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| California Poppy |
Five-five years ago this week, the first part of Rachel Carson's
Silent Spring was published in
The New Yorker. Carson's work exposed the dangers of the widely-used pesticide, DDT, and gave impetus to the environmental movement and led to the creation of the Environmental Protection Agency. As a result, our air and water got cleaner and safer. It's hard to believe that anyone would think that ensuring clean air and water is a waste of taxpayers' money, but such people exist at the highest levels of our government; the EPA is all but completely gutted now. Unless you're living under a rock (which is a very tempting thing to do these days), you know the person most responsible for destroying EPA protections, also pulled America out of participation in the Paris Climate Agreement at the beginning of this month.
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| Cabbage White butterfly feasting on Hidcote Lavender |
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| First salad fixin's of the season |
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| Relaxing in the small pond |
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| Pond iris |
The somewhat good news is that the withdrawal from the Paris agreement has, like Carson's influential book, heightened environmental consciousness and motivated organizations and individual Americans to take actions to protect the Earth and all living things. On Tuesday, June 13 at 3 P.M. EDT, the Natural Resources Defense Council will hold a teleconference briefing on how we can and will respond to the United States being pulled out of the Paris agreement. If you're interested, you can RSVP at this link
NRDC Teleconference on Paris Climate Agreement. If teleconferencing isn't your thing, you might consider donating to NRDC whose lawyers defend the environment in the courts.
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| Hummingbird landing |
As for the weather stats for May at Bean Hill, it was the first month of 2017 during which high and low temperatures were in line with the historic monthly averages, and precipitation was .95" above the historic monthly average. I'm happy to report that not only did our Mason Bees thrive (23 nesting tubes are completely filled, and several partially), I've observed a marked increase in the number of all kinds of bees. Additionally, I saw more butterflies in May than I did all of last summer.
The gardens are lush from all the rain. The heirloom peonies (now in their sixth decade!) bloomed, as did the Siberian irises, and the bright poppies. Sadly, not a single of our many bearded irises bloomed. They were the first to respond with vigorous growth during the overly warm February, and were done in by March frosts. The Killdeer and the Ruby-throated Hummingbirds returned, the Baltimore Oriole made a second visit, and the frogs became active again. Ann and I harvested strawberries and the makings of the season's first home-grown salad.
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| 23 capped nesting tubes |
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These heirloom peonies have blossomed
every spring for nearly 65 years |
May 2017 at Bean Hill was joyfully "normal" and exceptionally beautiful.
