Old Building

 

I love old houses and buildings. They have character that only age can give.

Books!

Here it is  another rainy,drizzly afternoon in Maine. Our snow continues it's slow melt, no frogs yet, but our spring migrants are beginning to make guest appearances.

One of the hazards of poking around the internet is you keep finding more books to read. I have been keeping my eye on Tracks and Sign of Insects and Other Invertebrates for a while, and I finally got it.
And in the same line I found Bird Tracks & Sign and Mammal Tracks & Sign.  The bookshelves groan under the weight.

 Another place I have found helpful  is Acorn Naturalists out in California. They are more for outdoor educators, but if anyone has an interest in nature, they are well worth visiting.

And here's a gratuitous photo of Snyder and me.

 

Maine weather

Everybody always jokes about it, gripes about and cries about it.

Today we started off with freezing rain, then sleet, then there was thunder and now,yep, you guessed it,snow. We still have plenty if snow here.

But, the birds are returning, I noticed some alders were in flower, and  the calendar says it's April 20.

Baruch S. Blumberg

The death of a friend is never easy. You mourn the loss, and worry about their family, and the sadness deepens.

In my previous post about the elms, I mentioned Barry, but what was left out was the story of Barry. I met him several years ago and along with Peter, we helped him get to know the plants around his summer home.  He was a man of science. highly intelligent, articulate, compassionate,humble,etc. His sense of humor was great and at 85, the youngest man of his age I had the honor of knowing. The phone call this morning hit me hard. Just a day ago I had an email from him, his excitement over the elms we found and getting that news out to the scientific community was very joyful. The kid in him really shone.

A man of many talents, yes he's photographing his shoes.

His list of accomplishments was impressive. He was a doctor, and won a Nobel. He was the director of NASA's  Astrobiology Department. President of the American Philosophical Society. A father. And a great friend to those who knew him.

Damn. Barry, I'm really going to miss you.

Baruch S Blumberg
Fox Chase Cancer Center bio
The Telegraph

Elm

Recently I was reading the Vermont Center for Ecostudies blog about two USDA scientists who are doing some gene studies on American Elm  to see if the trees were tetraploids, triploids or diploids and disease tolerance to Dutch Elm Disease.  You really should go read the article, well, mainly because it does a better job at telling what is going on, I just glass over and wander off...

All kidding aside, a few years ago I had noticed some trees that looked elm like. I mentioned to a friend and we made plans to hunt them down and take a look. They are not the easiest place in the world to get to, like a alder choked floodplain. In the winter, it's hell to snowshoe in, crying comes to mind, and in the summer the plants grow up with abandon. Last summer Peter, Barry and I, (the 3 members of the Rangeley Botanical Society) floated down the Kennebago River where these elm like looking trees were, and finally got an identification. They were elms!  Healthy looking too. So last week when the VCE blog mentioned this study, I contacted the members of the RBS and then emailed Alan Whitemore about the trees.   He has expressed an interest in obtaining samples of them and come spring we'll get them. It will be very interesting to see how these trees stand.

And it also brings to light just how much study this area really needs.  We currently have no nature center or nature related museum in the area, but with the lakes, mountains with alpine features and the mixed forest types that we have, there is a need for a lot of study.

Books

There are a number of great books concerning natural history in Maine. Honestly I am having trouble as to where to start.

 Glaciers & Granite: A Guide to Maine's Landscape & Geology is a great  book concerning the geology of Maine.

Natural Landscapes of Maine came out last year and covers the different ecosystems in the state.

I love Baxter State Park, and it's a great treasure, but most gripe about the regulations in the park. Gov. Baxter wanted to give the park to the people of Maine, but he was also a lover of nature and so the regulations reflect that love and the desire to help keep it in a natural state.
Katahdin: An Historic Journey - Legends, Exploration, and Preservation of Maine's Highest Peak
and A Guide to the Geology of Baxter State Park and Katahdin will give you something to think about when you plan your trip. As will this hiking guide, Katahdin: A Guide to Baxter Park & Katahdin

Maine's weather always gets talked about, made fun of and puzzled over.  To help make some sense of it you can read Conditions May Vary: A Guide to Maine Weather.

And of course a list concerning Maine's natural history would not be complete without mentioning Thoreau'sThe Maine Woods. Yes it's a classic and well worth your time to read.

This is only scratching the surface, there's so much more The Interrupted Forest: A History of Maine's Wildlands, Above the Gravel Bar: The Native Canoe Routes of Maine,  Maine Birding Trail: The Official Guide to More Than 260 Accessible Sites and the list goes on and on.  Enjoy and let me know your favorite books on Maine, it's natural history and even art and literature.

And so it goes...

This morning it was 6 above zero. Not Celsius, Fahrenheit. And throw in a strong breeze, oh say 10 mph, gusting to 20. No mud, just bitter cold. That would be fine back in January, but not now. There is no humor in it, where's the fast forward button?

Typically in March, more towards the end, the last two weeks, we warm up and lose more snow than in the whole month of April. For us, April is a winter month. But some good things about March. Days are getting longer, birds start coming back, it's supposed to be getting warmer, bare ground starts reappearing. You do get a mix of temps, and that's nice, bitter cold and spring warmth.   And the snowmachines go away. It gets quiet. People go south to avoid April. You can easily picture this area back a 100 years.

Which is what I was doing, well I do that a lot. My house sits in an old cow pasture that 100 years ago was filled with cows, but not now, I mean this time of the year. They were most likely in the barn, waiting for the snow to leave. The only way to get to Rangeley a 100 years ago, was by train, or maybe by canoe via the Androscoggin River from Brunswick, up to the twin cities of  Lewiston/Auburn,then to Rumford, over to New Hampshire to Errol, Umbagog Lake, then Mooselookmeguntic, then Rangeley Lake.

During this time of the year life slows down. And living where I do, it defines you. New England is a great place to live. It always show you more, gives you more than you expect. And after years, it grows on you. And this time of year the most valuable lesson it teaches us to slow down.