Recently in Nature and the Environment Category

The honeysuckle is blooming and my yard needs a lot of work.

Earlier today I was trying to rid it of an obnoxious (to my eyes) climbing vine that has invaded my property in recent years. I didn't know what it was called, so I briefly thought of snapping a photo and posting it to my blog.

Since I thought it was just a worthless weed, I didn't hold much hope of identifying it on the web.

Fast forward a couple hours and I'm reading a book on viruses when the concept of a virion, a complete virus particle, is introduced. Off hand, I can think of several ways of pronouncing it (why can't science books include the pronunciation of scientific terms?), so I look it up in the dictionary. VIE-ree-on. OK, now I can pronounce it.

As I'm closing the dictionary my eye notices a photograph in the top right-hand corner. Was that a photo of my obnoxious plant? Or were my eyes playing tricks?

So I re-opened the dictionary and went back to that page.

Sure enough, it was my plant. Now I know it's actually a Virginia Creeper.

What are the odds?

This morning I woke up in a Winter Wonderland.

The lilies are in bloom!

If a tornado like that were headed toward me, I doubt that I'd have the presence of mind to reach for the camera!

The good news first. No humans were hurt and property damage, even including the damage in the park, was minimal.

The bad news: the fire didn't burn all the bamboo.

And we're still waiting word from the wildlife. Hopefully, none of their homes were damaged.

I didn't actually see or smell the fire. I heard it. It sounded like some squirrels were prancing on my roof, so I didn't pay it any attention at first.

But after five or ten minutes, I decided the squirrels had had enough fun, so I went out on the deck to chase them away.

That's when I realized that those sounds were not the prancing of some animals on my roof, but the crackling of a good sized fire that was blazing in the park behind my house.

First thing to do, call 9-1-1. It took a bit of explaining when I said that the fire was actually in the park, not in my house (yet). The dispatcher didn't understand the Hundred Steps, either. But eventually the information was communicated.

Then I grabbed my camcorder.

And called my neighbor, JC.

Then I realized that I better get out my garden hose, because the fire was getting too close to my property. JC manned the hose while I worked the camcorder.

The fire department arrived a few minutes later and had the blaze under control in no time.

I'm still not sure what caused it. A tossed cigarette? Some kids playing with matches? I'm just glad that I was at home. Because if I hadn't been, who knows how long it would have been before someone noticed it.

Still, it would have been nice if the fire had consumed more of that blasted bamboo...