String Notes

Originally published at String Notes. You can comment here or there.

The World’s Smallest Pea Patch is getting an upgrade this year (and no, I’m not changing its name, even though it no longer is true). But isn’t this sharp:

I have one more to install, giving me three 4x4ft raised beds. The first one is nearly full of perennials already. I transplanted in the strawberries, rhubarb, and all the perennial herbs. The weather obliged by providing a week of cool damp for them to recover. There’s enough room left for some annual herbs.

The beds came with trellises, yet to be added. I foresee tomatoes (of course!), and runner beans, and cucumbers, and peppers… What else? I have more and nicer garden space than previously, though not enough for melons or corn. What should I grow? Heirloom varieties preferred, and I get a lot of the basics from my CSA.

I also upgraded the flowers.

That planter won’t easily go on the wall I’d intended it to occupy, so I put it out by the mailbox instead.

It was a bad year for tulips, but is going to be a great year for roses.

This one trails across the tops of the rhododendrons, and has entirely covered them in rosebuds. I think it approves of last year’s major pruning of the things around it.

Speaking of rhododendrons…

Neither new nor flowering, but who can resist dogs in armor?

Originally published at String Notes. You can comment here or there.

I made every last one of my major spring deadlines, both planned and unexpected. (A few minor ones slipped, but let’s not talk about that.)

Here’s one:

These sprang bags went in the mail to Peters Valley Craft Center yesterday. I’m teaching a sprang and tablet weaving class there at the end of June (you should come!), and those are my gallery display samples.

The rest of my deadlines? Not so photogenic.

Originally published at String Notes. You can comment here or there.

I had to take my car in for some work today. Nothing major, just state inspection and such, so I thought I’d work in the bookstore/coffeeshop while I waited for it. The mechanic opens earlier than the bookstore, so I took a stroll around the enormous parking lot complex while I waited.

I had no idea the view from the far end was so nice.

I did know about the view in the other direction.

Except for the acres of parking lot, of course.

Originally published at String Notes. You can comment here or there.

I get Google alerts on my name and on “Phiala.” The latter turns up all sorts of random things. Today I am a bag: the Phiala satchel. How they chose that name I can’t begin to guess.

Originally published at String Notes. You can comment here or there.

Time and again I go searching for textile history information and end up on Thora’s annotated bibliographies. Or, if you’re not in the SCA, Carolyn Priest-Dorman’s annotated bibliographies.

Thank you, Thora! You’ve pointed me toward any number of resources I never would have found on my own.

And now, I’m off to the library to pick up an obscure reference.

Originally published at String Notes. You can comment here or there.

My current favorite hiking destination: Spring Creek Canyon. Scenic, close to home, interesting things to look at.

And it quite looks like a canyon, too, at least in spots.

You’ll be utterly unsurprised to hear that most of my photographic efforts have gone toward pictures of plants and fungi. But this last trip we saw more interesting animals.

This is a raggedy Red Admiral. We saw several, but they were mostly uninterested in sitting for a portrait.

The first snake zipped away too fast for a photo, but this one obliged, at least by zipping to somewhere I could get a clear shot.

I’m pretty sure that’s a Northern Water Snake. Which would only make sense.

I learned something interesting while I was looking up Pennsylvania snakes: all our poisonous snakes have slitted pupils like a cat, while all our nonvenomous snakes have round pupils.

Round. Neat.

I’ve seen these millipedes every time I’ve been to Spring Creek Canyon this year, from late March onward.

I think they must be Apheloria virginiensis, a common forest dweller. They can be yellow instead of orange like the specimen in the Wikipedia link. These millipedes exude cyanide from their skin: I’m glad I didn’t pick any up.

Poisonous millipedes: I wonder if their pupils are round or slitted? (Actually, insects don’t have pupils.)

Laura would like me to know that wasp nests can be used for artistic purposes, and that I should rush out and save it from slow decay.

I have to admit, those are rather nice. But I'm afraid after a winter in a tree it's not all that artistic. If I take regular photos of the nest melting into my flowerbed does that count?

The giant wasp nest finally fell.




It looked like that October and hung on all winter, progressively raggedier, peeling around the edges, but still attached to the maple.



It was during the wet and windy snowstorm, I think, but I didn't notice the carcass right away. Now it's slowly turning into pulp in my front flowerbed.

We had July weather in March, but April 23rd looks like this.



This is a problem.



Flowers are blooming.



And the trees are in full leaf.



Some places got a lot more snow, and associated power outages. We haven't had a big snowstorm since October. When, yes, the leaves were on the trees.

I got off lightly: the NWS was originally predicting 4-8 inches, but we got maybe one, and though it's been snowing on and off all day nothing has accumulated.

The problem with calling it global warming, well, "global warming" is that it isn't exactly. Changing the composition of gases in the atmosphere traps more solar radiation, which can manifest as warmer temperatures, but also increases the amount of energy in the system.

More energy means changed global circulation patterns, in both the atmosphere and the oceans. Weather patterns will change, in some cases dramatically. In one extreme scenario, the Gulf Stream current could stop, resulting in dramatically colder temperatures in the northeastern United States and especially in northwestern Europe.

More immediately, the increased energy in the global system means more frequent and more intense storms. Tornados anyone?

Increased energy will disrupt established climate patterns in new and unusual ways: 80F in March and snow in late April could become the new normal, exceptfor the years when it snows in March and is 90F in April.

A lot of places will become warmer, especially Arctic and Antarctic regions, and places that are very dry now, like the Southwestern United States. Rainfall patterns will change: wetter or drier, and at different times of year.

I think, though, that the chaos will be the biggest problem.

Originally published at String Notes. You can comment here or there.

We had July weather in March, but April 23rd looks like this.

This is a problem.

Flowers are blooming.

And the trees are in full leaf.

Some places got a lot more snow, and associated power outages. We haven’t had a big snowstorm since October. When, yes, the leaves were on the trees.

I got off lightly: the NWS was originally predicting 4-8 inches, but we got maybe one, and though it’s been snowing on and off all day nothing has accumulated.

The problem with calling it global warming, well, “global warming” is that it isn’t exactly. Changing the composition of gases in the atmosphere traps more solar radiation, which can manifest as warmer temperatures, but also increases the amount of energy in the system.

More energy means changed global circulation patterns, in both the atmosphere and the oceans. Weather patterns will change, in some cases dramatically. In one extreme scenario, the Gulf Stream current could stop, resulting in dramatically colder temperatures in the northeastern United States and especially in northwestern Europe.

More immediately, the increased energy in the global system means more frequent and more intense storms. Tornados anyone?

Increased energy will disrupt established climate patterns in new and unusual ways: 80F in March and snow in late April could become the new normal, exceptfor the years when it snows in March and is 90F in April.

A lot of places will become warmer, especially Arctic and Antarctic regions, and places that are very dry now, like the Southwestern United States. Rainfall patterns will change: wetter or drier, and at different times of year.

I think, though, that the chaos will be the biggest problem.