#phenology If we fill it, will they come? If they throw it, will we come?

As one day in early April or late March held the promise of late Spring, today's weather foretells early Summer. Meteorologically speaking, that's only a little more than three weeks away. I've seen reports of orioles in the general vicinity, but no sign of any yet at our feeders, nor have we seen any hummingbirds yet. Maybe today's warmth will attract them? Since the little hummers seem to think that the oriole nectar feeder is for them, the grape nectar feeder has been complemented this year with a grape jelly feeder for orioles. We're hoping repurposing the meal worm feeder works better than last year's effort with dried meal worms. Can't be worse unless it attracts bears instead of or in addition to orioles.

female oriole at "oriole" nectar feeder

Photo by J. Harrington

This afternoon is the start of The 24th Annual St Croix Valley Pottery Tour and Sale. We're planning on stopping at at least one or two of the studios later today. If you come to the valley, remember there are some major, but readily manageable, detours on Highway 8 going into and coming out of Taylors Falls.

male hummingbird at "oriole" nectar feeder

Photo by J. Harrington

I wonder how many of our local potters have a similar respect for their basic material as Native American potters have? From my brief conversations with a few I know, and some limited reading, I know St. Croix Valley potters see clay as more than just a raw material. The following Hopi poem is part of a longer series titled

'T SÖQA T AWALAWU

(This Clay Sings)

A MEASURE OF EARTH
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

We, the potters, are respectful of our clay.
I know that some of this clay may even contain the dust of my ancestors...
so how respectful I must be.

And I think, perhaps I too might become part of a vessel, some day!
What a thought... to become useful again and to reflect the Creator's beauty and love!
As I climb over the mesas and through the washes looking for clay,

I realize that there have been many before me who have taken the same steps
and have made the same search... and have seen the same beauty....
and I know that I am not alone in this search...

For I feel that I am one with the clay... one with my Creator...
one with every living thing.... even the grains of sand.


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Live off the interest, not the principal

Last night when I went to bed, the pear tree blossoms were all wrapped up tight in their buds. This morning many of the buds have burst into flowers. There must have been an overnight visit from the flower-opening fairies.

pear tree blossoms

Photo by J. Harrington

We've added a meal worm feeder, full of rehydrated meal worms, for the bluebirds and orioles; a hummingbird feeder is full and hanging out front and we're moving into a Summerish mode after yesterday's warm temperatures. The Daughter Person and Mr. Daughter Person (I'll get in trouble for that) bought, filled and hung a nectar feeder in hopes of attracting orioles. The aesthetics of grape-colored nectar in a bright orange based feeder leaves a lot to be desired, but we'll see if it works. It looks as if the local gray squirrels have been sampling the meal worms so that feeder will probably get moved to someplace less readily accessible by rodents.

Earth's only real source of energy

Photo by J. Harrington

We had a family conversation last night about clothes lines and clothes dryers and drying clothes. I started from a perspective that the younger generation should be more concerned about global warming and relying on electric dryers than about road dust collecting on their line-dried clothes. As we continued to talk, it occurred to me that, if all of our electricity came from renewables, much of my perspective on "clothes lines to save the world" would be unneeded. I suppose it's too much to hope for that our utilities might wake up some day and see renewables as a major marketing strategy. Instead, Xcel is fussing about oversized community solar gardens. There does seem to be an unfortunate direct correlation between the size of an organization and the ossification of its corporate thinking, not that small organizations and individuals, large and small, aren't capable of egregious stupidity. If you don't believe me, check the Star Tribune's comment section on almost any story they run. I can't decide if most of the commenters are posting intentional troll-bait or are really as clueless as they seem. (I'll probably get in trouble for that too.) I seem to be moving from my Winter funk to my Summer feist as rapidly as the weather patterns are changing. Change can be good. Maybe I can find some "eye-opening fairies" to visit utility executives during the night.

Mechanism

By A. R. Ammons 

Honor a going thing, goldfinch, corporation, tree,

          morality: any working order,

       animate or inanimate: it

has managed directed balance,

          the incoming and outgoing energies are working right,

       some energy left to the mechanism,

some ash, enough energy held

          to maintain the order in repair,

       assure further consumption of entropy,

expending energy to strengthen order:

          honor the persisting reactor,

       the container of change, the moderator: the yellow

bird flashes black wing-bars

          in the new-leaving wild cherry bushes by the bay,

       startles the hawk with beauty,

flitting to a branch where

          flash vanishes into stillness,

       hawk addled by the sudden loss of sight:

honor the chemistries, platelets, hemoglobin kinetics,

          the light-sensitive iris, the enzymic intricacies

       of control,

the gastric transformations, seed

          dissolved to acrid liquors, synthesized into

       chirp, vitreous humor, knowledge,

blood compulsion, instinct: honor the

          unique genes,

       molecules that reproduce themselves, divide into

sets, the nucleic grain transmitted

          in slow change through ages of rising and falling form,

       some cells set aside for the special work, mind

or perception rising into orders of courtship,

          territorial rights, mind rising

       from the physical chemistries

to guarantee that genes will be exchanged, male

          and female met, the satisfactions cloaking a deeper

       racial satisfaction:

heat kept by a feathered skin:

          the living alembic, body heat maintained (bunsen

       burner under the flask)

so the chemistries can proceed, reaction rates

          interdependent, self-adjusting, with optimum

       efficiency—the vessel firm, the flame

staying: isolated, contained reactions! the precise and

          necessary worked out of random, reproducible,

       the handiwork redeemed from chance, while the

goldfinch, unconscious of the billion operations

          that stay its form, flashes, chirping (not a

       great songster) in the bay cherry bushes wild of leaf. 

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Thanks for visiting. Come again when you can.
Please be kind to each other while you can.