A renewal

After a break that neither thought nor words can explain, the blog returns! Evolution demands that the focus and style will have changed - as we change daily with each passing experience. If my interests have changed at all, they have sidled over to focus lately on the science of politics and the phenomenon of Barack Obama. Nevertheless, I'm still absorbed with the joy of literature and the power of the written word.

As thoughts are conceived and provoke a palpable response, I'll share them here.

I'm once again reading Tolstoy's War and Peace. While at the local bookstore, I spotted a new translation that beckoned me to experience the novel again. So far, this Anthony Briggs translation is excellent.

There is no other novel in the world like this one. All that is to be learned about the human condition is in it, but it is entertaining like nothing else is as well. It makes any other story, movie, play or televised series pale in comparison. Tolstoy gets to the heart of conversations, intrigues, expressions and silence. And the reader can see the appearance of the characters, feel their joy and pain, and share their shame and glory. It's incomparable.

Through the descriptions of characters, a reader learns society's rules or identifies with the already known. Lines like: "The viscount was a pleasant-looking young man with gentle features and manners, obviously full of his own importance, but modest enough, because of his good breeding, to indulge any company that he might find himself in." , or "Just as a skillful head waiter can pass off as a supreme delicacy a cut of beef that would be inedible if you'd seen it in the filthy kitchen, Anna Pavlovna served up to her guests that evening first the viscount and then the abbe' as if they were supreme delicacies." allow the reader to perceive the nuanced behavior of social situations perhaps not available to him. In this way a young reader learns as if schooled in this social circle himself.

Of course, the scope and reach of the novel is unparalleled, and the intimacy the reader experiences with a wide range of characters allows a familiarity that could otherwise not occur. Because we learn not only about their actions, but also about their desires and fears, we are able to experience characters in scenes with the eyes of a god. And, because of Tolstoy’s unquestioned genius, we are made privy to earth shattering events peopled with fascinating people that are more than worth our acquaintance.

Shakespeare and self-knowledge

This season I've been examining closely the two tragic masterpieces of Shakespeare: Hamlet and Macbeth. Yes, they are bottomless in their revelations about the human condition, so the rewards of further understanding are the products of close readings.

Should a man allow circumstances to cause him to turn against his moral code? Buddhism advocates perceiving one's reaction to circumstance as controlled only by the thoughts one chooses to have. It appears Shakespeare would agree. Only when Hamlet surrenders his moral nobility does he transgress against nature; his murders and emotional assassinations occur only after he deliberately surrenders and eschews the university bred code of behavior that, throughout the story, continues to be exhibited by his friend and university colleague, Horatio.

Can the modern reader learn from Hamlet's actions? Well, just imagine a world where all men knew the consequences of boorish and violent behavior.

Interestingly, this same lesson is hammered home in Macbeth, where the behavior is less transparent and more readily condemned. Unaware of murder's effect upon the soul, Macbeth and his wife recklessly pursue their lust for recognition and power. They kill their guest, the king, and a frantic spiral to hellish insanity begins. Lady Macbeth retreats from the fury with suicide, but Macbeth tries to fight it and slides precipitously further in his journey into the horror of pure evil. One cannot witness his fall without learning, as a child touching a hot stove, to beware acts that promise such horrendous results.

Reading Shakespeare will rock your world, and the result of the shake-up will benefit your understanding.

Every hiatus should have an end.

Alright, I guess seven months is enough of a respite. Expression demands activity, and I'm ready to oblige.

Have you ever experienced that ambivalence that drives and restrains at the same time? Confusion of purpose reigns in this state, leaving residual anxiety. The discomfort goes on and demands unearthing, but it buries itself well and can take some time to uncover. Well, I've dug and dug and found my need to write to be the villain; its neglect had hounded me, but it had failed to identify itself.

Multiflora Malevolence

As one with a tendency for being not only anthropomorphic, but indeed convinced of the close relationship between species, it is not such a stretch for my imagination to attribute a certain deliberate perniciousness to this alien rose from Japan. Though long ago I had originally read reports of its efficacy as both food and shelter for birds, once I became familiar with the demonic nature of Rosa multiflora, I made my own interpretation and condemned it as a garden villain of the first rank.

As the pictures show, it can beguile with its beauty. In addition, because its leaves label it as a rose when first impressions are being made, gardeners accept it as a desirable addition to their property. They inevitably live to rue the decision though, especially if it's allowed ample time to penetrate in its insidious way, all four corners of the owner's property. And the word insidious is appropriate, because this garden devil, be convinced, hides itself in the depths of existing shrubs while it gains strength and power. Just yesterday while pulling into the driveway, I saw it peek from the shrub border. Though it had successfully camoflaged itself in sunlight, night illumination by car headlights revealed its surreptitious presence.

Of course a plant must have more egregious qualities than that it wildly propagates itself to deserve these diabolical descriptions. Though wild propagation is surely a curse in any plant, Norway Maples come to mind, there are other garden crimes that put it in a class by itself. As an alien without any insect foes, most noteworthy for a rose, it out competes most any plant that formerly occupied a given location in your garden. It tolerates shade well, though it prefers sun, and this tolerance allows it to bide its time in the shadow of another before climbing, if need be, and eventually crushing it to the earth in its mission to achieve dominance. In a wild section of my own yard, which I have been attempting for some time to tame, it seems to smile at me from as much as fifteen feet up on a pear tree that it has climbed with its partner in crime, poison ivy, which protects it from my approach. There it punishes the pear tree with its weight and sun blocking presence.

Finally, this infernal nuisance has a behavior that begs being called maliciously intelligent. If it is approached with garden shears or pruning saw for the purpose of elimination, it is not passive but pugnaciously defends itself by attaching even its dismembered parts to seemingly every fiber of one's clothing and skin. With the thorns with which it is so effectively armed, it will tear shirt and arm, pant and thigh, until the best avenue of retreat from the beast you had set out to subdue is alone on your mind.

Yes, this rose will attract the birds, but then with their help in deseminating the seeds, it will spread throughout your yard. Don't be tempted by the shiny rose leaves, almost luminous white flowers, or attractive red berries; ban it from the start, and leave animal food and shelter provisioning to the native plants that know how to behave.

The Garden and the Earth

Looking toward the garden to learn more about ourselves may seem a circuitous way to arrive at needed knowledge, but I have long been sold on the marriage, acknowledged or not, between man and the natural world. Though in discussion I may wax assertive about my beliefs and speculations on the efficacy of certain gardening techniques, or sometimes grow loquacious on the desirability of one plant type over another; when the proverbial dust has settled, I'm a gardener because it allows a closeness and understanding of nature that makes me feel more complete as a human being and member of the planet.

With these thoughts in mind, late this afternoon my daughter and I saw "An Inconvenient Truth," the documentary film on global warming now in selected theatres. Neither of us was disappointed with the experience, though I found it disturbing and frightening, and also, as it regarded human behavior, penetratingly provocative.

The film is presented entirely in documentary fashion, though I found after the first thirty minutes that I was no longer conscious of format at all. Al Gore, nearly our elected president in that memorable election, evinced a passion on the subject that I found palpable and real. I quickly came to realize that this was not some new diversion for him, but his long time first interest in life. Whether everything he asserted was scientifically correct, and I'm inclined to believe it was, Gore's own conviction and sense of purpose in addressing a growing and alarming crisis was indisputable. As stated in the film, he has given this presentation via slide shows at least a thousand times all over the planet, and he has researched on all continents the evidence he presents so persuasively.

Of course if this were a less volatile and disputed subject, it would not be the event it is. Gore's one time political aspirations and well known political philosophy open the flood gates for opposing views, and, as we know, wherever politicians take a position, there seems never a shortage of heated disagreement. On this subject, however, extending this tradition could prove tragic. The earth continuing to warm unchecked in future years could actually, according to the presentation, change mankind's role on the planet like no other event in known history.

The premise of the film, stripped to its bare skeleton, is that man's industrial activity is spewing forth carbon dioxide at a rate causing great problems. The heat from the sun's rays is being impeded from escaping into space as, according to ice samples excavated in the Antarctic, it has not been in the last thousand years. The resulting increased heat on earth, the documentary explains, manifests itself in numerous ways, most of them destructive. Among the probable results are more violent storms and a rising sea level that will flood low lying areas all over the globe, displacing as many as a hundred million people. In addition, if the ocean currents are affected as scientists believe they will be, a new ice age could be upon us more rapidly than experience would have us believe.

Horrific picture of the future, for sure; true, well, that's where the debate is active. But debate on these issues is a good and desirable thing, as long as the participants are informed and open to changing, upon proof, their viewpoints. Where my discouragement sits is upon those who refuse to see this informative and provocative film, those believing that decisions can be made without knowledge. Disagree if that opinion is the result of analysis, but make the determination on a solid understanding of the science behind the issue.

I'll end with a paraphrase of a quote presented in the film. It goes something like: "It is hard to persuade someone of a truth, when the livelihood of that person depends upon not believing it."

Goldfinch Magnet

When a tree combines the attraction of moving and fascinating color alongside its own noteworthy beauty, it's not an exaggeration to call it a champion in the garden. The River Birch pictured above fits this description and is a most welcome addition to any property vested in the attraction of wildlife and four seasons of beauty and interest. With exfoliating bark of a soft crème color, and the inclination to send up multiple trunks forming a clump, it's difficult to determine what season shows its beauty off most. But for its ability to attract the American Goldfinch, it is in June that it most shines.

When I first began my garden, I had a blank slate to work from; the property had been a cow grazing field with only grass from north to south. Though it offered a challenge and demand for patience in establishing any density or height in the landscape, it was remarkably fertile from many years of diligent bovine fertilization. Fortunately I knew from experience that my real interest rested not so much in the different species I would plant, but in the plant/animal relationships these species might generate. The selection of a sterile cherry that would never set fruit or the Asian birch that would befuddle our New England birds and insects was anathema to me; I desired only those species that traditionally belonged in a Northern Massachusetts setting. Hence, with a vision of the future wildlife garden in mind, I headed down to the now defunct Ann and Hope department store to see what tree bargain might be available. With my six year old daughter to help, I returned with a multi-stemmed River Birch seedling in the back of my hatchback Honda Civic. That was thirteen years ago; the tree is now forty feet high and as wide. It's the prize of the property.

Each June about this time the catkin containing seeds mature and attract hundreds of yellow goldfinch. On certain days and at any given moment, it is impossible to count the birds in the canopy. Like Monarch butterflies on milkweed, the tree is splashed with dabs of brilliant yellow moving from branch to branch and acrobatically munching on catkins. Whether relaxing on the back deck or working to maintain order amongst the surrounding shrubs and trees, this colorful drama thrusts the viewer into a realization of the wonders of nature that insists upon contemplation, and supplies me with the reward of reflection that made planting and caring for the plant so worthwhile.

One of the pictures above shows a branch weighty with almost ripe catkins, and in days the yearly visitation by the area goldfinch will begin in earnest, though I've seen individual scouts checking the tree out for the past week. When the feeding frenzy begins, it is easy to imagine that every American Goldfinch in all of the surrounding towns is aware of the feast, so it is obvious that this relationship between bird and tree benefits both. The bird gains nutrition while the tree's seeds get disseminated.

I found the species very easy to grow and recommend it to all. It needs full sun and a moist soil. Indeed, a section of the property that has a tendency to get wet would suit it best. It grows quickly in an acid soil and, since it's a native here in Massachusetts, knows well how to handle our unpredictable weather. Invite the goldfinch, plant a River Birch.

The Delights of Mulch

It's rainy here in Eastern Massachusetts, so the garden is now more an object to consider and reflect upon than to work in. This, however, does not mean that its enjoyment is reduced or impaired, but simply that its focus has changed. Last night as I was reading in my living room, I opened a window to better appreciate the sound of rain softly striking the soil and plant surfaces. The pleasant experience of simply pausing to listen to this sound must be imbedded in our composition, for there's no questioning how relaxing it is.

I was expecting this pleasure but was further delighted by a scent that I had long associated with vacation and woodland hikes. As it wafted from the soil surface into the room, it brought to mind still another reason to bring a creature friendly environment to the doorstep, and to delight in the existence of mulch. When gardening for wildlife, as well as for yourself, it is important to leave a surface of natural mulch around the plants. Supplied by fallen leaves from seasons past, this organic decomposing layer provides a habitat for multitudes of tiny creatures crucial to the beginning of the garden food chain. Birds, reptiles, and mammals depend upon it; indeed, they cannot live without it.

Knowing of the importance of nature's mulch is especially important for those meticulous gardeners who mean well, but laboriously clean out the leaf refuse beneath their shrubs and trees. Something in their make-up recoils at the accumulation of decaying leaves that they see as a mess, and though they may also delight in the sound and beauty of ground feeders like song sparrows or bluebirds, their lack of understanding insures that the vision of these creatures finding welcome in their garden will not be realized.

There are other reasons why a mulch is essential in the growing of garden plants, reasons like the moderation of soil temperature that actually makes the plant's life possible, or the future organic quality of the soil that insures the viability of the plant's life. To underestimate and neglect the importance of mulch will lead to a garden's demise, as well as to the detriment of any effort to attract the beauty of the animal world.

A Native Winner

Having discouraged the cultivation of a popular and ubiquitous shrub in my last post, I wanted to provide a replacement that would fill the same niche, but without the honeysuckle's drawbacks. The above pictures are of the American Cranberry Bush. Its Latin title is Viburnum trilobum. As can be seen from the close-up, it has great beauty in flower, and from the more distant shot can be discerned its great use as a border shrub that will grow twelve feet high in sun or light shade. Moreover, these stunningly beautiful flowers become lush red berries that saturate the shrub with bright color in the fall, when the leaves also turn a beautiful red color.

What differentiates it so desirably from the alien honeysuckle is that, as a native to the region, it has evolved with the insect and animal species endemic to American temperate regions. This translates into use by nesting birds in the spring and summer, and hard pressed birds and animals desperate for nutritious food in the winter, when its berries are at their sweetest. My experience has been that waxwings find the beautiful red berries indispensable in middle to late winter, especially during times of snow cover and storm. And certainly a flock of Cedar Waxwings in the garden on a gray February day is a sight we could all use.

I've found this shrub species very easy to grow with no special requirements, and they grow quickly too. In the relatively short time I've had them established in the border of the garden, there have been numerous birds that have nested in their branches, most consistently the highly desirable catbird. If you do begin to weed out the honeysuckles from your existing shrub borders, consider replacing them with Viburnums, and start with the American Cranberry Bush.

Wildlife Gardening

Though I appreciate the beauty of a rose or annual flower like anyone else, my real interest in gardening lies in the live creatures my plantings may lure. For years I have researched what tree or shrub will best attract the birds, butterflies, dragonflies, reptiles, and mammals that can make a stagnant property transform into a truly unpredictable landscape.

If there is one major piece of knowledge that has made the most difference in my understanding of wildlife gardening, it is that one must target plants native to the area. Hence aliens from Europe and Asia, though perhaps beautiful and alluring, must be used moderately, if at all. Now to some this sounds like too draconian a measure, and they choose to deny the importance of the claim. Nevertheless, the facts do support the assertion, and the explanation is that, having evolved with the insect and animal kindoms for eons of time, native plants support their needs best.

The attached picture is of a beguiling culprit. The honeysuckle shrub was introduced from Japan in the 19th century and quickly became popular. It has multiple attractions in that it flowers quite beautifully in the spring, supplies desirable cover during the summer, and berries to the attraction of the birds in the fall. Nevertheless, it is a problem for the true wildlife gardener, and especially to the native animals themselves. Because it is an alien it has no traditional enemies in the insect world that feed from its leaves, and this results in an advantage over our native species. Without insect foes that control its growth, it overruns our native species that do have controls. Also, because of this lack of associated growth controlling insects, birds and predators like dragonflies are unable to benefit from it in the all important early spring, when reproduction is in full swing. Babies need meat, and insects are the usual source of it. Without an evolved association with insects finding a meal by its presence, birds are unable to fill their needs of a high protein diet. In addition, though it does berry and feed birds in the fall, the birds gain little real nutrition from it.

There are many such alien culprits that are being touted as "carefree" by landscaping centers, but this is one of the more environmentally harmful of them. You might consider controlling its growth in your garden.

Garden Genes

When in our garden, it requires little thought to see that species have their preferences. Even without an awareness of Darwin's revelations, one, simply by being aware, learns the likes and dislikes of our property's residents .

Particularly interesting is that a tree's genes can result in a different looking plant even within a species, and this is not an unusual occurence. These genetic variations occur in all species and manifest themselves in myriad ways. The Japanese Maple pictured here has a dwarf nature coupled with an umbrella top that is very appealing to the eye, and this tree can grow no other way with the particular gene structure it contains. This variation, however, does not appear to provide the plant with any natural advantage that could easily explain its continued existence in Darwinian terms. It suffers from a serious height disadvantage that makes it almost certain to get shaded by larger trees, and this dwarf nature also makes it a target for even small herbivores that could eat its entire supply of life giving leaves. Perhaps only its beauty has enabled it to persist in nature, with gardeners interested in maintaining beautiful surroundings its greatest ally.

While reflecting upon this phenomenon, I was walking in nearby Newburyport on this Memorial Day weekend when I noticed amidst the city festivities a man dressed as a clown surrounded by mothers and young children. He was inflating and twisting balloons into animal shapes, according to each, on whim, its own distinctive shape; manifesting each, if you will, with a distinctive genetic map. The gathered children were facinated and happy, as was the clown, though at the sudden popping of one creation as it neared its completion, he did excuse the mishap with an apology about tired hands that had instilled imagination into these rubber objects for too long throughout the day.

Later, while walking home, I saw a similarity between the dwarf Japanese Maple and the clown. Both were probably unable to act in any other way, each steered inexorably by an inner map determining its appearance, disposition, and action. Morevoer, both had found allies in the common quest for gene perpetuation, one for its beauty and the other for its delightful spreading of happiness and mirth.

From the Garden of Peeves

As I garden in the ideas and reactions of my experiences, I find set off and frequently cultivated a small plot of pet peeves. While among these today, I picked a particularly pampered and lush one to talk about.

The English Sparrow is a species first introduced to America in the 19th century. Like most alien species, either plant or animal, it has prospered at the expense of native species. These particular birds have quite nasty habits and will steal a cavity nest from native birds like swallows and bluebirds and, if necessary, not hesitate to kill the existing nestlings. I've seen them do it.

Now these birds are a particular peeve of mine, because we inadvertently encourage them when we erect beautiful birdhouses like the one pictured here. Though we imagine the new multi-cavity house will result in purple martins or tree swallows, the great majority of the time it is occupied by these English sparrows that might more descriptively be called flying rats.

These are birds that all city dwellers know extremely well. In places where only pigeons can also survive, they prosper. They are attracted by the dwellings of people and love crowded settings. I suppose because they can be an inner city child's only contact with the sparrow species, or with any birds other than pigeons, they must be given some credit; but in the suburbs where melodious birds with the attractions of more civil habits, great beauty, and the desire and ability to devour great quantities of mosquitoes exist and nest, these English sparrows should be discouraged.

A few years ago, before neighbors began attracting these pests with offered housing, there were swallows and bluebirds nesting in the yard. Now, however, as these sparrows do not tolerate other cavity nesters in their vicinity, any of these more desirable birds are quickly driven away whenever they stop to attempt to nest.

As I walked around the school that I teach at today, I saw that the perennial barn swallows had returned and were once again building mud nests beneath the eves of the building. I also noticed there was an unusual commotion and lots of angry chattering going on. As I got closer I saw that an English sparrow had commandeered a mud nest from a mated pair of swallows and was proudly crowing from the entrance in the annoying chirp that is the limit of its song, refusing to allow the rightful owners to return. I'll be watching in the days to come to see if this sparrow actually nests in the mud house. If she does I'll use the frustration and annoyance she generates within me to cultivate a prize crop of peeves like this one.

Melville and Social Conscience

The thought of a garden can bring one to many considerations. The word is provocative, and it may be understood as the cultivation of any endeavor. When people gather and form government, they are gardening the future of their society; and when they neglect this garden of laws and limitations, they allow the harvest to grow rank with the weeds of injustice and barbarity.

As I currently read "Redburn," a travelogue by Herman Melville lying within the genre of fiction but decidedly about the author's own experiences as a merchant marine, I am morally awakened by chapter 37 entitled "What Redburn Saw in Launcelott's-Hey." The scene describes a depraved horror of need and destitution in 1830's Liverpool that makes inadequate for the purpose words like poverty and squalor, and needs description beyond my reach to convey.

Thanks to Dickens and others who wrote with a social conscience, I am aware of the hopeless destitution that was suffered by the English poor in the early 19th century. But this scene put forward by Melville, as both a social indictment and an expression of outrage against the English government, is unparalled in its forcefulness. Though only five pages long in the Library of America version that I'm reading, it wallops into awareness one's sensibilities more thoroughly than might a five hundred page treatise. You'll need to scroll to chapter XXXVII. Read Chapter 37 here.

Those asserting that government has no business assisting those in serious need should be forced to read this chapter. It illustrates how the past has shown that when government refuses to provide folks aid when truly needed, barbarism in the form of passive neglect slowly destroys women and children, and along with them all that defines a moral and humane state.

Buttercups and Other Rejects

"What's in a name? That which we call a rose
By any other word would smell as sweet."

William Shakespeare

Interesting it is that some see the word buttercup in relation to their garden and reach for the herbicide, while others reach for the camera. Perhaps we are too enamored of things difficult to grow and desire only the difficult to maintain. Like the elusive love that tantalizes but evades our entreaties , we want in our gardens those plants that will object to capture there, all the while blind to the beauty of those species that volunteer without needing our labor and assistance.

The point can be made all the more energetically about the dandelion. Though of beautiful color and intricate pattern, it is scorned by many. Indeed, the gardening conglomerates make millions by advocating its eradication, and haplessly ignorant homeowners poison their properties to eliminate its beauty and utility as a food for both humans and wildlife. It attracts, in its flowering stage, bees and butterflies, and in its seed stage, goldfinch and children. When allowed to prosper, the resulting sea of yellow and green is an aesthetic delight.

It appears man wants the rare and difficult to maintain, even when the easy offers manifold delights. Ah, man is a giddy, giddy thing!

A New Venture

It has been said that new ventures awaken us from the tedium of repetion. It has also been said that ambiguity and confusion, though discomfiting, last usually only for the outset of a journey. Let it be said that this is the start of a new and tantalizing project that aims at a clarification of my own thoughts and beliefs, alongside a hope that it will provide an avenue by which I continue to learn about the things I love.

Here will be my expressed collection of transient interests and long treasured beliefs and passions. These will focus upon, without being limited to, literature and nature; and the means of expression will be with words and my new, though still comfusing and intimidating, Canon digital camera.

Moral support will come from Gandalf the Grey, pictured above, who also finds the new camera intimidating.