Nature

It wasn’t until I was on a paddle-board at sea, standing-up and looking down at a series of waves, that I could truly see how their power gathers and disperses. While I’ve previously felt the curl’s whiplash on my surfboard and viscerally knew if I was in the right position to catch a ride, it took being both immersed and watching the pattern come and go from above to grok the groove that is wavelength’s expression.

Paddling with only your arms lying on your belly, trying to get up to speed, the wave will inevitably overtake you. Knowing exactly when by feel alone is a hard earned skill. From the line-up, you get an incomplete picture. It’s coming, it’s coming, then it’s past. An iconic example of ‘seize the moment’ if ever there was one. Fundamentally speaking, to surf a wave, you must put yourself in its unrelenting path. A sitting duck.

The Southeastern Vermont Watershed Alliance (SeVWA) had its second day of its monitoring program for the summer of 2016 on Wednesday, July 7th. Volunteers will be collected samples from 30 sites on eight rivers and streams and will continue to do so every other week through the end of August. This year, we have sites on the West River, Rock River, North Branch Ball Mountain Brook, Williams River (including South Branch and Middle Branch), Saxtons River, Sacketts Brook, and Whetstone Brook.

The Southeastern Vermont Watershed Alliance (SeVWA) began its monitoring program for the summer of 2016 on Wednesday, June 22^nd. Volunteers will be collecting samples from 30 sites on eight rivers and streams every other week through the end of August. This year, we have sites on the West River, Rock River, North Branch Ball Mountain Brook, Williams River (including South Branch and Middle Branch), Saxtons River, Sacketts Brook, and Whetstone Brook.

          Escherichia coli, more commonly known as E. coli, is a bacterium that is found in the guts of all warm blooded animals, including humans. Most E. coli will not make a person sick, but sometimes they can become pathogenic which means they can cause illness. Additionally, the presence of E. coli in waters acts as an indicator for the presence of other, more difficult to test for pathogens. We publish our results to the public in order to help everyone make informed decisions about recreating in Vermont’s waters.

I’m hung up on the unsilverlined silverback Harambe tragedy. After watching the video a few times, it continues to run in my mind. I see the great and beautiful primate clearly making a universal gesture of nurturance with its delicate paw.  His aura calm. Body language, unaggressive. Maybe I’m projecting, but I saw awareness and protectiveness on display in that enclosure. And a look, unforgettable, seems to be saying “Yo people, y’all know you dropped bambino in here, down here…Reading me?”

The subsequent hit on the ape, and ensuing flurry of responses, including laying of blame compels me less. But that’s sure interesting too.  [As a sidebar to this I keep thinking that if we can no longer recognize fundamental signs, mudras for benign intent- from creatures of our own world- what chance do we have of getting the right message when the aliens come visit?]

Marta Williams, noted author/communicator/teacher will be offering an intensive training in July. Class segments include: Beginning Animal Communication, Talking With Your Own Animals, Death and Beyond, Animals as Teachers and Healers, Intuitive Animal Training, Talking with Horses, Finding Lost Animals, and Talking with Wildlife and Nature. Please register early for this rare event, as space is limited.

Compared to our sisters and brothers in the animal kingdom, humans are gloriously naked, when they are naked. The drastic reduction of hair on our bodies is nothing less than remarkable. It is unprecedented in our family of hominids, which include orangutans, gorillas, chimpanzees and humans. Nevertheless, humans still have approximately the same density of hair follicles as chimps and gorillas.

So why have we lost most of our body hair? Today’s evolutionary scientists speculate, but do not offer one definitive reason.

We should probably note for the on-going record that it is currently snowing in Brattleboro, and there is close to an inch of the stuff piled up on the ground. What makes this somewhat unusual is that we’ve had almost no snow in March, the temperatures were warmer than average, and everything had melted. 

Spring was well on its way, with snowdrops, crocuses, and daffodils starting to blossom, leaves on some bushes and trees starting to bud, and birds returning from their migrations. Many humans had begun yard clean-up and spring cleaning. Now it is all put on pause until it watms back up.

In the beginning the LORD Thankgodiamaman created the heaven and the earth.

On the second day Thankgodiamaman gets very busy creating all kinds of things out of the void and from the face of the deep.

He said let there be light, let there be a firmament; let there be lights in the firmament and stars in the heavens; he made the land, he made the wetland; he divided the waters from the waters; he brought forth grasses, herbs and fruit trees; he made the creatures, two by two, on the land, in the waters and flying fowl, whereupon Thankgodiamaman blessed them, saying, “Be fruitful, and multiply.”

Enjoy the warm temperatures while you can. That is, enjoy the warm days with a grain of proverbial salt. These warm days are actually bad things.

Scientists are reporting that February broke global temperature margins at record levels. used words such as: jaw-dropping, stunning, shocker, climate emergency, bombshell, extraordinary, frightening, and unprecedented.

In a recent comment I used the metaphor that we Americans were headed for a Rip unless we woke up, and it got me wondering if this was accurate. My exact line was “…the election is a vast nasty leading to a larger and far more dangerous rip tide.” Rips are naturally occurring, and while often deadly, they are avoidable, and deal-able, if panic doesn’t prevail. Most fatalities happen because people freak out and try to swim against the current, directly into shore, and drown from exhaustion or fright. Even strong swimmers can’t contend with the force of outgoing surge.

It’s worth keeping in mind, Rips don’t have vertical pull, they won’t suck you under. Mostly they channel water back out, built up from incoming waves.  Some Rips, according to recent science, a great many, are large surface level conveyer whirlpools, streams that will eventually return you to shore if you go with the flow.  You can’t always be sure that will happen though, so riding it out may not be practical, even if viable. In any case the current will only carry someone out a few hundred yards beyond where the waves break as a result of shallower seabed, or sand bars. 

This has been a weird winter. We saw a few snow flakes in October, a bit of snow around the end of December and early January, then almost nothing. Relatives down south are still digging out, though, from their big snow storm.

The temperatures have been relatively mild. As I type it is about 40 degrees out. What little snow was there is turning to water and evaporating.

This chilly, windy morning, as I was walking my dog, I was surprised to see a large flock of robins fluttering all around the Spring Street Parking Lot.

Are they lost? Or did they miss the southbound AMTRAK?

(According to the Quebec based bird welfare organization Le Nichior, the proper collective noun for robins is
a “worm”.

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I took , just southwest of BEEC. Such a cool experience!

This year, the winter solstice will occur on December 21st at 11:49 PM EST. It’ll be the shortest day of the year in which Brattleboro will receive about nine hours of daylight. Happy holidays!

We took a walk in the Retreat Woods recently as a way to get back into nature without having to go too far.  It had been a while since we last went — probably in the early summer sometime.  The trails were already too wide then, but this last time, it was obvious they had seen some hard wear.

In most places, the main paths were down to hard-packed bare earth, with lots of trippy rocks and tree roots pushing up that I don’t remember being quite so much in evidence before.  The softer, smoother top layer of earth seems to have been worn away.

Well, that was somewhat unexpected. Some snow at HQ on Cedar Street today.

Surprised cats came to the back door, wanting to come back in after expecting to be out most of the day. Both were covered with snowy ice pellets.

Did you get some flakes, or was this a micro-weather event?

A greedy raccoon steals cat food and then demands MORE by banging on a glass door with a rock.

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 The Southeastern Vermont Watershed Alliance (SeVWA) had its sixth and final monitoring day for the summer of 2015 on Wednesday, August 26th. All of our sites received significant rain in the day prior to sampling and 20 of our 27 sites tested above the “suitability for swimming” standard set by Vermont and the EPA. It is generally recommended to wait 24-48 hours after a significant rainfall to resume swimming in lakes and streams, so keep that in mind when making weekend plans on the water.

The kids are headed back to school and our monitoring season has come to a close. I want to take this time to extend a gigantic thank you to all of our volunteers who took time out of their Wednesday mornings to collect samples and help transport them to where they needed to go. We would not be able to make this program work without all of our amazing volunteers. So….THANK YOU!!!!!

All planetary life forms anywhere throughout the universe have an expiration date.

On Earth, the mass production of humans with their built-in obsolescence is no exception, which, akin to our manmade consumer products, the people have a shelf-life of their own. It’s a good thing too. The human population cupboard is full, and, in fact, bursting at the seams.

As a society, the human collective can expect two expiration dates. One is on the daily road of sustainability where individual humans become extinct (aka death). The other is when humans taken as a whole are no longer sustainable on this planet causing the extinction of the species.

I know this is a loaded question but where can I find some loons near Bratt?  Has anyone heard their calls in Windham County?  I returned last week from camping in the N.E.K. and fell in love with their haunting calls. Just curious if anyone knows or not.