November thoughts

November.

Solen kikar försiktigt upp ovanför horisontkanten, en skogsridå av guld bländar mig. Soluppgången är långsam och vacker, precis som om solen tvekar att kliva upp. Precis som jag, som gärna ligger kvar under mitt varma täcke om morgonen. Nu kommer nordbornas svåraste tid, det är mörkt och kallt i mitt Norden. Inte kallt med gnistrande snö och rimfrost på träden, utan ett tråkigt kallt, rått och fuktigt väder, strax över nollstrecket på termometern. En lång väntan, på snön, på glänsande isar, på ljusets återkomst, på växter som återigen knoppas. Bland blåsippsbladen vilar knopparna redan och mina narcisser har långa vita rötter i krukorna. Det känns trösterikt när alla klorofyllblad ligger bruna och vissna på marken, att veta att de nya redan är färdiga för start.
     Himlen är svagt upplyst och molnen är belysta underifrån, en ljust blå himmel och mörkt grafitgrå moln, fyllda av fukt. På natten lyser stjärnorna och jag gör min resa i Karlavagnen på väg mot nästa vår.

EH

Translation by LS:

November

The sun carefully looks over the edge of the horixon, a forest drapery of gold is blinding me.  The sunrise is slow and beautiful, just as if the sun is hesitating to get up.  Like me, who would love to stay under my warm cover in the morning.  Here comes the hardest time for the scandinavians, it is dark and cold in the Nordic area. Not cold with sparkling sno and hoary frost on the trees, but a boring, cold, raw and wet weather, right above the freezing point on the thermometer.  A long wait, for the snow, for the shiny lake ice, for the return of the light, for plants that are in bud.  Below the hepatica leaves are already ready buds and my daffodils have long, white roots in their pots.  It feels promising when all the chlorophyllic leaves are brown and weathered on the ground to know that the new leaves are ready to start. 
    The sky is barely lit and the clouds are colored from beneath, a light blue sky and dark graphite grey clouds, filled with moisture.  During the night the stars shine and I travel with the Big Dipper towards the next spring.

La Paz Waterfall Gardens

In the rainforest, on a mountain side, down towards some magnificent waterfalls, on the side of an ancient (but active) volcano named Poa, in the central highlands of Costa Rica, on the eastern slope of the Central American mountain ridge, facing the Caribbean, but still miles and miles from the coast, there is a small wonderful place called La Paz Waterfall Gardens. There is a small hotel at this place too,  the Peace Lodge, looking out over the deep valley and the rainforest tree tops.   This is obviously a place designed to pull in ecotourists, but I loved the small scale, down to earth, and simplicity of this place.  I could easily spend a few days here and be happy!

We arrived by bus at the top of the mountain side, where the Peace Lodge is, and started our slow walk on well-maintained steps and paths down towards the aviary and butterfly houses, restaurant, and waterfalls. This is also a wildlife refuge, where animals that have been illegally captured or held as pets can live out their lives, if they can't be released into the wild again.  


This is the view from the Peace Lodge, and you can see the aviary to the lower left. The purple flowers are bougainvilleas, with gingers in the foreground and tree ferns lower down.  A short time after we arrived it started to rain, which is very appropriate for the rainy season in a rain forest, and I was very grateful for bringing both a rain jacket AND an umbrella.  Lots of photos could be taken without a wet camera...


This wild ginger has a funny name, Ker-Gawler (Hedychium gardnerianum). It is not from Costa Rica but an import from Himalayas.


Inside the giant aviary tent where birds flew free and were nearly tame.


Hello. I am a toucan.

The butterfly house will get its own blog post :)  After checking out the birds, the monkeys, the butterflies, and then passed by the hummingbird feeders in rain (which didn't stop the hummingbirds from visiting the feeders), it was time for lunch. (I bypassed the snake house, I don't care much for those cold blooded animals.) Buffet lunch of traditional Costa Rican food, and it was the best food I have ever had in Costa Rica.  Rice and beans (of course), tortillas, curry beef, chicken in Costa Rican BBQ sauce (not overly sweet), salsa, vegetables, salad, pork chili, mmmm, fresh fruit, and lots of other good stuff... no food in Costa Rica is spicy, but it is tasty!  I forgot to take a photo of the food, sorry!


This place has 24 hummingbird species, the most of any place in the world.  They come right up to you if you stand still by the feeders.  Flying jewels, that is what they are!


The view from the restaurant.  I loved it!


The trees were full of epiphytes. True rainforest style, indeed! It rained too, a lot.

The 'Big Cat' house was kind of sad.  They can't let these animals out in the wild, but they seem so lonely.  Here are the back feet of the jaguar, which was much lower and stronger than I expected.  I wonder if you hear the cats at night if you stay at the Peace Lodge...


The ozelot was not a lot bigger than our biggest house cat, but incredibly quick.  No way you could get a good photo of it.  But the paws are in focus, kind of! :)


And then, after passing the frog house, the farmer's house (and tasting fresh cheese), we hiked down towards the waterfalls into the rainforest... in the rain, of course.


The 120 feet (37 meter tall) waterfall, one of at least 4 waterfalls along the trail.  OK, OK, this is a little photoshopped in the colors because the low light in the rain made it an imperfect photo to begin with... please forgive me.


The rainforest in the rain... looking out over the valley.  I really, really want to come back here. And that time, I want to sit and look at hummingbirds for hours. They are truly amazing.

More photos from this place here.

Poa volcano in Costa Rica

Yesterday I went up at 2600 m elevation and stood on the rim of the crater of the Poa volcano in Costa Rica.  The crater is 1 km across and the volcano is still active, with the latest eruption in 2009, but not much activity yesterday.  Just some steam clouds (fumaroles) and smell of sulfur from down in the crater.  It didn't rain, which it usually does at this elevation, and the forest on the volcano are deep, low, dark cloud forest, with some open areas at the very highest elevations. It was a gorgeous place, easy to get to, and fascinating - the opposite to tropical beaches and tall rainforest.  Here are some photos, more to come on Flickr later...

 Looking into the crater of the Poa volcano in Costa Rica, with steamy sulfuric clouds coming out from the bottom.

 Walking through the cloud forest at 2600 m altitude.  Fog from clouds, gnarly trees, and lots of wet, green mosses.

 A high-altitude lake has formed in an older crater on the other side of the active crater rim.  The giant leaves in the foreground are Gunnera, or 'poor man's umbrella', and the leaves can be up to 2 meters (6 feet across).

A squirrel had figured out how to beg for food from the tourists and then took up dining space on a tree branch.

Ferns, ferns!  Small, large, enormous, green, and brown and curled up when young.

The rain is coming soon- April edition

A snapshot I took a few days back, when rain was closing in. Good for me that the April weather is changing fast, the sun came back half an hour later! I am at Barking Dog Plaza of course, for you who knows the place.

Quote of the Day: rainbows

Recently heard in our kitchen:


"Bacon is like a rainbow of flesh and fat..."

(from someone that really loves bacon)

Heavy summer rain in sunshine

Summer rain in sunshine, originally uploaded by Vilseskogen.

Our weather has been less than reliable the last couple of days. (NJ, USA)

Acid Rain stamp from 1986 in Sweden. Around this time I was active in a non-profit youth organization in Sweden and we inventoried the acid rain damage on spruces in our neighborhood as well as taped up protest posters against the acid rain falling over Sweden. A lot of the acid rain was created by German industries, but some was from within Sweden as well.  I remember well how we biked around taping posters at intersections without trying to get noticed by anybody (=police mostly) at 5 AM.  I don't think our parents knew, or if they did, they let us do it.  Nothing ever happened, no police car ever showed up... but the acid rain threat was real, and the forests were dying.  It is better now, because of better cleaning of exhausts from energy and other industrial plants. Oh, and of course the cars made a lot of acid rain.  Somehow it feels like we are fighting a bigger threat today, bigger and more omnipresent and more hard to grasp - global climate change. Back in the 80s, things were simpler, at least for us teenagers.

Media in Manhattan should think before they talk

I find it very disturbing that those people that think this storm was 'not so bad' and that the government 'cried wolf' and 'over-warned' people, seems to be the ones that are sitting in a high-ground area and never lost power (such as Manhattan).  Guys, look around you, outside of your immediate comfort zone. In the media, both Swedish and American, there has been several articles saying this or quoting people saying just that.

I bet these are not the people that are volunteer firefighters trying to get a sick 7-month old to a hospital in the middle of the storm, or a friendly neighbor that comes over at 4 AM to get a second sump pump going in someone's basement.  No, these are people complaining that they bought too much bread and water because of the warnings.  Guys, grow up. Be real.

Millstone River, had record flooding at Blackwells Mills, the highest EVER recorded, at 21.24 feet (about 7 m) over normal. This is the river I have to cross to get to work... might take some days before the bridges are open. Manville downriver is evacuated and flooded. Bound Brook is horribly flooded. Things are bad and crazy out there, and New Yorkers complain that they bought too many batteries?

Note that of the last six major floods, three has been in the last five years.  We are getting more rain than ever. This is the effects of climate change.  Less than a week ago, we had record rainfall... the list will not stop, it will get worse.

(1) 21.01 ft on 09/17/1999
(2) 19.24 ft on 04/16/2007
(3) 18.68 ft on 08/28/1971
(4) 16.84 ft on 07/15/1975
(5) 16.15 ft on 03/14/2010

300 000 households in New Jersey have no power back yet. We were just lucky to get it back so soon. (Actually, it is even more people without power.  And part of a highway is now in a River. And so on, read more here. )

Brattleboro and many other towns in Vermont are under water. That is a street down there, under the brown guck. Our favorite stores in Brattleboro are under water, as is historic Hotel Latchis, you can see their brick building in the distance.

So, if you managed through the storm OK, that is great, but do not complain that you were warned too much. Next time your house might be hit by a tree, your stuff might be under muddy waters, or you might be out of power for days.  You never know. You might just have been lucky this time.  Nature is more powerful than you.

Here is a summary of the media coverage and destruction caused by hurricane Irene, showing that in fact it was really bad, whatever media and unaffected people say.  Maybe not bad not for some pampered and grumpy city people in New York, but for the rest of us. Here is a quote from the same article:

"On average, hurricanes that make landfall in the United States as Category 1 storms have produced about $600 million in economic damage. The losses from Irene look as though they’ll be something like 25 times that. In terms of the amount of economic damage it caused, in fact, Irene is much more like a typical Category 3 hurricane than a weak Category 1."

Bye Hurricane Irene...

We are glad Irene is gone now.  A map from NY Times showing rainfalls and the track of the storm.

I can't get to work today, the bridges across Millstone River are all flooded. I wouldn't go to work anyway, we have enough to deal with here at home.


A giant tree down in our backyard.


Actually two trees, but the second one is leaning out over the road and hanging on the telephone, cable TV and internet wires.  I guess the township will come and clean that up, we can't.  If the wires break, then the tree will fall down in the road (which is closed right now, but people that live along the drive drive by carefully). Both trees were uprooted in the storm and stood outside our fence but fell onto our property. It is kind of crazy how trees can stand upright at all when a 25 m tall tree with a 1 m thick trunk has such as small root system. The powerline was under this tree too, but PSEG fixed that yesterday (see below).

Clean the floor in the basement, full of soil and dirt from the flooding.  The soil here was soaked after giant rains previous in the week so just a few hours after it started raining, we had water flowing into our higher-level older part of the basement and when it was the worst we had 2 inches around our furnace.  But no major damage to machines and other basement things that we know of yet.

 
By 2.30 in the morning we had 4 siphon lines sucking water out of the basement using long garden hoses, and we are lucky we have a door out to a lower part of the garden where the water can go, all by itself using the amazing thing called gravity. But it took us hours to get the hoses going, it is more complicated than you might think when you have no pumps and have to manually suck or push water through 100 feet or rubber hose to get it going. It rained until around noon yesterday, and by then the wind came on stronger too.  I am so glad I bought 2 more hoses (the last ones in the store) two days before the storm.  It is always good to have an extra 100 feet (30 m) of heavy-duty garden hose.

The kids were amazing (thanks AREA and LA), being out in the dark helping us with hoses, keeping their spirits up despite thunder, darkness, water-filled boots, mud, wet clothes, and just general despair at times. PP was a hero too of course, he saved the basement by having the battery backup for the sump pump going. And our friends BV times two, were great. Thanks all of you.

People died here in the state, mostly from driving into deep water in rain and darkness and being swept away.  Why are people out driving when it is so bad?  And then when they get rescued, they risk the rescuers' lives.  People are sometimes so incredibly unprepared and stupid. Do not get into your car when the weather is bad... it is very simple. Some people seem to think that nature is not more powerful than society, but they are so wrong.


Here comes the new powerline! This time our power company PSEG was amazingly good! Heroic! When I first called in our power outage the calling center said we would get power back on September 4, next Sunday, which would have been VERY BAD (that is more than a week).  And then the tree fell, and I called that in, and a few hours later three giant PSEG trucks were here to restore the power and sure, by 5 PM yesterday it was back!  Yipee.  Showers, hot water, sump pumps, computers, and even the internet (through cable) was back!


Uprooted tomato and pepper plants. Sunflowers to the right have seen better days.


Our driveway after the storm. Those ruts are about a foot deep.  Unfortunately all the water from the neighboring horse fields drains down into the corner opposite our driveway and a large amount of it then goes straight into our driveway and then into our basement...  this has to be fixed!

It was really strange (and nice) to wake up this morning to a clear blue sky, lots of sunshine, and no wind.  Low nice temperatures and only 41% humidity.  Perfect for washing and drying all those clothes, rags, towels, etc. that are still wet from the storm. 

One neighbor has a tree down over their hot water tub house (which didn't break the glass window on the roof, amazing), another had 4 trees down over their driveway, and our driveway is totally destroyed by rushing water.  Oh well, but taken all into account, we did OK, nobody is hurt, the basement is relatively dry, and others had it and still have it much, much worse. Some people have lost everything, had to be rescued from their houses in the dark, buildings collapsed in Philadelphia, and many cars are under water.  So, we are doing fine, relatively speaking. Oh yes, we are terribly sore in our muscles from the basement work, but that is OK too.  Most workplaces are closed, the trains are not running (Trenton train station tracks are under 1 m of water), and the big university has postponed the start of classes with one day, to Thursday.  In Vermont they have unprecedented flooding and some of our favorite places there are under water. So it is not over yet.

Here it comes (hurricane eye is 6 hours away)

It is still over North Carolina, but we here in New Jersey are getting some winds and lots of rain now.  Only one outside cats (Smokey) have been seen.  We grilled tonight, probably the only people in the township that bothered to try to light a grill fire.  Mmm, grilled turkey breast.  If the power doesn't go out tomorrow, then we will post how things are... I am pretty happy there are no hurricanes in Sweden.

The hurricane is coming...

Irene is not one of the biggest, but it is aiming right for us...  Sunday will be wet and windy.  Let's hope basement stays dry. (Map from Weather Underground.)

Wet August Day

It is raining in Sweden and in New Jersey, and at least here on the Sourlands it is still raining. All old rain amount records broke yesterday on the east coast of North America.  But so far we have been lucky here at home.  No major flood in the basement, and only the driveway is ruined from running water that has eroded channels in the gravel. My usual way to work is underwater because the Millstone River is flooding, but the trains are running (I hear the locomotives' whistles) and no electricity is out.  The rain just fell from the sky, persistent and strong but without any other big weather.

So, yesterday, August 14, 2011, we got 4.67 inches (118 mm!) of rain in one day. (link to more info)

Or, in other words:  

"nearly twice the normal monthly rainfall was delivered (to New York City) in one day"
(Link to Accuweather.com source)

Addition:  Of course this was the day I also started to dry tomatoes in the new dehydrator.  Maybe not the best day.  It is taking much longer than planned.