Wildflowers as Mirrors

The New York Times has just published a quite wonderful, and mournful, meditation on the lost flora of New York City by the Executive Director of N.Y.C. Wildflower Week.

I highly recommend taking a look, whether or not you live in NYC, as a motivating meditation on the importance of finding ways, large and small, to help replenish and restore this battered world.

On Frogs and Leaf Litter

This neat item on frogs' affinity for fallen leaves and the tasty morsels that reside therein just came across the transom, and I thought I'd share.

As it happens, I spent awhile raking on Saturday afternoon (with the aim of adding grist to the compost pile mill). Whilst doing so, I noticed loads of critters in the leaf litter and decided to stop raking and just leave things bee, as it were. So this item is timely, and may inspire others to skip the leaf-raking altogether next time!

Check it out and meditate on the beneficial implications of the proverbial messy yard.

Humans to Trees: Drop Dead

This from an article in the New York Times entitled, Environment Blamed in Western Tree Deaths:

"Rising temperatures and the resulting drought are causing trees in the Western United States to die off at more than twice the pace they did a few decades ago, a new study has found."

Of course, the environmental issues contributing to the trees' problems—drought, rising temperatures, extended summer weather—might just possibility have something to do with human behavior. So I'd have framed the headline somewhat differently; it seems the environment is being wrongly accused here.

Fire Ants

Hot, hot hive mind! The New York Times has a thingy about how fire ants wreak their havoc.