What I Learned Today



Sunsets are hard to improve upon. Photos of sunsets, however, can be made more interesting by including a foreground detail. 

Open the whole post for the sunset-with-foreground vs sunset-only view.
 

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Autumn Elm

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You can live a long time in one place and still make discoveries. Yesterday's discovery was just how many American elms there are around here. American elms used to be common as they were the preferred tree for city planting in the 19th century due to their shape and color. And they are beautiful trees, large, majestic, everything a tree should be. I assumed for quite a while that elms were pretty much a threatened species  well on their way to being extinct thanks to Dutch elm disease which ravaged the population. Dutch elm disease and the monocultivation of elms is Exhibit A in why diversity of planting is a good thing. Diversity provides built in resistance. I was both surprised and pleased to discover about a year ago that on the grounds of the science center where I work there were not one but two large elms. Outside my window. That I looked at every day. I just assumed they were cottonwoods, the other large, beautiful majestic tree in my ecosystem. It wasn't till
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Monday Musing #1

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When I started this #SummerOfClimateAction challenge in which I attempt to follow the calls to action as made by How to Save a Planet, I thought I would listen to a few podcasts, email a congressional representative or two, maybe finally commit to composting. You know, stuff like that. Week One: Spark Tank started off with a bang. The topic was electricity storage on the electrical grid and as it happens, my city utility also sent out a communication that related to storage on the electrical grid but left out any mention of climate change (See Climate Change Is Still Worse ). So, yes, I did end up emailing truth to power, calling upon them to "acknowledge the impact of climate change and communicate its relevance in regards to city matters." I'll just say that sending an email through a contact-me box to a representative in far off Washington DC is one thing and emailing your local officials who recognize you in the grocery store is entirely different. Another outcome, I
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#SummerOfClimateAction

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