Warm Weather

I have fallen behind in posting.   The holiday season matched with Possibilitarian Puppet Shows, hosting out-of-town guests, and permaculture potlucks, and my daughter Rosemary's first birthday, and two mushroom growing workshops- well well well- it's been busy.  And with this warm weather, who knows if Winter will ever show his handsome old white face.  I feel this End of Days heavy now, like -what if winter never comes.  Much like the song "I'm dreaming of a white Christmas, just like the ones I used to know...." - will Winter become just a dream, something I tell my children about, and show them in picture books or old photos?  Is that what this End of Days is about?  A new climate as we know it, for sure.  Though, it feels like a constant Spring, but without that sense of renewal from recharging.  I see the creeping phlox blooming purple now.  The calendula still rocks on, and even the snow peas are blooming without a frost to kill.  I am fully aware now of all the people wishing and hoping that the snow never comes, that it stays this warm- its "nice out."  I wish it was so simple.  I can feel that the mosquitos and other garden pests are resting cozy under the leaves, and they haven't died, and if this weather keeps up, they won't, and in fact, they'll be more come the real Spring.  So when people wish for warm winters, they wish for more mosquitos, and more bugs, and maybe more droughts and more intense hurricanes, and so on and so on- as far as the strange unpredictable weather goes.

The weather affects the people so much, too.  I can feel it particularly in this neighborhood, where warm days has people out and fussing, where cold days are quiet and still.   And so as it is- another warm today, where the wind blew from the South and never once brought me a chill - the people of this street felt the warmth.  And warmth meant fights.  And fights meant guns.  A few times fired after a scuffle on the street.  Lots of yelling while Maureen and another friend played Christmas music on the piano downstairs.  It was a particularly ironic moment of them playing unwittingly "Silent Night" as I heard the angry voices from the street shouting over each other.  Eventually police came and looks like arrested some people.  There are gunshots often enough around here- at all is too often for me, and that's how it is currently.  The warm weather though... it is nothing one can keep away.

Another view of this warm weather is that perhaps this is just the necessary warmth we need to start a new.  A Beginning of Days.  On my walks through the neighborhood, I have been watching as over four houses are going up quick.  At first it seemed they were trying to lickedy-split get the foundation in the ground before the snows....and well, no snows yet, and the ground isn't frozen....sooo up go the A-frames, and the new paved driveway and sidewalk, and the insulation, and the windows, and the siding, and roof, and its going up so so quick!  And I am watching as this neighborhood is changing fast- and it's thanks to the warm weather that the development building can keep on.  Perhaps it is an End of Days to the neglect here.

I can't say.  I can only watch and keep working, try and keep up with Mother Nature - as if that were possible.  I am sure that if I were a more industrialist gardener farmer, I'd be out sowing more seeds- experimenting with these new seasons- observing critically what and how things are changing.  I noticed just yesterday a window flower box planter that I have up on my porch, that I haphazardly sowed some mizuna seeds in during mid-summer and never watered or paid much attention to- well, they just germinated and already have their first true leaf growing.  It is odd, but I am glad that by accident I have planted for this unpredictable weather.  We will see how long it lasts for.
And of course, the fish in the aquaponics greenhouse are happy, too, to not be too challenged as of yet by low temperatures.

Which brings me to the new mushroom bed, planted outdoors as part the Mushroom Growing workshop we had two weekends ago....  I am grateful for this warm weather because it has more of a chance (see previous post for a glimpse of the mushroom bed).

Well, I think I will leave this for tonight, as things have grown silent here now.  And it is time to string up some popcorn and tie some colorful yarn on a tree.

Goodnight, I hope to keep up writing more next month!

Mushroom Bed

 

Planted as a demo for of the Mushroom Growing Workshop we hosted here on Dec 15, we inoculated several layers of woodchips with Garden Giant mushroom mycelium.  Though it is not the ideal time of year to create an outdoor mushroom bed (Spring is best so that is has the longest time to get established before cold), this warm weather and rain is surely helping the mycelium to get cozy and established.  Here's hoping the garden giants make a home for themselves there and we see mushrooms come Summer!

Here are few photos from the workshop.  (More photos to come....)


       Folks making oyster mushroom bags with pasteurized straw

 and Kilindi Iyi from Detroit sharing his vast knowledge of mushrooms and cultivation.

These photos thanks to Jeff Schuler.