling it and then cutting the rectangular piece into six strips works best. Each of the six is then rolled into a rope (about 18" long this time), folded into a pretzel and then baked.

 Though we didn't grease the aluminum foil, we should have. The finished pretzels wanted to sick but could be coaxed away from the foil with a metal spatula. We tried adding a light egg wash and sprinkling on coarse salt before baking. That worked well.

 Care to make some? I wrote about this at length and added a number of pictures. Just click here for the recipe and instructions.

A Winter's Night's Lights

 The astronomy magazines have been writing about the bright mid-winter alignment of Jupiter, Venus and the moon. Last evening was the first chance I've had to see them huddle together as we've had night after night of heavy clouds.

 I ran the view I could expect at 6:30 pm (just barely past sunset but already dark enough for these three bright players to show themselves) with Stellarium, an open source program I find easy to use, accurate and free. Here's the view it told me to expect:

 And here's the view I got:

 A day or so before I might have seen them in a straight line - even more interesting than this triangular configuration - but, as I said, the weather would not cooperate. To say the three were brilliant would be an understatement: they commanded the western sky.

 Placing a tree in the frame gives the alignment some perspective. The triumvirate covered a large chunk of celestial real estate. It would have only been more spectacular had Jupiter been closer to the other two. But surely this trio was enough to stop traffic. How many UFO reports were phoned in?

 Finally this shot, perhaps my favorite (though it must be viewed in a darkened room to fully appreciate the backdrop of pines), taken through a gap in the trees at the western edge of our property. To make slightly dimmer Jupiter jump out, I have to increase the exposure a bit and bring the moon a little too bright.

 While I'm standing there, enjoying the view, I looked to the south, up over the barn, and saw that Orion was due south. It's my favorite for it's expansive rectangle and it's two rows of almost-perfectly aligned stars. I believe Orion, next to the Big Dipper, was the first constellation I learned as a young child.

 The three stars in Orion's "belt" (upper left) are Mintaka (top to bottom), Alnilam and Alnitak. Two of the outlying stars in the rectangle are seen in this shot ... Rigel on the right and Saiph on the lower left. In the middle of the shot is the area of the Orion Nebula Complex (M42 and M43). With a longer exposure, the varied colors begin to show themselves ... oranges, yellows, reds.

 I cannot do them justice with an inexpensive digital camera though a 15 second exposure, though blurry, begins to resolve the bluer colors and the nebulosity of the spot. The area is stretched due to the earth's rotation.

 It was a cold evening with the temperature plummeting through the 20's. The wind, at least, had mostly calmed and I wasn't too uncomfortable. These beautiful sights come so rarely that I can't help stand there and enjoy them.