Nature – Page 2 – New Hampshire Green Leaves Blog

May 2025: Flowers and Memorial Day

Nearing the end of May, looking back on the month, it’s hard to decide what to focus on. The weather started out the month on the decidedly cool side with the rain being on the generous side without being a gully washer. This encouraged plants to grow, though slowly because of the cool weather. The raised beds have been cleared of dead leaves and various weeds trying to get a head start ahead of my planting. A garden trowel is very useful for discouraging this. I now have garden peas, carrots, spinach and potatoes poking up, so I’m keeping my fingers crossed.

The old flower gardens I’ve inherited from my mother are badly in need of renovating. Lily of the Valley has been making a power play to take over the front garden, crowding out everything else. The side garden, which is dedicated to daylilies, also needs a make-over. Last year, they looked like the picture below.

day lilies growing near foundation of house

This year, it’s wall-to-wall daylilies and I can’t see any sign of the daffodils I planted there a few years before. Visits to gardening websites recommend thinning every three to five years to keep them under control, something I’ve been very negligent about and will have to correct.

Monday was Memorial Day, and my small town (population just over 6000) had a parade. A few years ago, the parade had been canceled due to lack of volunteers and an aging honor guard. This produced a loud enough howl of protest that efforts were undertaking to quickly bring back the parade. Yes, the honor guards are getting a bit long in the tooth, but they marched anyway.

The American Legion did their bit, carrying their banner.

And including a small float.

The local Knights of Columbus also marched.

An outfit called the sons of the Revolution put in their own float, along with cosplayers.

The parade wound up with the local Fire Rescue Squad, complete with a dalmatian dog.

A modest affair compared with larger towns, but it drew a good crowd, nonetheless. The weather was clear and mild, making for a perfect Memorial Day.

Take care, all and have a happy June.

“I was not in the parade but should have been.”

April 2025

Not much happening locally this month. It’s been quiet, which I consider a blessing these days. The weather has gradually been warming over the course of April, with temperatures yesterday up in the sixties, about normal for this time of year in Northern New Hampshire.

Spring violets have just popped up.

Snowdrops bloomed and have gone by now, being quickly succeeded by spring crocuses. For some peculiar reason a few have somehow mysteriously migrated from inside to just outside the border of the garden, where I most definitely did not plant them. Another one was out in the middle of the front lawn. It’s most likely that a squirrel dug them up and reburied them (I’ve seen them do this with acorns). So I am marking their location, to dig up in the fall for replanting back into the garden, where hopefully they will stay.

Well, the robins are once again at it, checking out the garage door opener unit in the unused part of the garage. This makes the third year in a row they have scouted this as a possible nesting site. As usual that gets a big ‘nope’ from me, so I am keeping the main garage door closed whenever possible. It’s kind of a shame as they clearly have their little hearts set on this spot. I can see why it’s tempting: it’s quiet (I’m rarely noisy), out of sight of egg-eating predators, and no cat patrolling the premises. Unfortunately robins are messy nesters and I want to keep the opener unit clean and functional for the occasions when I need to open that side of the garage. So my would-be boarders will have to house hunt somewhere else.

Last but not least, the next door neighbor has a whimsical streak.

I spotted this huge tree conk about a month ago growing out of a tree on the edge of my property and was amazed it had escaped my notice. It’s well over a foot in length. Info on the web states it is very difficult to age bracket fungi like this but I can’t believe this popped up overnight. Well apparently my neighbor also took note of this fungal prodigy and set up a little gnome house with attendant gnome with a white rock for decor.

Well, that’s all for now. Have a happy May.

“Hey, peace and love, man!”

The Month of March: Bits and Pieces

Just a few notes for this month. Spring has finally arrived, and winter is gradually receding. Snowdrop flowers have already popped out and formed buds, waiting for a warm day and open up. The patch has expanded slowly but surely over the past number of years, with a few starting to show up in odd spots where I had not planted any of the original bulbs. Rugged and resilient, snow drops come up long before the crocuses do and are an excellent harbinger of spring.

But just to show you how volatile the weather is here in Northern New Hampshire, the above picture was taken on March 22. The picture below was taken yesterday (March 29).

We’ve gotten at least six inches of snow with this latest storm, but the nice thing about spring snow storms is that the snow doesn’t last. It’s already changed to rain and well before next Saturday, this stuff will largely be melted, and the snowdrops will pop back up, totally unphased.

A flock of robins made a reappearance this month, feeding on the hawthorn berries still clinging to the thorn trees out front. I’ve been watching for cedar waxwings, as they like feeding on berries, but so far no sign of them. Several nights before, I heard an owl hooting off in the distance. After listening to online recordings, the one that comes closest is the barred owl. “Who-cooks-for-you-who cooks for you” is how many people hear it, and it did sound like that. Unfortunately I’ve never seen one, as they are nocturnal and even by day are well camouflaged, so I’m not likely to spot one.

One animal I spotted recently, is one that has migrated north over the past few decades. This sad little sight of a roadkill greeted me when I was out walking one morning last week.

Virginia Opossums this far north, were unheard of when I was a kid, but global warming has made the climate in New Hampshire tolerable enough for them to spread about up here. They are prolific animals, a female sometimes having a dozen young at a time. Their lifespan is only a few years with predation and roadkill a frequent hazard. Information online suggests that ticks are an item on the menu of these omnivorous animals, so in spite of their homely appearance, they are beneficial to have around.

While it’s too soon for planting, I’ve begun going through seed packets left over from last year, as well as the year before, to determine what might still be viable and which need to be consigned to the composter. Bush and pole beans, beets, parsley, peas and swiss chard are viable on average about two years. Broccoli, cabbage, carrots, cucumbers and squashes average three years. How long a seed stays viable is not carved in stone,with some outlasting others depending on the conditions they were stored under. I will be experimenting with them to see what shape they are in.

Have a safe and happy April.

Bits and Pieces of January 2025

Chilly weather is biting this month, though nowhere near as hard. The lowest nighttime temperatures I’ve seen this month have been just 10 degrees below zero Fahrenheit, a far cry from my childhood when 20 to 25 below zero F and even 30 below would occasionally accompany a real cold snap. The picture below dates from at least 10 years ago.

Thermometer showing below zero Fahrenheit

I only took a picture because such low temps seem to be a thing of the past (hope I’m not jinxing myself). This is one aspect of global warming I won’t complain about.

Snow has been sparse this winter. On January 19, there was about two inches or snow on the ground instead of the usual 6 to 8 inches. Additional flurries have left a dusting, maybe one time we got about three and half inches. This was dry snow, so dry that my brother was able to use a leaf blower to clear his driveway.

This is worrisome as it likely means a dry spring with the risk of brush fires. While New Hampshire is usually immune to the vast wildfires which plague the far West, smaller brush fires are not uncommon in the spring. The largest forest fire to hit New Hampshire was in April of 1941, the result of some unusually hot weather coupled with a huge amount of tinder left over from the Great Hurricane of 1938. WMUR, the state TV station, had a local color story giving an account of the event.
Only time will tell if we get any major fires this spring and summer.

Animals are stirring about. I have a plastic composter in the backyard where I collect leaves, spent flowers and weeds I yank up. Food waste also goes into it, but only after sitting in a compost bucket in the breezeway where it gets skanky enough so wild animals will turn their noses up at it. Even so, they still check the backyard composter once in a while. About a week ago, I noticed the lid was off. On checking I found a generous number of raccoon tracks around the composter. The material inside is still frozen solid, so I don’t think they found much that was palatable. I’m glad it was just raccoons rather than a bear, as bears can trash a plastic compost bin without too much trouble. That was the sad fate of one that I had many years ago, which is why I have the food waste in a ‘half-way’ house before I finally consign it to the composter. I figure even bears have their limits.

While it’s still mid-winter, I saw something this past week which is usually a sign of spring. A flock of robins came through, feeding on the neighbor’s lawn and visiting my hawthorn trees which still have berries on them. It was startling to see them and left me wondering if this meant an early spring. Previous to this, the earliest I had seen a robin was late February.

As mentioned in a previous post, I have begun baking bread again. Since it’s been so long, a learning curve needs to be renegotiated. So far, my loaves seem to want to deflate in the oven. I’ve gotten new yeast so the problem is likely over-kneading or possibly over-proofing. I do tend to be a little vigorous with kneading so will have to lighten up. The resulting loaves are still perfectly good for eating but not quite what I’m striving for.

One use for less than perfect loaves is to use them to make stuffing mix. A YouTube video by someone styling himself Wyyse Guy had a recipe that looked good. I made a few adjustments, leaving out the carrots and egg. There’s no need to wait for the bread go stale, you can just dry it out in the oven. As it was always my mother’s custom to add giblet meat to her stuffing mix (she used Bells Stuffing Mix for her breading), I saw a chance to use up the chicken livers I had bought at the local farmers’ market over the summer. After cooking and grinding up a few, I added them to the mix I had, along with the cooking water. Baking it all in a casserole dish produced some very pleasing results.

Well, that’s all for now. Have a good February.

Looking Over October

With Halloween on the horizon, it’s worth looking back over the past month. October is one of those transition months, where late summer and early winter duke it out. Global warming has pushed the first frost date into October instead of mid to late September, the way it used to be when I was young. Not that I’m complaining, mind you. A few extra pleasant sunny days are always welcome. It also extends the growing season a few weeks longer. My calendula has been faithfully blooming, though thanks to the light frosts of last week, insect pollinators have largely vanished. A pot of johnny-jump-ups that I had dumped into the garden since it looked like the plants were winding down, instead has put out a new crop of small bright flowers. A very nice surprise for so late in the season.

Still all good things come to an end. Columbus Day weekend is usually considered the end of the summer tourist season with a brief respite before the skiing season starts. Tourists come for a look at the fall foliage. It’s always a busy long weekend but this past holiday stood out for the shocking hordes of leaf-peepers it brought. Franconia Notch was apparently the go-to place to see and everyone must have decided to come on the same day.

The above is an image taken by a hiker showing how packed things were. Some locals who had come were shocked by the enormous number of people.

Artist’s Bluff (shown above) was filled with humanity and if you look closely, you will not see any protective barrier at the cliff’s edge, nothing to stop some idiot from falling over it. Fortunately no one was injured but some locals who had come for the view had difficulty enjoying themselves. WMUR interviewed one woman who stated she felt unsafe with so many people jostling and elbowing up and down the trail. And who could blame her?

Such huge numbers of people also meant a lot of trash was left on the trail. Two employees from the Tramway took it upon themselves to go up and brought out several large bags of rubbish, ranging from plastic water bottles to used disposable diapers. It was great that they were conscientious enough to do this, but it shouldn’t have fallen upon them to collect trash. The tourists themselves should have cleaned up after themselves.

This is a problem afflicting all tourist attractions ranging from Mount Fuji to the beaches of Bali, not just in terms of trash but in the vast press of humanity. Everyone wants to see the beauty of nature but in such large numbers, the risk is that they will love it to death. It might be useful to come during the off season, but if everybody decides to do that, we’re no better off than we were before. One solution might be charging a fee to enter the favored spot but of course this blocks out people who can’t afford it. Another is to limit the number of people who can enter the tourist attraction at any one time. The risk here is disappointing people who might have to call ahead to see if they have any chance of getting in. There probably is no perfect solution to this dilemma.

Perhaps we might benefit by simply staying closer to home and discovering the beauty and occasional surprises of our own local area. While out walking last week, I came across a stone wall abutting someone’s property. On the stone wall was an open padlock someone had forgotten. No one has touched it as it is no use without the key. But someone found a use. A very tiny someone.

Within the red circle I drew on the photo is a very, very, VERY tiny spider, barely visible even with the arrow pointing at it and the circle around it. Its body wasn’t much longer than one of my eyelashes. Even this late in the season, this minuscule being was spinning a web on the padlock, showing that hope springs eternal.

Enjoy the rest of this fall and be sure to keep your eyes peeled. You never know what you’re going to see.

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