Schlumbergera bridgesii

We recently learned that the Christmas cactus at the library may be fifty years old. It is very large and has thick woody stems in the pot. This year the cactus bloomed for Christmas, and since I have a very small, young Christmas cactus that did not bloom, I decided to learn how to get it to bloom for next Christmas

Fortunately, the book I was currently reading, A Field Guide to the Familiar: Learning to Observe the Natural World by Gale Lawrence, has a short chapter on Christmas cactus. She says that the scientific name for the cactus is Schlumbergera bridgesii. If you search the Internet for this, you find that there are other species of plants called Christmas cactus with different scientific names. I am going to stick with her designation.

Ignoring for now the interesting information about Christmas cacti that Lawrence has in her book, I'll only quote her paragraph on getting the cactus to bloom for Christmas:

.....you must slow down your watering in September, giving your plant just enough water to keep it from shriveling and allowing it to rest for six to eight weeks. If you have a room that doesn't get used after dark in the fall, you can station the resting plant there. Otherwise you'll have to cover it each evening to assure it at least thirteen hours of uninterrupted darkness. If you can't control the light, perhaps you can manipulate the temperature. At a cool 50-55°F (10-13°C), the Christmas cactus will produce buds no matter how much light it gets.

December 3, 2010

I moved my cactus into our bedroom because it is unheated. I did not control the light and I did not moderate the temperature — and I have no blossoms. Next year I will do the right thing.

December 15, 2010

Gale Lawrence retired from UVM and developed two web sites. They have not been updated since the early 2000s, but are worth looking at. She also has links to other natural history books and sites. Visit her at The Naturalist's Almanac and Book of Days and at The Vermont Almanac. Lawrence is the author of four books and two of them are at the Barton Public Library.

My Christmas Cactus Set on Flickr

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Barton Public Library blog

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The photo above is a photograph taken from the library parking lot when we were beginning to make our bug shirts. We heard thunder and moved inside. Click here to view another, later photo of this storm.

The storm was so violent that it took down one of the trees in front of the library. All of us had decided to wait out the storm because the wind was so violent that the windows of the library were bulging slightly. We had a great time that hour all together with the shelves of books.

A storm earlier that day (Friday, July 18) caused lightening to strike the bell tower of the Sheffield Federated Church. These photos are Wingnut's photos when we visited the church on Saturday to pay our respects — as did many other people.



Technorati Tags: Barton Public Library, Sheffield Federated Church
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On Friday, July 18, Jerry Schneider, the Bug Man, who came last July for his bat presentation, presented a great program about bugs in our area for the kids at the Barton Public Library.

He showed us Crick-ettes snacks in Bacon & Cheese flavor. I swear that the crickets were still hopping in that box!

He showed us Larvets — "the original worm snack" — in Mexican spice flavor.

Jerry taught Wingnut and me several new things about bugs. He showed us photos of the spittle bug and a crane flies. On Saturday, Wingnut promptly found specimens of both and I will be posting them as soon as I can.

There were slides from Mexico showing us where our Monarch butterflies go in the winter. The Monarchs were dazzling the trees, hanging like Christmas ornaments. It was spectacular.

Jerry told us how to create butterfly gardens. But after listening to him, I have decided to do what I have been doing: go natural. Just let your land go wild (no brush-whacking) and the "weeds" do the rest! Each butterfly and moth has specific wild flowers that it eats from and lays eggs on.

Below is the biggest moth on earth: the Atlas Moth from India. This is a male, only 9" across (22.9 cm). But the females can be a foot (38.5 cm) across! The ends of their wings resemble snakes so that predators will be scared and not eat the moths.

We then went outside to make our bug shirts. But because of the threatening weather (see the next post!), we quickly went back inside. Jerry provided inexpensive t-shirts, stencils and bottles of Rit Fabric Dye. Here are only half of the kids that were making shirts Friday:


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On Tuesday, July 1, Wingnut and I did our first Orleans County quest here in Barton. I am reproducing the text of the quest with Wingnut's photos. Vermont fourth graders study Vermont and local history. These quests were part of a county-wide project two years ago and published by the Stone House Museum.
















The end of the quest: a missing treasure box! We are going to notify the Quest project people about the missing box.


Technorati Tags: Orleans County Quests, Barton Brick, Bank Block, Barton Memorial Building, Barton Public Library, Solid Rock Assembly of God, Barton Post Office, Barton Common

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Remember when I said goodbye to Wingnut on August 5, 2007? It was such a sad day. But Grandson Wingnut has finally came back! He'll be here until August. We have so much to do that I hope we get to do it all. This is the camera that his mom got him for Christmas. He took the photo in the dirty side view mirror of my car on Thursday on our way to my nephew's house. Wingnut had to stay there for the evening because I teach at the college this summer and Amy was working that night. Amy, Wingnut and the cousins all went out for sundaes in Lyndonville Thursday night after work.
On the left is me on the left and third daughter Danielle, Wingnut's mom, on the right. We were bent over holding Sophie the Crazed Beagle because she wanted to jump. Wingnut got the photo then. I hate the photo — I've been sick (I finally succumbed to the grief and bewilderment of my mother dying this spring) and look bad. Danielle is going to Washington soon to visit Andrew.

So why is Wingnut Wingnut's name? He loves the game Wingnut on my Macs about flying aces. He needed a name for the internets, so that is what he chose. I am nearly healthy again. We missed the Lupine Festival in New Hampshire, the fiddle contest in Lyndonville and the library hours. But we're taking photos and reading a lot of books. Wingnut already has two posts to blog.

So what's up this summer? Andrew, Dan and Matt are coming the weekend of and the week after the Fourth of July. Hopefully Anna and Aaron can come, too. There is a lot of studying to do, reading, library programs (the theme this year is bugs!), Circus Smirkus, trips to New Hampshire and New York, swimming lessons, movies at the library, church, berry picking, chores, games, computer stuff to learn, photography, bike rides, hikes, and working in the school garden. I think that's enough, right? I had better get 100% recovered real soon!

I am going to focus on only one aspect of My Neighbors the Yamadas: the haiku appearing after many of the vignettes. The video above is the Japanese trailer for this movie. This post is also a vehicle for me to learn how to use tables in a post.

How cruel A grasshopper trapped Under a warrior's helmet Basho

Turn towards me I'm lonely too The autumn dusk Basho

The scent of plums On a mountain path Suddenly dawn Basho

A lone figure Back turned Receeing into the mist Santoka (1882-1940)

A spring shower Dressed for rain Talking as they go Buson (1716-1784)

No sign Of death's approach In the cicada's voices Basho

Fleeting dreams An octopus making Its home in a trap A summer moon Basho

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Mad World by Gary Jules is the song accompanying scenes from last night's anime movie at the Barton Public Library Anime Movie Night (the 2nd Friday of each month at 7 PM). The song captures the dark, apocalyptic mood of the movie. Metropolis is a powerful and sad movie that can actually make you cry. Two young children (one human and one robot) try to prevent an evil adult from taking over the world — and sacrifice much of themselves. The animation is wonderful and the music is powerful. I don't like the idea of children watching this because of the language and violence. But teenagers will enjoy it. Anime is growing on me. The stories are all very engaging and not soon forgotten. The music used in the movies, I have found, is big on YouTube.

Technorati Tags: Barton Public Library, anime movie night, Metropolis, anime review, Gary Jules, Made World, Fannie Farmer Cookbook
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Sunday night, Amy made blueberry muffins. I got my glass of milk and my muffin and went to my beautiful MacBook and poured the milk over it. I dropped my glass, flipped the computer upside down, forced a shut down. After awhile, I cleaned the outside and checked the battery. It looked fine and was not dripping. But it wouldn't start up again. I laid it upside down on towels overnight. At 3 AM the machine worked fine. At 6 AM, the M key had stopped working. I have an external keyboard and that worked. But I can't have a beautiful MacBook without an M key. So it is at smalldog.com being fixed now.

While it is there, I am using my Acer laptop from school. A Windoze machine. I am not happy. I feel as if I am blundering about the Internets blind. I have no weather, photos, or view of the state of the nets. I don't have iPhoto for my photos. I don't even have photos (because I go to work in the dark and come home in the dark.) I don't even know how much money I have because my Quicken is on the Mac (I have several backups of all of my data for everything, though).

I had just begun learning how to create fractal images and now I don't have my software for the Photo Hunt tomorrow. But I'm going to start using my Macintosh iBook and install the software that I need. I should have done that days ago but the iBook is very slow (7 years old) and frustrating to use. Slower is better than PC.

So my whine is over. It is anime movie night at the library tonight. I will be out all day tomorrow. The big storm is all day Sunday, so I will be visiting folks then. We are forecast to get 16.5 inches (42 cm) of snow according to the NOAA model. We'll see.

PS: that glass of milk? It will cost me $214.50 parts and labor.

I will have my MacBook back before Christmas. But I don't know if I will be able to blog much until it is home.

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The anime movie at the Barton Library for this month was My Neighbor Totoro. The youtube video above is of one of the scenes in the movie. This anime movie was produced by an apparantly well-known anime produce (Jim and a young man discussed him knowledgeably, I know nothing). There were 10 people present. After my first anime movie this summer, I wrote that anime seemed to be a male adolescent genre. I was wrong: Porco Rocco may have been, but not this one. This had a feminine theme and was a delight. Anyone can see this movie and enjoy it. Buy it for your kids. I may get it for myself.



Technorati tags: Barton+Public+Library My+Neighbor+Totoro anime

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Summer Read-Alouds

Wingnut and I read one or more books outloud at bedtime every summer. This year we read Counting on Grace by Elizabeth Winthrop. I chose this book because it was the Vermont Reads 2007 selection of the Vermont Humanities Council. The Barton Public Library handed out copies of this book to anyone that cared to read it. I picked up our copy months ago when I attended the library movie night in May. Vermont Public Radio broadcast readings of the entire book earlier in the year, which I missed (there is an audio CD available). However, on September 29 there will be a VPR Vermont Reads Day focused on this book.

Counting On Grace is the story of a 12 year old French Canadian girl who lives with her poverty striken family in Vermont in the early twentieth century. The entire family works at a fabric mill and as each child reaches the age of 14 they are expected to work in the mill to help support the family. However, corrupt enforcement of the weak child labor laws enabled children much younger to work in dangerous, life-threatening conditions. Winthrop (click on this link to read her blog) uses this family to detail not only the conditions in which these children lived but also the remedy. Winthrop introduces us to the photographer Lewis Hine, whose photography helped reform the child labor laws in the United States.

This is an excellent book. I was concerned that the story would not keep the interest of an 11 year old boy but there was enough action, injustice and gore to keep him asking for more. The gore in the book is entirely appropriate and is needed to document the conditions under which these people worked and lived. As you know, Wingnut has become an excellent photographer, so the descriptions of ancient photography methods fascinated him.

Technorati tags: Counting+On+Grace, Elizabeth+Winthrop, book+reviews, Vermont, Lewis+Hine

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While Wingnut made his bat shirt at the library, I photographed this hydrangea bush (Hydrangea arborescens) in the front of the building. It is the most beautiful hydrangea bush I have ever seen.

Technorati tags: Hydrangea+arborescens hydrangea hydrangea

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• You can visit bat caves in Dorset, Vermont.
• There are nine species of bats in Vermont but the little brown bat, Northern long-eared bat, and the big brown bat are most common.
• Bats pollinate night blooming flowers (none are in Vermont) and they disperse seeds.
• Vermont bats eat millions of bugs every night.
• Bat boxes will help keep bats out of your attic.
• Hawks, owls, skunks and domestic pets prey on bats.
• Bat babies are called pups.

• Bats can live about 34 years but the average life span is 15-25 years.
• Bats can fly at 35 miles per hour (56.3 kilometers per hour).
• Bats can see as well as humans so they need to use echo location to prevent flying into things at night and to locate bugs in the air.
• Best bat book: Stokes Beginner's Guide to Bats
• A bat's echo location call frequency is from 38-63 kH
• Bats evolved from rodents. They grew fingers that evolved into wings. They have thumbs to hang off of trees.
• Only 5% of the reports of rabid bats are true.

• Female bats congregate in bat houses, caves and attics to nurse their young. Males are usually alone in trees.
• If you have a bat in the house, turn off the lights and open the windows so it can escape.
• You can also use a net or blanket to carefully capture it and free it.
• Bats have gaps in their teeth so that their echo location call is not blocked.
• Some bats make echo location calls in their noses.
• About 50 bats can fit inside a bat house.
• Put your bat house about ten feet high on the south side of your house.

• The bumble bee bat is the smallest bat.
• Bats are social creatures and need their colonies in order to thrive.
• Bats are the only flying mammal.
• Bats are born alive.
• Bats are attracted to areas with lots of bugs, like fields and marshlands.
• The pallid bat can hear beetles walking on the forest floor.
• If slowed down to frequencies that humans can hear, bat calls sound like bird calls.

I talked to Jerry privately after his presentation to ask him if it were true to get the series of rabies shots if you awaken to a bat in your room. He said yes. But he emphasized that the reports of rabid bats are greatly exaggerated.

Technorati tags: bats, Merlin+Tuttle, Jerry+Schneider, Bat+Conservation+International, Vermont, Barton+Public+Library, bat+caves, Dorset+caves

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