Now we have our very own dreaded red band here at the home office.
Turns out it wasn’t Maple wilt after all. The forester working for the city explained that the problem is root girdling. Seems the city bought a large shipment of poorly grown trees some time back, most of which had this problem, which might explain why I’m seeing so many Maples around town with red bands and numbers ranging from 12 to 17.
An ideal place for spiders to get huge and happy is inside a compost bin. All those tasty bugs are just what a young wolf spider needs to grow up all big and strong.
According to my usual sources, the tensile strength of spider-silk is greater than the same weight of steel and has much greater elasticity.
Probably should have saved this posting for Halloween, but no…
I love the irony of a digital snapshot capturing someone painting oil on canvas en plein air.
Also love that the French managed to come up with a descriptive that defies routine translation into English.
Took this shot at the University of Minnesota Landscape Arboretum. A beautiful day and place to be out in the open air.
I think I might have figured out why the world’s fish stocks are collapsing.
Apparently irresponsible children all over the globe have foolishly been feeding them.
Damn you children!
Just spent some time on the National Geographic web site in what looks to be an outstanding environment section full of great articles and handy search features. One of the things I picked up along the way is the fact that the world population of large game fish (tuna, marlin, etc.) has dropped 90 percent since 1950. A shocking number that makes me wonder if we’ll all end up bidding against each other on e-bay for cans of chunk light tuna in another few years in order to fulfill our craving for fish.
Tomatoes are like children. Everyone thinks that the ones they grow are the best ones on earth.
The fancy name for the tomato is Solanum Lycopersicum. Lycopersicum translates to “wolf-peach”. How much more fun is that name than “tomato”?
Think I’ll go mix up a batch of fresh wolf-peach salsa.