3:00 snapshot #1143 Coyote warnings

Here are two coyote warnings posted by an anonymous citizen several months removed from one another. Not quite a year ago Alexis and I saw one cross the street as we were walking the dogs--probably the biggest I've ever seen. I saw two together a few weeks or so, about a half mile from the house; the next day Alexis saw one dead on the road near that spot. Coyotes are definitely becoming more common in Massachusetts, especially in human-populated environments. The person posting the signs mostly seems concerned about the loose cats in the neighborhood--there are a half dozen or so that we see regularly. The big white one disappeared over the summer.

100 More species #72: Dwarf Alberta Spruce

Dwarf Alberta spruce Picea glauca variety albertianica Conica


The dwarf Alberta spruce is a cultivar of the white spruce, a massive tree of the North American boreal forest. Mature white spruces are a hundred feet tall or more, while a typical dwarf Alberta is a four to six foot pipsqueak. Cultivation has chosen individuals that grow very slowly, never get very tall, and maintain the thin soft needles of a sapling. It's as if we kept little orcas in our koi pond or tiny house giraffes. The little trees are hardy and long-lived. They don't seem to be crucial participants in the suburban ecology, but they probably provide cover and shelter for small animals, and add color and geometry to the winter landscape.



The thin soft needles of the perennially infant dwarf Alberta spruce--the perfect little living xmas tree.

Moving pictures

Say, did someone buy me more of my expired icons back? If so, thanks! If it's LiveJournal's doing then Спасибо