welcome home

today my son arrived home for a one-week spring break visit from nyu. he’s been away for his first semester of college since january. i am not sure i can put into words the transformation that has occurred in only two months. i feel as though i sent off a boy, and a man returned home. it sounds melodramatic, i know, but still the change has been significant. our friend erik, who knows our son well, said he was a pilot light waiting to be lit. it’s the perfect metaphor. i am so excited to spend this week with him–he is the same person he has always been, and still somehow entirely new at the same time. not unlike these winter stems–wholly themselves, yet different.

liking lichen

lichens are miniature ecosystems made of fungus and an algae and/or cyanobacteria. these different life forms work very closely together, with the algae or cyanobacteria sitting inside the fungus. the algae or cyanobacteria provide the fungus with sugars made from sunlight, and the fungus provides the home for both of them. lichens get their nutrients from the air. because lichens have no roots , they cannot filter what they absorb, so whatever is in the air is taken straight inside. if there are pollutants, it can accumulate in the lichen and can become toxic very quickly. next time you are on a walk, take a look around for the types of lichen that grow in your area. as a rule of thumb, the smaller the size and the fewer the variety of lichens in an area, the more polluted is the environment.

common sunburst lichen (Xanthoria parietina)

symbiotic existence

there’s a reason we notice lichens more in late fall and winter than we do the rest of the year. lichens get a whole lot more sunshine when the trees are leafless, and the added photosynthesis brightens their colors. as i have mentioned before, lichens on your trees are a sign of a healthy ecosystem as lichens are very sensitive to pollution. so if you see them on your trees, just enjoy them. they do not harm the trees in any way. they serve as a food source and habitat for many animals such as deer, birds, and rodents. they provide nesting materials for birds. they protect trees and rocks from extreme elements such as rain, wind, and snow. and they can be used in making dyes, perfumes, and in traditional medicines. lichens rock.

winter branch with lichens

a palette all its own

river birch grows all over the eastern united states from minnesota to massachusetts to florida to louisiana. it is one of the few heat-tolerant birches in a family of mostly cold-weather trees. i’ver been starting at this photo trying to name all the colors i see in the bark: ivory, rust, cinnamon, salmon, pink, gray, brown, chestnut, copper, russet, tan, terracotta, amber, ochre…clearly, i am smitten with the palette. but also the texture of this photo too. how badly do you want to reach in there, and peel off a little bit of paper? and maybe tuck it into a journal as a little memento of your trip to the walker art center with your friends visiting from france (which is exactly what i did on sunday).

river birch bark (Betula nigra)

the cruelest month

theres’s no doubt about it, march is the cruelest month.

thank you all for your feedback about what you would like to hear more or/less on i these daily missives. i will summarize it soon. but right now i must sit by the fire and stare at the embers for a few hours. we had visitors from france staying with us for 4 days, and i just dropped them off at the airport. they don’t speak english, so my brain is as fatigued as these winter stems. jusqu’à demain…

winter stems with snow