This April 6 WyoFile post brings us more good news about global warming:
Wyoming botanist Trevor Bloom spotted his first springtime blooms of the year on March 28. Bloom, while tracing the footsteps of famed ecologist Frank Craighead at Blacktail Butte in Grand Teton National Park, saw the orogenia linearifolia, or snowdrop, wildflower.
“I don’t think I’ve ever seen a wildflower, besides a dandelion, flowering in March,” Bloom said. The snowdrop bloom was nearly a month earlier than Craighead had recorded in the 1970s. “It means we’re probably going to have a very early spring this year. It probably means that we’re going to have very low water levels, and we’re probably going to have an increased risk of wildfire this year.”
So, early spring, lack of snow, low water levels, and more fires. Ah, summer
in the Rockies, 2022.
Seems as if we are ahead of schedule as far as bulb plants. Some of mine already
are flowering. The Cheyenne Botanic Gardens show some early blooms in its “Hero Garden”
of native plants. Not sure what effects the wild winds have had. Most plants
seem to be deciding if it’s safe to raise their heads or if we will have our
usual spring of snow and wind and cold punctuated by 60-degree calm and sunny
days.
My home gardening will be limited this year. During The Covid Year, I commandeered the kitchen table to sprout my seeds. When June arrived, the containers on the porch were
filled, absorbing the sun and hiding from hail. It felt normal, as if a plague
wasn’t decimating the globe. We all had our survival; tactics. Some gardened,
some baked sourdough loaves, others watched endless video loops on YouTube and TikTok. I gardened and read and wrote. Also, Netflix and Hulu.
I will buy some seedlings and plant seeds. I need to grow something. Call it
a celebration of summer’s arrival. It may bring drought and fire. But I’m going
to grow flowers and cherry tomatoes beneath my rooftop solar array. The pensive William Wordsworth, wanderer of England’s Lake Country, loved to conjure daffodils when resting on his couch.
They flash upon that inward eye
Which is the bliss of solitude;
And then my heart with pleasure fills,
And dances with the daffodils.
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