Winter solstice at Sharingwood | <– Date –> <– Thread –> |
From: Rob Sandelin (floriferousmsn.com) | |
Date: Mon, 23 Dec 2002 10:16:01 -0700 (MST) |
It is the season of shadows, the lowest sun of the year, the shortest day. All is quiet in the woods, as if the place were asleep for the winter. But life still stirs. Under the drifts of fallen alder and maple leaves the tiny cobwebs of mycelia, the main part of the mushroom, expand each day, the many white branches secreting enzymes that will dissolve nitrogen and other nutrients, and pull them into the surrounding trees. The trees trade photosynthetic sugar to the mushrooms wrapped around their root tips and in exchange, the mushrooms send nutrients, freshly decomposed, back to the tree. A lone deer wanders through our woods nibbling on the dainty lichens that the wind storms of winter have dropped. This time of year is the only time the upper branch lichen gardens are available. Lichens seem to be a favorite winter food of the deer, the forest trails are fresh with tracks. This is the time of elfish gardens, tiny mosses send out miniature palm tree like caps to shed spores into a raindrop. At the base of trees you might find tiny bright orange mushrooms, Hygrocybe most likely, that are like tiny ornaments against the fuzzy moss. On a stump you can find witches butter, an odd gelatinous squiggle of orange. In the darkest part of the forest, where the trees are close and nothing green grows, look for dead mans fingers, tiny black fingers with white tips reaching out of the ground. The winter stillness is complete, the wind sighs through the trees and a few needles rain down, followed by the twirling helicopters of the hemlock seeds, the final few remnants shaken out of their cones. Then the stillness is broken by the DEE DEE DEE of a merry band of chickadees, who enliven the forest with their acrobatics. They are part of a wave of birds that passes by, joined in this avian clean up crew by tiny tinkly voiced kinglets and a brown creeper. Over in the distance, a resident Pileated woodpecker, the largest of its kind in North America proclaims its connection to this forest, and the clear Kewwww of the flicker adds to the thin winter chorus. A Douglas squirrel scampers out to see what all the noise is about, then drops down to a lower branch, carefully scouts the forest, before hopping over a fallen log or two to grab a cone from its fall harvest stash. The quiet world of the winter forest resumes its slow, sleepy pace, drifting languidly in and out of activity. As darkness descends, a small group of humans, with candles enter the darkness, and start a small fire. They mumble strange tones, laugh, sing a tune, then depart. The flying squirrels cock their heads at the odd smell of candle and fire smoke, then go back to their night time business. The world of nature, so alive and vibrant, even in these dark, wet and cold days, remains unknown by the humans who claim ownership. Rob Sandelin Sky Valley Environments <http://www.nonprofitpages.com/nica/SVE.htm> Field skills training for student naturalists Floriferous [at] msn.com --- Outgoing mail is certified Virus Free. Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com). Version: 6.0.332 / Virus Database: 186 - Release Date: 3/6/02 _______________________________________________ Cohousing-L mailing list Cohousing-L [at] cohousing.org Unsubscribe and other info: http://www.cohousing.org/cohousing-L
- RE: types of list servs (was 'Archive question'), (continued)
- RE: types of list servs (was 'Archive question') Greg Dunn, December 19 2002
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RE: Archive question Sheila Braun, December 22 2002
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RE: Archive question Fred H Olson, December 22 2002
- RE: Archive question Greg Dunn, December 23 2002
- Winter solstice at Sharingwood Rob Sandelin, December 23 2002
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RE: Archive question Fred H Olson, December 22 2002
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