The Coming Post

Yes, there will be another post. As of this morning, it looks to be coming soon. My absence here has not been a dearth of things to write about, not even a spidearth. Perhaps we can attribute it rather to an EXCESS of things to write about. Much to say, little time to say it. Or, as another blogger tells me "time, discipline, and motivation." Or we could blame it on the tablet, and free downloadable books. (I have 14 draft posts sitting out there in limbo, and 6 of them were created this year. Good grief!)

Tsk, tsk... an entire month without a post! There goes my 2011 record. I've failed to announce the latest Berry-Go-Round, and even the one before that! September's edition of the plant carnival was posted at A DC Birding Blog (yes, plants and birds are related), and August's was nicely handled by Dave at Osage Orange.

Osage Orange tells me October 6 was Poetry Day. Well, missed it by a couple. By way of explanation, the coming post is part Irish blessing, part catalog of the summer's experiences and encounters, a quick review of all the things I'll probably never get around to blogging about. But wish I would...

Today, this morning, frost is creeping up on us, and there's this weird white stuff in the air. We're perched on our usual line between places that only get wet and places that get actual accumulations. No wonder I'm blogging; I always seem to be motivated by that weird white stuff. Because of the weather, I'm finding myself in a reflective mood, perhaps almost a depressive one. It's not a cheery day out there or in here, but after many many many perfect bright-blue 80-degree Colorado days, we're due for a change.

Back soon! Promise!

The Mysterious Internet

It's a tangled web out there, for sure, and its ways are beyond mysterious. The Phytophactor offered kind words about FF re: the latest Berry-Go-Round, prompting me to go look at my own stats again. I'd decided last time that this is a futile exercise yielding little in the way of intelligible results. It still is. And, of course, it's hard to tell whether people are satisfied with what they find when they arrive.

Speaking of the Phactor, don't miss his posts from early this week on the evolutionary timeline, and one on endangered plants. He's been very prolific lately, and these two are great.

But I just know you'll be interested in some fascinating details about the appeal of Foothills Fancies to the online world at large. Here's a list of my all time top posts (all time being "since Blogger installed stats" or mid-2010).

• Scales and Tails
  
• Best Botany Blog
  
• My Kingdom for a Domain…
  
• Whatever Happened to Sphenopsida
  
• High Color: Alpine Tundra
  
• Live at Bear's Lair
  
• Tree Cholla
  
• Stuff Plants Do
  
• Summer Feast BGR
  
• Snowy Sunday Visitors

The moral of that story is that old posts live for...ever. A sobering thought. The twin two-year old posts on obsolete plants (Sphenopsida, 27 in Feb) and obsolete taxonomy ("My Kingdom...", 38 in Feb) are still tops in this past month's searches. Several people wanted to know about Zosterophyllum and Asteroxylon? If FF comes up, that surely speaks to the paucity of information out there on fossil plants.

It's heartening to know that people are also out there looking for botany blogs. That means I should be doing more botany, right? (We all should...) A little post I wrote five years ago, simply pointing to the wonderful Botany Photo of the Day is still a top-notch vote-getter.

How do people find us? It's clear from the above list that participating in carnivals adds to one's visibility, as most of those posts were included in one carnival or another. Google, in all its guises, is always a great source of traffic; this month the new listing FF got from Online College Courses is already being productive.

Other bloggers, and being well connected, also help. I already miss the Watcher, who sent more people my way than anyone until he stopped posting one month ago today. Inexplicably moving to the top of the referral list lately is the terrific bird-blogger Bootstrap Analysis. As far as I can tell, my only acquaintance with her was a post I submitted to I-and-the-Bird FIVE years ago! (Thanks, Nuthatch!)

But the all-time top of the Foothills Fancies hit parade, with more than twice as many visits as any other post, is the delightful Scales and Tails, documenting a fascination with snakes we might not have expected. In particular, strong in the search terms are things like "baby rattlesnake identification," "images of baby prairie rattlesnake," and so on. (We can only hope these weren't emergency searches.) Thanks go to this little guy. I hope you're doing well, sweetie, wherever you are.

I think I feel a rattlesnake post coming on... stay tuned!

Watching the Watcher

Over at Watching the World Wake Up, the Watcher recently completed a marvelous four-part Thanksgiving chronicle that dredges up all kinds of memories of the more adventurous days of my own youth. He covers dinosaur tracks, muddy roads, rock art, geology, and of course desert botany in this quadruple tour-de-force. I'm in awe of his blogging talent, so, yes, I'm a Watcher Watcher.

Watcher's contributions to the blog world include the invention of the tangent and the nested tangent, without which his posts would be eversomuch more straightforward and possibly even dull. Some visitors flock to his site just for the tangents! And, of course, the allusions to Selma Hayek.

And his posts are LONG! Settle in, it's going to be a substantial visit, but you will come away having learned some remarkable tidbit of esoteric knowledge you would never have thought to look up for yourself. On average (n=1), his posts are 12,500 pixels long, or 2,300 words (n=2). I thought that chicken post below was long; it comes in at less than half the length of a typical Watcher post.

Nor does the Watcher neglect illustration. If he fails (on the rare occasion it's been known to happen) to capture a photograph, he will create an Awesome Graphic, an art form he invented (along with the subcategories Expand-o-graphic and Action Graphic). Some complex concepts, of course, demand an Awesome Graphic and could not be otherwise illustrated. [This one is from his post on seeing the Mexican flag come to life.]

I don't know how he does it all, but I'm glad he does!!

He can't stop, apparently, with knowing that birds have pentachromatic vision, or that some, but not all, Springbeauties are tetraploid. Instead he takes his readers into the nitty gritty of what that means, plumbing the depths of whatever science (astronomy, psychology, physiology, genetics, geology, archaeology, zoology, botany) presents itself. It's like he has a post for everything!

Want to know How Magpies build their nests or All about Greek Mythology? There's a post for that!

One aspect of the Watcher's work, however, fills me with dismay. He thinks of his blog as a "project" that will, one day, be "completed." On that day, the blog world will be an emptier place.

———

Off Topic: The little sponges we are as children just soak up all kinds of stuff, and just thinking of writing this post brought back memories of the Watchbird. For those whose childhood was more deprived, here's a bit about the Watchbird:

In the baby boom years, I suppose parents needed all the help they could get rearing responsible offspring of good character. Some of that "help" came from the Watchbird, a cartoon created by Munro Leaf to remind us how to behave. Apparently some of my peers have more sinister recollections of the Watchbird, but I (of course) was trying to be good, and the Watchbird regularly showed us examples of bad children: the Whinie, the Sneaky, the Pusher... (honestly, I've forgotten all of them!) I guess you could say it was negative reinforcement, and maybe that's why it's frowned upon today. Like spankings and other forms of archaic parental guidance, however, it was effective! Contrariwise, as Hootsbuddy recalls:

Maybe it was this early training that made part of me into a Watchbird. I dunno. In any case, it missed the mark. I was suppose to identify with someone in the cartoon, not the Watchbird. I guess even at that early age I was more prone to judging than being judged.

(As long as I'm being quantitative, I should mention that Hootsbuddy's Place (which I found on a "Watchbird" search) looks pretty interesting. He managed to rack up more than 3,000 posts featuring all kinds of commentary in less than six years... and then stopped abruptly in mid-2009, as we all probably will someday.)

My Visit to the Book Cliffs
At any rate, the Watcher's posts quite often strike a chord. This last one especially brought back days of trucking around the Book Cliffs on (gulp) synfuels reconnaissance. (Ah, the last big boom; those were the days, eh?) I remember two special events. [Pic right, not mine.]

Watcher reports: "Once you get off the asphalt, Mancos is both wonderful and horrible. In dry conditions, graded dirt roads across the Mancos are often smooth and fast, allowing a passenger car to zip comfortably along at 40 or 50 MPH. But when wet, forget it." (Whence he goes on to explain, in true Watcher-style, about smectitic clays.)

I can't say I remember that it was Mancos Shale we were driving on, but I do remember "smooth and fast." As you approach the Book Cliffs (which in my day were apparently closer to I-70 than they are now), you start winding around the toes of the cliffs. Cruising around one such hairpin, a bit too fast probably, I found myself face to face with a huge logging truck (he was probably also moving right along). We both slammed on the brakes, and came to a mutual stop with our side mirrors almost touching. Whew! Survived that one...

While in the Cliffs, we had a good time cruising across washes, which of course are more fun if they have water in them. If you went fast enough (it was a rental vehicle, and I was, after all, young), you could get a good splash going!

Anyway, when we left to return to Grand Junction, it was beginning to snow a bit. In fact, it quickly became a whiteout, though I don't remember that there was much accumulation. As we drove south toward I-70, confident it was out there somewhere, a helicopter landed next to the road to ask us for directions!! In the decades since, I can't say that's ever happened again!

So, Watcher, as always "Thanks for the memories!"

Adventures in Geo-Browsing

You never know where the current edition of Berry-Go-Round (now hosted by Laurent at Seeds Aside) will take you!

After browsing several of the fascinating offerings, my love of lichens took me to Botany for Geologists where David at History of Geology does a great job of explaining lichenometry, or the use of lichens to date exposed rock surfaces.

In his sidebar, I discovered Eat.Sleep.Geology., by a neogeoblogger whose nom de plume is GeoGirl. She soon led me to the geologists' blog carnival over at The Accretionary Wedge, which provided great ideas for future Berries as well as a long list of future reading.

Geology class at a local outcrop.

David also tipped me off to Riparian Rap, whose series on geomorphically incorrect art is mind-bending entertainment.

As always in the blog world, you can make your way around the planet and back again in a few clicks, and learn a lot about how it's put together in the process.

Two for The Watcher

Sometimes the work of a fellow blogger so moves us we simply must comment. Other times, it may trigger something that's too involved for the mere comments field on the subject post. Such has been the case lately for me. A couple of The Watcher's recent posts triggered memories of a favorite author, Loren Eiseley. I've no idea whether The Watcher reads or has ever read Eiseley, but I want to share a couple tidbits of Eiseley's work with you.

Inspired by The Watcher’s post of December 30th on why birds are “God’s favorite children”, I wanted to contribute another reason—they OWN the planet.

It happens every spring and nobody seems to take any notice at all. There are no congressional investigations, no cross-examinations of witnesses before television, no one hurls himself out of a window. Nevertheless, it happens every spring and there is no doubt that it smacks of sheer communism. I refer to the expropriation and reassignment of land in these states and the incredible way in which even city properties fall victim to it. Yesterday morning I could hear conversations about it just outside my window, and somebody over my rooftop was expropriating in at least half-mile sections. … The whole thing smacks of subversion and disrespect for the laws of private property. It may well merit an investigation. It should begin by a thorough and painstaking investigation of the birds.

—Loren Eiseley, from The Lost Notebooks of Loren Eiseley (K. Heuer, ed.)

I suspect he was under the influence of the McCarthy hearings when he wrote that one, don't you? Perhaps that explains why this vignette was (I believe) never published. Fellow Eiseley fan Gary Raham (see below) suspects Eiseley would not have wanted the unfinished material in his notebooks to see light, but such is often the fate of the illustrious. I only regret that I can't share the incredible sketches of The Lost Notebooks with you as well. If you're a follower of Eiseley's work, you need to see this book!

Inspired by The Watcher’s post of January 18th, in which he waxes poetic about exozoochory (we love that word!), here's Eiseley’s own eloquent testimony on seed dispersal:

When I climb I almost always carry seeds with me in my pocket. Often I like to carry sunflower seeds, or an acorn, or any queer “sticktight” that has a way of gripping fur or boot tops as if it had a deliberate eye on the Himalayas and meant to use the intelligence of others to arrive at them. More than one lost mountaineer lying dead at the bottom of a crevasse has proved that his sole achievement in life was to inch some plant a half-mile further toward the moon. His body may have been scarcely cold before that illicit transported seed had been getting a foothold beneath him on a patch of stony ground or writhing its way into a firm engagement with the elements on the moisture of his life’s blood. I have carried such seeds up the sheer walls of mesas and I have never had illusions that I was any different to them than a grizzly’s back or a puma’s paw.

—Loren Eiseley, from The Lost Notebooks of Loren Eiseley (K. Heuer, ed.), though I suspect this one may have been published in an essay somewhere

Leaving aside his disregard for the evils of introducing plants where plant dictators (like FF) think they don’t belong, I’ve always appreciated Eiseley’s writing for its poetic combination of science, introspection, observation, and outright nature mysticism. It’s an appreciation I share with one of my research enthusiasms, Paul B. Sears, who wrote in a review of Eiseley’s The Mind as Nature:

It is well that we are increasingly respectful of quantitative method and its results. But this respect should never blind us to the fact that no man [or other living thing] is a mere statistic. There is an essential place, not least in science, for those precisely individual accounts, too often lightly—even scornfully—dismissed as “anecdotal.”

—Paul B. Sears, 1963, The Exception is the Rule, American Scholar 32(2):321-322.

Foothills Fancies, you’ve perhaps noticed, is all about anecdotal! Though far less eloquently than Loren Eiseley, who by the way is the topic of an upcoming talk here in the area (and wasn't that a smooth seque):

Wednesday, Jan. 27, 7:00 p.m., "Fireside Chat" sponsored by the Friends of Dinosaur Ridge: “Loren Eiseley – A Poet Wearing the Fox Skins of a Scientist,” by Gary Raham; Dinosaur Ridge Visitor Center, 16831 W. Alameda Parkway, Morrison.

Loren Eiseley (1907-1977) wrote for Harper's Magazine and Atlantic Monthly, penned best selling books, both non-fiction and poetry, but also served as Provost and Benjamin Franklin Professor of Anthropology at the University of Pennsylvania. In 1960, his The Firmament of Time only lost out to the Rise and Fall of the Third Reich for the National Book Award. As a graduate student he discovered a Folsom Point embedded in the vertebra of the extinct Bison antiquus at the Lindenmeier site north of Fort Collins. Yet he struggled his entire career to find the balance between the objective pursuit of science and exercising his ability to explain and dramatize science with the written word. He felt awe contemplating deep time and man's place in the natural world. This event is not recommended for children.

Note: Illustrations, from a collection I did years ago, are copyright S.L. White and not to be used without permission, as are photographs. Thanks!

No Resolutions

Perhaps I should have warned you I've been contemplating a new look for Foothills Fancies this year. Or at least a new color scheme, something a bit more wintry. It'll take me a while to get used to this, but here it is.

The entire day has been "lost" in fiddling around with the computer. Fun, even enlightening, but not productive, in the traditional sense of the word. It's been a kind of hole-up, watch-the-temperature-drop, and go-for-the-cabin-fever kind of day anyway.

I can't tell you all the amazing things I'm planning to blog about in 2010, but I can show you. Maybe. (Hey, a girl can dream.) We'll be crossing our fingers, but not making any promises. Life has a way of intervening, sometimes with unexpected opportunities that can take over.

2009 was that kind of a year, so I'm learning not to make predictions. As blogging years go here at FF, the results weren't half bad, at least numerically. (No comment on overall quality.) Sixty-one posts here makes it a close third (out of four years), but 2009 did set one new record! It's the first year where at least one post managed to appear in each calendar month. Wow... no extended hiatuses, despite all that's been going on. I know that's stretching, but I'll look for achievement where I can!

Just so you know, though, even living in "exciting times," I'd rather be blogging more often. Whatever's going on, I do take daily pleasure in checking out the informative and entertaining and top-notch work the rest of you are posting. Thanks for all the good times and great reading!

News for Carnival Lovers

Carnivals in the blog world are, in my book, a much more pleasant experience than those crowded, noisy events we have in the "real" world. (Oh wait, maybe I'm thinking of circuses.)

In any case, we have two new blog carnivals to anticipate with the New Year. First is House of Herps, devoted to our favorite scaly and slimy beings, the reptiles and amphibians. The first edition will be out in... oh! This very week—on or before Friday. Good cold-blooded reading for the weekend. Why a herp carnival? Noting the lack, the founders say:

So we decided to change that. Amber of Birder’s Lounge and I (Jason of xenogere) have conspired together to kick off a celebration of all things herpetological.

The invention of House of Herps was aided and abetted by Ted of Beetles in the Bush. Now that someone's taken up the herp challenge, Ted's inspired to do the same for his favorite insects, the beetles, at An Inordinate Fondness. That carnival will launch in February.

Please note: Nature bloggers are welcome at these carnivals; they're not just for specialists!

Here at home, I haven't been entirely neglecting my nature observations. Inspired by the Geminids, I've been doing a bit of stargazing and learning a few new constellations. In the works are some Awesome Watcher-style Graphics, so we'll see. Nor have I forgotten the spider post I'm supposed to be working on. Hmmm...

I did manage to submit a post from last summer for House of Herps, and there may be hope of a new plant post before the next Berry-Go-Round rolls around. And, of course, now I'm going to have to start learning beetles! Well, come summer, that is.

Here's my entry, from back last spring, for House of Herps, which is now up at House of Herps #1.

Morning Scold; Power of the Internet

Yesterday I received constant scolding from the magpies when I went to feed the chickens. As I bent to fill a feeder, I heard clumsy flapping above me. No wonder it was so noisy! Three baby magpies just over my head, holding tight to the branches of their chosen security tree. Must be the first day or so out of the nest.

Same thing today… it’s bad enough to get scolded by Orioles when the hummingbird feeder runs dry, but now this! Here are 13 seconds of magpie scolding for your listening pleasure. I was lucky—my cat just looked at one of the babies strolling on the ground, and the parents chased him straight out of the yard. Parent on the right, babies hidden among branches in photo left. Can you see the 3rd one below the others?  

Because the babies are huge, and closely resemble the parents, you might want a couple tricks. I have two: the shorter stubby tail compared to the adult’s flowing one, the only long-tailed bird in most of the U.S.* And baby lips, nicely displayed in this portrait of baby #2. 

As far as I can tell, the parents aren’t feeding them, just keeping an eye out that they’re safe.** The babies are trying to figure out the sunflower and suet feeders.

In fact, it’s a complete zoo out there. Feathers zooming around everywhere, yellow, orange, pretty amazing. Here’s a quick inventory, some of which will have to be added to the May bird list.

To be honest, some of them aren’t zooming, they’re walking around looking for whatever it is towhees and doves and such look for.

Right now, in the yard:

• Bullock’s Oriole, 2 males, 1 female
• Black-billed Magpie, mom, dad, 2-3 kids
• Scrub Jays, 2
• American Goldfinch, male
• Spotted Towhee, 3
• House Finch
• Mourning Dove, 2
• English Sparrow, male
• Broad-tailed Hummingbird, female
• Common Grackle, 1

Darling Husband, just back from Moab a few days ago, was just commenting on how nice it is to be back amid all our birds! (And we still have some green on the hills, too!) I guess the desert was pretty quiet compared to our yard this time of year.  

Power of the Internet

Tuesday I had a powerful reminder of how not-alone one is online. Sometimes it seems pretty quiet here in blog-land, but within hours of posting the Jelly Lichens story, two interesting things happened. First, I got an email from the lichen curator who discovered the new lichen I mentioned. Very cool of him to stop by, but I can’t figure out how he found out I mentioned him. Second, in attempting to figure out how he discovered the post, I googled “jelly lichens,” and, imagine that, my post came up #5! Right after something called arkive.org and the USDA Plants profile (who knew they had lichens!), and ahead of my favorite lichen site, Lichen.com. I’m still baffled.

 

So, just remember, next time you google some obscure term or phrase, you could end up at the blog of some highly authoritative fancier of the item in question!

——
* According to my book, if you're in Texas, you might also get to see the Scissor-tailed Flycatcher; the Fork-tailed Flycatcher occasionally visits Florida. The rest of us will have to make do with Magpies. By the way, "long" in this case means longer than the body.
** Wrong again; the parents are still feeding them. Finally witnessed it late yesterday. See what I mean, authoritative! [grin]

For the Record: 2008

[This is one of those "blog-keeping" posts that's likely to be of interest only to yours truly. Feel free to peek and yawn, or to move on to something more interesting.]

According to Blogger, I’ve posted only 69 times on Foothills Fancies in 2008, not a terrific record for what’s supposed to be my “primary” blog. Twenty-seven of those posts have been written since Watcher nudged me to get going again in November, and 42 were in the first half of the year. I love blogging, but on the whole, it’s been mostly a winter sport to date.

However, in my defense, I have been active on other blogs, and this year I’ve written almost as many posts for other purposes (91, half of which were for work) as I have for my own (103). In 2006, I took to blogging with gusto, and set up blogs for every reason I could think of, eleven in total. Some of them never really took, and today four of them are completely dormant, with no posts since 2006. Two of those were set up for time-specific purposes and have run out, e.g., a trip blog that began and ended in 2006 with a respectable 68 posts, 55 of which were written by me. Other attempts at team-blogging have proven unproductive; no one I’ve invited takes to it quite like I do, but I keep having high hopes. (I even invited Cat Woman to help here at FF, but so far she’s resisted successfully.)

2007 was a highly dormant blog year, with only 51 total posts written for six blogs, including two new ones I created for nonpersonal reasons (Lariat Loop and Mountain Parks, see sidebar).

In 2008, three new blogs were created. One, a memorial blog for a friend who died last summer, seems to have run its course but remains as a static tribute. Another is a project blog that has yet to truly catch on. The third is a place blog that I will get back to someday. The memorial blog took off briefly in June and July, concatenation of the project and work blogs created a substantial spike in August, and the work blog continued strong in September.

So, rather than the 5-month hiatus apparent from the post record here at FF, there has been no true lull, and only two slow months, April and October. I'm doing better than I think! It's a bit slow starting this year, so far, but stay tuned, hope springs eternal...

Blog-Keeping Updates

This month's edition of Berry-Go-Round, the carnival of all things Plantae, will be hosted any moment at Catalogue of Organisms... I'm as far behind in carnivals as I am in writing about plants, but as BGR will be hosted here at Foothills Fancies in December, I'm going to have to catch up fast! If you run across interesting plant blogging, please send me links at ffnaturalist AT gmail DOT com or post them in the comments here.

Pixie at Name That Mushroom has awarded me Brownie Points and over-the-top blog reviews in recognition of my (partial) identification of one of her mushroom photos. Laura, that's above and beyond the call of duty! But many thanks... I look forward to more frequent fungal posts from you over there soon, please!

In my absence, I missed ABC Wednesday's visit to "S"... but you can review the results at S-is-for-Sodalite, and check out one of my favorite minerals at the same time.

Pretty Me! has honored me with a Proximity Award for introducing her to fibs*—her first excellent one is here. This award honors blogs that "invest and believe the PROXIMITY- nearness in space, time and relationships. These blogs are exceedingly charming. These kind bloggers aim to find and be friends. They are not interested in prizes or self-aggrandizement." Now, by the "rules" of blogging, I guess I need to pass the award on to eight others. A tough assignment, as I've been supported and inspired by so many of you! Give me a little time on this, Prati... and thanks!

——
* A form of extended haiku, 6 lines with a 1-1-2-3-5-8 syllable pattern, following the Fibonacci series. See my earlier attempts at this, and regular haiku, here.

The Dark of the Year

How's this for fall color? Taken Wednesday, after a dusting of snow overnight, the early morning light indicates we were still not quite adjusted to the mandated seasonal shift in schedule. Someone is looking for breakfast, but The Husband recently muley-proofed the chicken feeder, so she's come close to the house to scavenge birdseed under the feeders instead.

A new blog-buddy, the Watcher, commented on the fact that Foothills Fancies had "gone dark," with no posts since last May. I quite like the phrase, as if a little light had gone out (in my brain maybe?). I've been thinking a lot in recent months about what, if anything, happens when a blogger stops writing, really stops. How would we know he/she was never coming back? What if said blogger took up elsewhere? It can be tough to track favorite writers down, as I discovered when Crayons left a bad link as a forwarding address. Blogger can be good about protecting our anonymity if we let it. As mine is pretty much shot anyway, I want to let you know that I've set up a new email for blog-business: ffnaturalist@gmail.com.

The fact is, for me, blogging can be a bit of a dark-season passion. Winter inspires reflection, and maybe creates a sense of quieter time for writing. I don't know how I fell off the wagon, as it were, last spring. Certainly not for lack of things to talk about. Once you stop briefly, though, lack of blogging creates its own momentum as you wonder where to take up again, how to catch up on all the experiences not blogged. I suppose we never do. But just for the record, I do believe in blogging, for a number of reasons. And apparently I had a similar hiatus in 2007. Nothing unusual.

A blog I ran into early in my posting career similarly went dark last February, leaving a poignant post. I feared the worst; perhaps she'd never return. If you happen across my path before you check in on Endment again, know that she also is back this week!

The bottom line: My enthusiasm for blogging persists, whether I'm actually doing it or not!

Spring, Distractions, Other Goings On...

Although I've been scarce here lately, I'm getting back in gear, what with Berry-Go-Round coming up in a week or so. Please send contributions by April 25th! Any post on plants is welcome, but especially those on spring wildflowers to help celebrate the seasons. Those who have been working on taxes are out of excuses! See previous post for details.

My focus these last few weeks has been history, with our open house coming up. It happened Saturday (Apr 12th), and I put a report up at Local History Explorer.

It has been decidedly spring-like since Sunday—warm, sunny, and magnetic outdoors. An irresistible pull to go for walks, check out wildflowers, pull some Dalmatian toadflax... I let the black widow loose in the woodpile, optimistically thinking we won't be disturbing her til fall. Yesterday, temperatures reached the mid-80s (high 20s C). Today, "they" tell us, it's back to snow and rain. At least it should bring a little (temporary) relief from the pollen!

Next up is a hike for a Green Mtn. homeowners group this Saturday a.m. I expect more weeds than wildflowers, but hey, it's all educational. As Herb Quarterly reminds me, we could consider them medicinal aids instead of invasive plants; it's all a matter of changing perspective. Isn't everything? Would it be too fatalistic to conclude we will have to get used to this homogenization of ecosystems? I'd like to drop in to Earth Day festivities at Evergreen, too; the new nature center there will be launched.

The Husband has decided we need to have a garden. Oh my. The prospect is appealing, certainly, and an excellent response to his indoctrination by Michael Pollan on the importance of eating well (he's been reading In Defense of Food). The fact that we're on well water, and not much of it, will make the garden of his vision a real challenge. Regardless, among yesterday's errands, I bought seeds. Hope springs eternal.

The snakes have been restless. Must be spring. The smaller one has been eating fairly regularly for a couple of months; the larger has yet to break her seasonal fast. I was hopeful; brought home food yesterday. She curled up in the dish with a few baby mice, but declined to nibble. So it goes. She'll have to decide to eat soon, but her weight is holding so I guess we're okay for the moment.

I spent a couple afternoons helping the Artist take down her bread exhibit at the Conifer Library and set up a new one on fly-fishing. She sent me home with a large shopping bag of dried-out artisan breads in assorted styles, so the chickens have been having a major carb fix. The croissants were greatly favored. The flock is also enjoying occasional forays into the front yard, where there is green grass coming up. I'm testing a theory that they might be good for controlling cheatgrass. The Husband has agreed that we can get new chicks this year, so that means more fresh eggs come fall! (Our 14 aging hens produce only a few eggs a day now...)

That's enough!—just a few of the slices of life around here recently.

Front Range Today; Web of Nature

In the interests of balance, full disclosure, et al., here's a picture of the status quo today. I noticed, putting together the slide show in the sidebar last week, that I have a tendency to take pictures when it's wintry, or green and foggy or drizzly—all the days that are a little out of the ordinary. Well, here's the ordinary. We do, it's true, have a lot of brown. Guess that's why I'm given to photographing the green and white!

Before you get to feeling too sorry for us, I just came in from the back patio, where I was basking in 70 degree sunshine. The official temperature, absent such a protected location, is 62 F (17 C). I'm not complaining—this is the "other" typical weather for the Front Range this time of year. Sometimes our January days are more pleasant than those in March! But they are mostly brown.

I just discovered that the new edition of the Tangled Bank carnival (#97) is up over at The Inoculated Mind, featuring our post on alpine wildflowers, Life on a Cushion. FF is a little late to the party, but thanks TIM, for including us!

Reading around...

In other happy news, while getting reacquainted with the blogosphere of nature, I've made several delightful discoveries, many of which you'll find in the sidebar. As in the ecosystem, it's all about connections. Some of my regularly read blogs introduced me to

Fragments from Floyd,

who introduced me to Via Negativa,

who introduced me to naturalist-writer Marcia Bonta, and so on.

Fred also alerted me to the Nature Blog Network, on which FF is now listed. Which in turn informed me that there's a new carnival for plant lovers at Berry Go Round, the first edition of which is posted at Seedsaside.

You get the picture. It's one giant web of life and energy out there. Drop in and enjoy!

Something New

Yesterday I spent my blogging time experimenting with one of Blogger's new features, the "Slideshow." It never did work. This morning I did the exact same thing I did so many times yesterday, and suddenly we have a recap of the "views from home" that have decorated posts since this blog started almost two years ago (see sidebar). Sunrises and sunsets and all four seasons are represented, beginning in January. Please be patient, it takes a while to load the first time.

At the moment, there are 26 views, with a goodly portion being from January. Longtime readers know that snow is a regular feature—active forms of weather always tempt the camera. June, August, and September are not yet represented, but we'll remedy that this year. (In 2006, my first and most active blogging year, I was gone the entire month of June; I can't explain the absence of August and September.) I have taken the liberty of adding a few unposted photos from earlier years just to round out the annual glimpse of life in the foothills, will add more when I run across them. (And now they've gotten a bit out of order, but at least it's working!)

Nice to know you can teach this old dog new tricks.

By the by, today is my second blogiversary, marking the attempt to learn another new trick. My first-ever post is at Local History Explorer, my experimental testing ground. To date, I've written 260 posts on 13 different blogs, but Foothills Fancies remains in the lead.

The Back-Blog

or Previews of coming attractions?

Almost three-quarters of a year in absentia from Foothills Fancies makes for a new record. It's not one of which I'm particularly proud. But gaps are inevitable, so I'm delighted to join the ranks and share the spirit of Blogging Without Obligation (see sidebar). Let's hope it will help protect you from overly dull routine posts.

Interspersed with current events over the next few weeks, I plan to recreate some of the stories that never did quite make it into cyberspace during my unscheduled disappearance—like a taste of summer in midwinter.

Among these long overdue stories are:

• The fabulous fungal forays of August 2006 and August-September 2007
  
• Adventures in Toadland, also August 2006
  
• More on Maine, July 2006
  
• Ohio and Indiana, June 2007
  
• Return to the alpine and its wildflowers, July-August 2007
  
• Revisiting my lovable lichens, summer 2007
  
• A fern fantasy, summer 2007
  

IF and when these are written, I'll turn the above to-do list into links. Damn the chronology, full speed ahead!

A New Year

and I am, it seems, back to blogging. I thought it was finally time to update the look of Foothills Fancies, so here we are. Let me know what you think. Now that we've crossed that magical line of 100 posts, I've also added a list of labels to sort posts by. You'll find it at the end of the sidebar (right) in case you want to look up your favorite topic.

Having converted this blog into Layout mode, I appreciate your patience while I make a few more adjustments to the sidebar and settings. I'm also excited that my friend Cat Woman may decide to join me! She's a few miles south, more than 1,000 feet higher, a great writer. If she takes the plunge, I'm sure she'll bring new insights and stories, as well as improved reliability. I look forward to introducing her to you soon, and I have a couple of other new ideas to implement this year.

p.s. Suggestions are also always welcome, for post topics or otherwise!

See you tomorrow!

Housekeeping...

Foothills Fancies is starting a whole new year today. I thought we'd have our 100th post up by now, but on March 5th, my computer decided not to cooperate with that plan. For the statistically inclined, this and today's next post are officially the 99th and 100th, but as four are still sitting in drafts, that means we have only reached 96 online entries.

For an entire fortnight I have been computer-free, at least at home. I've gotten to the library a time or two, or taken advantage of brief email checks elsewhere, but for the most part have been cut off from technology. It was an intriguing interlude, but I wish I could report it was productive. Monday night, the good old Vaio came home and got reconnected, so now I'm reconnected with the electronic universe as well. No data was lost in the big box's sojourn with the Geek Squad.

So, did I organize my office? Oh, puh-leeze! Catch up on my housekeeping? Nah... I entertained, most notably a cat, apparently feral, who goes to the vet tomorrow for the appropriate surgery. I did some historical research, especially on old aerial photos. Nothing too exciting, but I did get out on a few hikes that will be grist for future posts. Spring fever is definitely underway-- I almost planted something yesterday!

For those who've had trouble (including me), apparently the "NEW Blogger" enabled comment moderation. It's off now, so you are again free to comment. Thanks for patience!

[Footnote to anonymous commenter on "Here's the Frog": The Jeffco Hikers blog was deleted and I can't get to it anymore. Details for you are on that post next to your comments--or just email me at info@historicmorrison.org, so I can get back to you.]

It's Been Quite a Year...

On the eve of the anniversary of my first-ever blog post, here's a partial record of my record in blogging this past year:

• Local History Explorer started 1.17.06 12 posts
  
  
• Foothills Fancies started 3.20.06 90 posts (to date)
  
  
• Paul B. Sears started 4.26.06 10 posts
  
  
• Romantic Naturalists started 5.29.06 3 posts
  
  
• Eastbound 2006 6.29.06-8.02.06 68 posts

There are a few others I've started, some with other people, but these are the ones most likely to continue... It's intriguing that other people I've tried to work with haven't demonstrated this enthusiasm for blogging.

Why so many blogs? Why not one "whole life" blog, as others have seemed to accomplish? My first thought was I wanted them to be focused (somewhat), and had several very different topics I wanted to talk about. Once I got hooked, of course, blogging seemed the answer to every need for expression! I still seem willing to create new blogs as the occasion arises.

I started blogging for several reasons, and will no doubt continue. FF has been the most "successful" (if that means consistent), but even FF has had long periods of silence. 90 posts in 10 months is not a track record most bloggers would be proud of! I'm okay with it... I needed and enjoyed the process, and it's connected me with lots of good people, new ideas, and great memories.

I'll be staying with it...

Apropos of Nothing...

Why have I not been blogging of late? It’s hard to say, tough to figure out. Maybe the busy-ness of summer, maybe the fact that I am, after years of wishful procrastination, getting organized. Trying to transform my so-called “study” into less of a deep storage cave with a narrow path to the computer, and more of a pleasant work space where I can pursue the passion du jour.

I got a labeler… a used 5-drawer file cabinet, THREE new bookshelves, several boxes of file folders (at the same time!). So why not have high hopes that, this time, I’ll be able to find things without launching a week-long search?

The labeler is especially for the file folders, so one may spontaneously create an appropriate folder in seconds each time the mood strikes or a piece of paper simply must be saved for future retrieval. This morning I thought I might also make labels for each new shelf in hopes of being able to find the books as well as the files. How about simple one-word informal names for the 13 new shelves? The first three led to this haiku:

“green … garden… spirit…”
captures my true life in books
labeling new shelves.

I deeply appreciate universal chaos; perhaps even more than the next person. Why get organized this time, after years of reading self-help books and striving to make time for same? I think because I realize that time is more constrained looking ahead, and can ill afford to be wasted, and I know I have wasted weeks, perhaps months, of the last decade merely looking for misplaced information or objects. Also, facing a new project that will be complex and demanding necessitates better organization and efficiency.

The book that got through to me, I guess, is a borrowed one I read while traveling this summer: Get Organized! By … See, just spent several minutes looking in my notebook for the place I wrote it down! Perfect example of why I needed it. There you go.

Why Blog?

We’re all so busy… who has time for blogging? Evidently, a large number of us do, and we know it’s great. But how do you explain the fascination to someone who hasn't tried it, or doesn’t get it? Here’s my attempt, but I’ll look forward to hearing more ideas from the rest of you. (This post is for those to whom I’ve promised to send my list of interesting links.)

1. You like to write. Some of us can’t help writing. It’s a disease. It may even be infectious, because bloggers seem to inspire each other to write more. Before I joined the blog world, I would have thought writers (and even thinkers) were relatively rare. Now I know better—there are, just in my limited experience, dozens of amazing writers in the blog world. Thank you all!

2. You like to read. Some of us will read cereal boxes if there’s nothing else available. Reading blogs is a far better use of your time.

3. You don't like to write--or read.If you're not into writing, try lurking, being a blog voyeur of sorts. If you don't even like to read, try a photo-blog. Several good ones are listed at Tuesdays Photos.

4. You like people. You meet the nicest people online! Join—or create—a virtual network. Find one person whose blog you like, and let him/her lead you to other like-minded (but very different) individuals. I found a blog carnival, I and the Bird, and met some real birders and great people, like 10,000 Birds, Birdchick, Carel, Coturnix (who recently went pro-blogger), Nuthatch, and Dharma Bums. Endment found me from IATB, and introduced me to Cate the Bean Counter, Willow Grace, DebR, Tammy, Fran, and Susan and Jennifer (see Haiku Monday under #6), among her many fans.

5. You don’t like people, but you want to. The internet, like the world, like life, is filled with the good and bad, the ugly and the beautiful. It is, in short, whatever you choose to make it. If you’re selective, you will find something online that matches (or challenges!) your interests, your biases, your understanding. And helps you grow. Browsing blogs can restore your faith in people. Could probably destroy it too, but I’ve been focusing on uplifting arenas, and I’m charmed by what I find. Please note: Most of my blogging has been science-nature oriented, so you'll have to find your own way in other arenas. Art, culture, politics, crafts, parenting, celebrity, music, cooking, unimaginable diversity!

6. You’re bored. Need something to do? How about Sunday Scribblings, Haiku Monday, Tuesdays Photos, Poetry Thursday, Illustration Friday? That only leaves you Wednesdays and Saturdays to be bored, and a little browsing is likely to fix that as well. (Who could be bored?) Fun and games? Try a meme, like the letter B, or The ABCs of Me, or Wordplay.

7. You’re nosey. Blog-browsing is like eavesdropping on the lives of strangers. We can only learn so much from our one (current) lifetime, why not learn from the lives of others as well? Especially because we can learn things we will never personally experience. The more you learn, the more you blog—and you can share what you learn each week at Life’s Little Lessons.

8. You wish you could travel more. You can, even if you only have a few minutes, go anywhere in the blog world—free! Blogs hosted on blogspot.com often have a small “Next Blog” button at the top of the page. Click on it, and see where you end up! Can’t read Malaysian? Click again for another random page somewhere else in the world. Or use the “Search” feature to find blogs from Tasmania or Lapland. Remember, one nifty blog leads to many others (think Six Degrees of Separation). In 3 clicks, I think it was from I and the Bird, I discovered Baghdad Burning, an inside look at what’s really happening in Iraq that the newscasts aren’t telling us. We all should be reading this!

9. You want to escape reality. You could use the “Search” button again to find fantasies or science fiction worlds. But remember, someone else’s reality can also be your fantasy—see number 7.

10. You want to immerse yourself in reality. If you think your life is too boring, start a blog. Then you’ll have to find something interesting to do, just to blog about it!

11. You could use a little therapy. As someone said “I write to find out what I’m thinking.” Expressing yourself in a blog, as in a journal or a letter to a friend, can help you figure out what you’re about cheaper than—and probably faster than—conventional psychotherapy.

Okay, this has taken most of the morning, so breakfast will now have to be lunch. More links another time--this is more than enough to get you started!