My Lady's Washbowl

Today I read Hal Borland's essay about bouncing bet, which he mentions was prolific on this day of the year as he wrote. The article brought to mind a skit I've seen explaining the confusion of multiple names that can plague a naturalist. Saponaria officinalis, soapwort and fuller's herb also made the top 4 in the acted-out story. But I was intriqued as I read that the habit of women to wash their hair (or intimate clothing) with the herb inspired another name: my lady's washbowl.

Being unable to resist, I set about to find as many more names for the plant as I could. Here's what I found (just including names in English):

boston pink
bouncing bess
bruisewort
buryt ?
chimney pink (belongs to pink/carnation family)
crowsoap
dog's cloves (scent said to remind of cloves)
flop-top
goodbye summer
hedge pink
lady-by-the-gate (or lady-by-the-garden-gate)
latherwort
London pride (for the ability of the scented blooms to mask the stench of London's gutters)
mock-gilliflower
monthly pink
old maid's pink
ragged sailor
saponary
scourweed
scourwort
sheepweed (referencing cleaning wool, as in fuller's herb)
soapberry
soaproot
soapweed
soapwort gentian
sweet betty
wild sweet william
wood's phlox
world's wonder

Can you add more names to the list, or find explanations for any of the names?

Butterflies

naturally friends
rose and yellow and purple
in a shared sunset

Weather and the 4th of July

Hal Borland notes that on July 4th 1776, the day the Declaration of Independence was approved by the Continental Congress, Thomas Jefferson bought a thermometer and noted the temperature was 73.5 degrees at 9 pm. Though weather watchers and historians now wonder how to reconcile this seemingly cool reading with the sweltering heat often noted on that occasion, Jefferson’s simple purchase began a lifetime of recording weather patterns. Borland also notes that Jefferson bought a barometer 4 days later to take home with him.

On a day that Jefferson was focused on independence, his purchases ratified the idea that an independent man is dependent on nature. Of course, today’s dependence on all manner of technology, while making us ‘independent’ of nature, might arguably be said to interfere with our independence from other men.

I think this same Jeffersonian understanding is evident also in the writings of Thoreau. A weather watcher himself, he moved into a cabin hand-built on land owned by Emerson on Walden Pond on the 4th of July 1845. Thoreau embarked on a journey (chronicled in Walden) to find out what was really essential in life, and to eliminate from his own that which was not essential. One assumption he began with was that dependence on other men for the means to live was not essential (though companionship certainly did turn out to be handy occasionally).

And thanks to Jefferson, we know the work of two other great weather observers and naturalists, Meriwether Lewis and William Clark. July 4th 1803 brought Lewis the news of the Louisiana Purchase, his signal to depart for Pittsburg, which he did the following day. July 4th 1805 found the Lewis and Clark expedition at the Falls of the Missouri. They celebrated Independence Day with the last of their whiskey. But a thunderstorm ended the celebration around 9pm.

So what better day than the 4th of July to start a habit of observing and recording the weather? What better day to embark on a study of phenology? What better way to celebrate our independence?

To read more:

Thomas Jefferson
http://wiki.monticello.org/mediawiki/index.php/Weather_Observationshttp://www.americanscientist.org/issues/feature/revolutionary-minds/4http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/ampage?collId=mtj7&fileName=mtj7page059.db&recNum=054&itemLink=/ammem/mtjhtml/mtjser7.html&linkText=6

Henry David Thoreau
http://www.islandnet.com/~see/weather/almanac/arc2002/alm02nov.htmhttp://www.npr.org/programs/morning/features/patc/walden/

Benjamin Franklin
http://www.islandnet.com/~see/weather/doctor.htm

Lewis and Clark
http://ams.confex.com/ams/pdfpapers/70669.pdfhttp://www.islandnet.com/~see/weather/history/lewisclark1.htmhttp://celebrating200years.noaa.gov/magazine/lewis_clark/welcome.htmlhttp://www.lewisandclarktrail.com/section3/montanacities/greatfalls/history5.htm

Phenology
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phenologyhttp://www.windows.ucar.edu/citizen_science/budburst/http://attra.ncat.org/attra-pub/phenology.html

lightning strike
the approaching promise of
summer rain

Blooms are Opening in my Yard!

My redbud, always one of the last to do its thing. My crabapple, also later than most.

A celandine poppy, transplanted just a week or two ago.

Spring Thoughts on Trees

With redbuds just opening around our area, we are once again threatened with the possibility of an untimely freeze. I'll be anxiously looking each morning for the next couple of days, afraid of seeing damage from the temperature going too low. It does seem to me that some blooms are running later this year, perhaps because of late frosts the last two years.

Spending a day at Bernheim gave me a chance to do a little reconnoitering. I spied the precious catkins of the river birch. I'm reminded that even with so many trees in bloom right now, that so few are even noticed individually. And how pressed even someone who thinks of themselves as a naturalist is to identify a tree by its early bloom. Now is when a guide such as "Trees and Shrubs of Kentucky" by Wharton and Barbour really shines. Color photos of the blooms of many of the trees (and in some cases, photos of the fruits which will come later) precede the black and white photos of the trees that cause many to shun the book.

Some may have heard me yammer on about the color of bark on trees (bark is almost never "just brown"). Wharton and Barbour point out that the bark of young branches on the river birch is "pinkish tan". I must admit that I didn't notice that color, so I'll have to look closer on my next visit. The same book notes that the bark of the tulip tree is gray, though I see younger trees with a distinct pink or rosy cast. Though I don't have a copy, the Audubon guide to trees features a photo of each tree's bark. And I find it difficult to leave the visitor center gift shop without perusing "Tree Bark: A Color Guide".

smell of wild garlic
common blue violets fade
under the twilight

nature neatly trimmed
with everything in its place
sound of a mower

thunder rolls above
sound of rain in the darkness
water runs away