How to Fly (In Ten Thousand Easy Lessons)

I got my copy of How to Fly (In Ten Thousand Easy Lessons) by Barbara Kingsolver in the mail recently and I can't stop picking it up, flipping to a random page, and leaping off the cliff into its deep waters. I turn to it when the stress of Covid-19 overwhelms and my head hurts from problem-solving. The book is both an escape and a lesson at the same time. I usually come away from a passage with a smile and a point of clarity, as if my muddled brain was rewired by an expert electrician.

Her ability to slowly unwrap a message draws you past the end of one poem and into the next. But beyond the beautiful language and compositions, this book of poems speaks directly to our mission at Blue Ridge Discovery Center. It is an incredible combination of humanity and science interwoven through keen observations and creative critical thought. As a whole, the collection is truly a 21st-century perspective, mined from the vast body of knowledge compiled by centuries of forward-thinking scientists and naturalists that came before her.

No doubt the timing of this release is coincidental, but these poems are so fitting for our crazy pandemic times when each of us needs an extended hand to hold. There is something in this book for everyone, no matter your troubles or where you come from. The prose is uplifting, always tapping into positive potentials and even some of the darker-toned poems manage to be supportive in their truth-telling.

If you haven't picked this book up yet, trust me, you NEED to. Thank you Barbara for being a mother to us all and championing the BRDC mission!

-Aaron

PS Check out Ephemera on page 93 dedicated to BRDC!

Special Poetry Reading by Barbara Kingsolver for BRDC

We have the opportunity to share with you the live poetry reading by acclaimed writer and trained biologist Barbara Kingsolver. Barbara has generously offered a personalized, signed copy of the limited edition How to Fly (In Ten Thousand Easy Lessons) with each $100 donation to Blue Ridge Discovery Center. Make a Contribution Now

On Friday night, in place of our traditional featured speaker, Kingsolver settled into the Blue Ridge Discovery Center cottage to read from her forthcoming poetry book for a remote, online audience of Naturalist Rally participants. This featured presentation of the Mt. Rogers Naturalist Rally offered viewers an inspiring perspective of the natural world - a world that is not separate from us, but which includes us. And if we are part of it, shouldn’t we know a bit more about it?

How can we see the wonders of nature, the interconnectedness of organisms through a biologist’s eyes? How can we know that the unusual, white ghost pipes popping up from the forest floor aren’t mushrooms or that the brainless mussel has such an intelligent reproductive strategy? How can we be hopeful and let that hope fuel a stronger future?

There’s just one easy step: read Barbara Kingsolver’s new book of poems. How to Fly (In Ten Thousand Easy Lessons) is due to be released September 22, 2020.

Eco-antique

A Rare Virginia Tree in Albemarle Co., Va.:

Paper birch,

Betula papyrifera

The winds of the Blue Ridge whisper tales of the past

, especially when they blow through the leaves of wild growing paper birch trees.

"Not very far from that region (I recall it as in Augusta County), some bird fossils have been found in a cave, including spruce grouse, and other more northern birds….time they died was about 10,000 to 12,000 years ago. I can picture spruce grouse foraging on birch seeds new fallen on snow…can picture white-winged crossbills nearby, pine grosbeaks, hoary and common redpolls, and boreal chickadees, maybe even a few whiskey jacks (gray jays) chattering in what was at that time not a microclimate enclave. Of course a raven could show up and be wise to wolves slumping across a thicket. Maybe even a straggler caribou being hunted." - Clyde Kessler

(For more on the fossils found in Augusta, see page 3: http://ccb-wm.org/raven/TheRaven/1962.pdf )

Cold hollows and protected slopes

provide a refuge for these trees and other glacial relics or disjuncts (species that were left behind and separated from their kind as the glaciers marched north thousands of years ago). They occupy small and scattered habitats that maintain conditions that suit them, conditions that are more common hundreds of miles north.

This tree's habitat typically has a climate that includes short cool summers and long cold winters. It prefers to have average July temperatures be below 70 degrees Fahrenheit. These birch trees, and the plant community of which they are a part, enjoy this little Blue Ridge mountain microclimate.

The paper birch trees depicted in these photographs grow at the base of a north facing quartzite talus slope in Albemarle County, Virginia.

This particular site was found by Mo Stevens many years ago. He always thought that he was dealing with Betula papyrifera, and not Betula cordifolia (as the experts insisted). Recent efforts have confirmed Mo's hunch. This is likely to be the strongest stand of B. papyrifera in the state.

Waning

Sallows & Other Moths

Over the past few weeks in the evenings, whenever I turn the porch lights on, sallow moths gather.
They flutter near the screen door, and along the wall--some station themselves in little seams in the wood paneling, others perch there as if frozen into the light.

The most common is Bicolored Sallow (Sunira bicolorago). Several arrive every warm evening, little swarms of orangish yellow edged in a thin purple. As many as twenty or so zone in on the light by the front door. Two Octobers ago, I saw more than fifty, an outright crazy swirl of them that would hurdle and joust about, when I would get close. But mostly these moths just wait there, owned by the light.

A few other sallows have graced the wall:

Footpath Sallow (Metaxaglaea semitaria)
Battered Sallow (Sunira verberata)
Three-spotted Sallow (Eupsilia tristigmata)

A few other species of sallows have visited too, but I haven't keyed them out.

Other moths in the last few evenings:

Implicit Arches (Lacinipolia implicata)
Armyworm Moth (Pseudaletia unipuncta)

And likewise, several that I can't identify.

For most of October, I felt a special joy in seeing Rose Hooktip Moths (Oreta rosea). It is a favorite, a rather muted orangish rose color with a few darker lines, and of course the wings have a wonderful hook at the wingtips...at least that's the color pattern of the ones resting on the wall and screen door, up to six or seven on more than one evening.

I will have to start focusing a camera at them, or sketching some pictures and share those some time in the future. Right now, you can visit many wonderful moth web sites...I like the moth photo pages of Bob Patterson, and others at the moth photographers group web site....

http://mothphotographersgroup.msstate.edu/


I don't like to leave lights on very long, extra on electric bill, but more I think it disrupts their moth schedules. They should be foraging, flitting, courting, mating, ovipositing etc., not hunkered at my house, mesmerized and captured by porch lights. I turn the lights off soon as everyone is home from their evening travels.

What moths are you all finding these November nights?