Finding Ulysses

Winter doesn’t officially end until next week, but this weekend we’re already having summer weather. Warm sun and southerly winds are bringing us temperatures in the 80s. Honeysuckle and willow trees are leafing out. Maple sap season in Trumansburg is long over, and the first round of early flowers has already given way to a [...]

I peeked over at the record and high and record low temperatures for each day in the month of October. I wanted to see if there might be any pattern in this collection of extreme temperature events that would indicate a change in our local climate over time.

Last night as took a walk in the woods, I heard the sound of the spring peepers calling out for mates.

The view certainly is nice enough, with plants rushing to break bud, opening leaf and flower… only it’s all happening so fast. Varieties of daffodil, I notice, that are ordinarily one after another this year are coming together. I’ve mowed parts of my lawn twice already.

The idea is that people across the United States will volunteer to report when the buds on different plants around them open up, so that scientists can look at the data and see whether there are any shifts in plant cycles along with climate change. It’s kind of like a feeder watch, but horticultural.