The history in our woods

Stone wall that crosses the trail in
Willard Brook State Forest

A walk through the New England woods wouldn't be complete without coming across the ubiquitous stone walls that dot the landscape. Many forget that once upon a time, this land was cleared for agriculture. Pictured here is a stone wall that crosses the Blue Trail of Willard Brook State Park which parallels Route 119. In fact the developers of the trail obviously removed some stones from the wall to allow the trail to pass through it. At some time in the past someone moved all these rocks into place as they attempted to clear the land in order to cultivate it. I imagine just small plots of vegetables, but this land may have been great for grazing of cattle or sheep with the brook being a prime source for watering. Otherwise it is very hilly and enormous boulders, left by the ancient glacier that once covered this land, dot it. Eventually the call to move West for easier farming or to the work in the city mills resulted in abandoned farms. Now the woods have reclaimed the land leaving us with only markers of the hard labor of those who worked the land before us.

Evidence of Glacial History in Massachusetts

Willard Brook

My husband and I went for a walk in Willard Brook State Forest on Columbus Day. Here you can plainly see the evidence of the glacial past of this region of Massachusetts. These huge boulders and smaller rocks are examples of glacial till deposits which can range in size from clay deposits to huge boulders. We walked along the trail that follows the brook which eventually will join the Squannacook River. We have hiked here several times over the years and always find it a pleasant place to be. If you are a "geocacher" you will have some success here as well. For once I was the one to spot the cache! All in all, we spent a lovely couple of hours out of the house and away from all the chores.


Evidence of Glacial deposits

The strength of a tree to grow
up and over a rock.

Townsend Harbor

A harbor which has no opening to the ocean, how can that be? Well if you go read William Pate's History of the Townsend Harbor you can follow the path that Pate took to answer that very question. It all comes down to word usage. The Townsend Harbor is the result of a dam across the Squannacook River built to power the mill that was established there. Today it is the Spaulding Cooperage Antiques, a quaint spot to rummage through the past.

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Changing of the seasons

Summer

Fall

 Yesterday morning, I wrote a to-do list for myself as a way to focus my energies during the day ahead. Many of my chores involved cleaning up the garden. I brought in the sprinklers and the hoses. I cut down the dead flower stalks and took them out to the mulch pile. I pruned a few bushes. Lastly, I planted the mums I'd bought and switched over my front door step display. Here are my results. Unfortuantely the day wasn't nearly as fine as the "summer" day shown, but that's the seasons for you.

J. Harry Rich State Forest

Trail Head for the
J. Harry Rich State Forest

Today was one of those Autumn days that seem perfect and you wish you could have two more months of them. The shame is you know that there is no way to stop the Earth in its orbit around the sun and that we are heading toward the Winter Solstice whether we like it or not. If Dad were still with us he would have made his weekly Sunday phone call and made some comment about the days getting shorter. I miss those calls more than I ever could imagine.



View of the Nashua River

The day started out foggy. It was still foggy at 10:30 am as we made our way to Waltham to visit Bentley University with our son who is a high school senior.  By the time we exited the welcoming talk the sky was clear.

This afternoon we were free to spend some quiet time together, the husband and I, so we headed off for a lovely walk in the woods. The J. Harry Rich State Forest is a short drive from our house. Its wide, well marked trails make for a pleasant experience. The red maples, often called swamp maples, that line the Nashua River are really starting to show their colors. All of a sudden in the last few days the trees are really starting to change a sure sign of the advancing season.

Red maple showing its colors

Where the orchard meets the vineyard

Apple trees - you pick

The vines

Saturday, the day before the autumnal equinox, my husband and I went for a drive. We packed a picnic lunch and headed to the Nashoba Valley Winery located in Bolton, MA.  It turned out to be a bustling place. Many of the wines made here feature fruits other than grapes which result in a variety of delicious tastes. We took advantage of the opportunity to try a few of these unique wines. Maiden's Blush is named after the apple from which it is made. Delightful for sipping as an aperitif. We simply had to have a bottle to take home. Our other purchase was Marion made with grapes and blackberries. We decided to purchase those wines which were unique to this vineyard. You can get a Merlot or a Chardonnay anywhere. The experience was certainly an unusual one for New England, our last vineyard visit was in California.  Unfortunately, when we were there it was March and the vines were bare, it was a pleasure to see green vines with fruit ripening.


Nashoba Valley Winery

 The best part of the day was watching the people who'd come to spend the day. There were lots of families picnicking and apple picking. The young couples out on a date, or like us, middle-aged couples who were finally free of parental obligations. Got to love the empty nest feeling (well almost - our son leaves for college next Fall but was away camping with the Boy Scouts). There was a group of six or seven girls (I call them girls because that's what they seemed to me) who were dressed to impress all wearing fashionable strappy flat sandals. Clearly they had come for the wine tasting and decided to stay to pick apples. I certainly thought their footwear wasn't appropriate for walking through the orchard, but then again I'm a middle-aged woman who spent five days in the hospital as the result of a tick borne illness (anaplasmosis). You won't catch me walking through tall grass barefoot again.



Window box outside of
J's Restaurant

The vineyard even has a venue for hosting functions like the wedding that was going on smack dab in the middle of all of this hullabaloo. I hope the happy couple were well aware that the general public would be sharing the day with them. It was very romantic. If you can't afford to go off to California, Provence, or Tuscany I guess this could be the place for you.

J's Restaurant

My only question is: Where are the big fences to keep out the deer? Do they have no deer in Bolton? The deer so love apples and other fruit. I remember that a friend of my father's (I grew up in Bolton, CT) was in the process of establishing a small vineyard of his own and was struggling with keeping the deer from decimating his vines. My father was successful in bagging at least one deer in order to keep the population from destroying the crop. Well the folks at Nashoba Valley Winery must be lucky that's all I can say. I have a few deer that I'd be happy to send down their way if it will keep them from eating all my hostas. Let's face it apples and grapes must taste so much better.





So Many Oaks So Little Time

Yesterday I wrote about how folklore played a role in weather forecasting before the advent of the computer model and satellite imagery. So the next question I had to ask myself was: what kind of oak trees do I have out and about my yard and neighborhood? Once again as I was taking my afternoon walk, I kept an eye out for different oak trees and collected samples. I rushed back home to my trusty computer to search for identification help. I found a very useful field guide from the USDA Forest Service for the eastern part of the country. The photos, descriptions, and maps were a big help in identifying the branches that I had brought home. One lesson that I learned was next time I want to identify a tree properly I need to photograph the tree trunks so I can use the bark's appearance to assist in the identification. That does raise a problem in that several of my samples came off of immature trees which wouldn't have the characteristic bark patterns of their elders. Here's what I came up with. If I'm wrong please remember that I am not a trained botanist or a forest ecologist, but rather an avid amateur.


Bear or Scrub Oak



Black Oak



White oak



Northern Red Oak



Swamp White Oak

Autumn Cutie

Woolly bear caterpillar

While out for my afternoon walk this, this little guy was crossing the road in front of me. He or she is a perennial autumnal friend who has become a figment of nature folklore. Back in my youth woolly bear caterpillars were said to be a predictor of the weather. Narrow brown bands for a harsh winter and thicker brown bands for a mild winter. Hard to say what this little guy is predicting but I would say the brown band is narrower than ones I've seen before. We had quite the snowy cold winter last year, who knows what we are in store for this year.

Now another folklore predictor of a harsh winter is acorn production. Lots of acorns are supposed to be a sign that nature is providing nutrition for the animals. Squirrels can scurry around storing up the mother load for the long winter ahead. But according to an article I just read acorn production is a factor of weather conditions during the two to three years of acorn development. Instead of being a forecaster it is really a history lesson.

Acorns

Composting Help

Help from Ken Thompson's
book, Compost

Two years ago as part of a graduate course in Environmental Geology, I had to carry out a project that aimed at lowering my footprint. The footprint could include both carbon and water uses. Even though I am an avid recycler I figured I might be able to limit my garbage amounts by setting up a compost pile in my backyard.

Well, let me be clear. I have woods surrounding my yard so I have always composted my leaf litter and garden waste. I just never worked at making compost with the intention of returning it back into my garden. By establishing a composting bin I was going to do just that, work that compost! My husband helped me out by nailing together some wooden pallets from a delivery of paving blocks that we had purchased. Recycle and reuse principles in action. Then I layered newspapers on the ground inside the box and began filling it with kitchen waste (no fats or meats - especially with the animals around here) and weeds. I had read about making sure it had the right amount of moisture and air to support the microbial growth necessary to break down the waste materials.

Updated compost bin

 While perusing the shelves at the library I came across Ken Thompson's Compost: the natural way to make food for your garden. It's a very quick read and I poured through it looking for suggestions. First, I learned that I needed to keep my bin more enclosed. Taking his suggestions I used cardboard boxes which I flattened and weaved in between the open slots. As you can see in my photo I will need a few more boxes to fill in the gaps in the back of my bin. I will also be covering the pile so that the rain doesn't leach away the nutrients into the surrounding soil.

His second piece of advice that I am going to take is to add more recyclable paper to my bin in the form of shredded newspapers, shredded bills, toilet paper and paper towel rolls, and used tissues or paper towels. That should lower my garbage output even more. And it's worth it because just take a look at my wheel barrow full of finished compost which I spread in my vegetable garden.

My Orchard

Apples in my yard

Twelve years ago when we moved to our present home, we were blessed to have eight apple trees lining the edge of our property forming a natural fence between us and the next door neighbor. Come spring time they are a beautiful sight with their white and pinkish hued blossoms. When I drive down the road towards my yard it almost looks as if the trees are covered in snow.



Theresa Weir's memoir
The Orchard

We have never tried to cultivate these apples, they are strictly ornamental. We allow the animals to feast on them. The deer that populate the woods surrounding our home have been seen nibbling away as dusk falls. Unfortunately, a couple of the trees have fallen prey to fungal infections and have died. In the fall of 2011, we had an unexpected heavy snowfall at the end of October before the leaves and fruit had completely fallen and two more of the trees fell over from the snow's weight. The roots were pulled right out of our sandy soil.

Now we may all be familiar with Rachel Carson and her ground breaking environmental work in exposing the dangers of pervasive use of the pesticide DDT. Silent Spring informed the nation about the risks that were being taken by using these harmful chemicals and it led to the eventual ban here in the United States of DDT. I can remember my Dad using the stuff  around the foundation of our home in order to rid us of ants. I picked up Theresa Weir's memoir The Orchard in which she describes her married life as the wife of a farmer in the mid-West thinking it would be an interesting read. Throughout her narrative she drops hints about the use of chemicals in the war against pests which can ruin the quality of the fruit her husband was trying to produce. It was heartbreaking to read of the destruction of a section of apple trees after their infestation with codling moth. All the effort to hybridize a new variety of apple went up in smoke when the contaminated trees were burned.

Then I saw it coming. Theresa's father-in-law was the first to fall ill with cancer. Then four years later her husband was diagnosed with cancer and succumbed when treatment failed. For some reason in the past eighteen months I have read many memoirs describing the death of a loved one from cancer. In February of 2012 I lost my father to lung cancer. Granted he had smoked for 50 of his 73 years, but did exposure to DDT in his youth, or other chemicals that his father used in his gas station also contribute to his development of this dreaded disease? Once again I am challenged to think about and act upon what I learn about the environment. I have chosen not to treat my apple trees or much of my yard for that matter with pesticides. I know that the rest of my trees might be in danger of dying from fungal infections, but that is part of nature and I would rather not interfere. The more research I do will hopefully help me to uncover more organic methods to treat and maintain the health of my yard and family.

It's for the birds

Bird feeder with daylilies

One of my morning pleasures is to sit at the dining room table and watch the birds at the feeder outside my window. This morning has been a busy one with the appearances of gold finches, tit mice, downy woodpecker, nuthatches, and chickadees to name a few. This year I moved the feeder from its previous location to in front of the window.  There is a forsythia bush close by  to provide cover for the little song birds. Behind the bush are some trees which provide a perch for the tree clinging species that come for a visit. Perhaps the choice of feeder location was simply serendipity. The placement seems to work for both the birds and me.

Not only do the birds come for a visit, the darn squirrels and chipmunks make themselves at home at the feeder. In fact if you zoom in on my photo I believe you will spot a chipmunk happily filling his cheeks with the sunflower seeds that I have provided. It's amusing to watch the birds waiting, in the bush or on the top of the Shepard's crook from which the feeder is suspended, for their turn whether it be for other birds or for the furry guys to leave. It's a queue of some kind. I'm not sure if there is a priority list as to who gets to go first or if the bossiest bird just goes when he or she wants to. It's not like the rules of the road where drivers must yield the right of way to the driver who possess it.

August Morning

Geraniums on the
front door steps

This morning the quality and angle of the sunlight reminds me more of September than early August. There are those days that sneak in and remind me that fall is on its way and so to the return to school. There's plenty of summer still to go and more often than not there are some very summer-like days in September.

Over night there was a rain shower and the soil is still moist. When I first looked out the window, I could catch the sparkle of a left over raindrop hanging here and there on a leaf. Plus there was a chill in the air brought by a breeze. Not a gentle breeze but a blustery one that comes with a change in the weather fronts. The air is drier and cooler as it comes sweeping down to us from Canada. I even had to put on a long sleeve shirt before stepping out for my morning walk.

I soon warmed up as I worked at the endless task of doing battle with the weeds in my garden. Time to cut back the yellowing spiderwort and iris leaves. Soon it will be clearing, composting, and bedding down for winter. But long before that there is still sun to be soaked up, vacation to enjoy, and a ton more weeds to pull.