Donna VanBuecken
“Let us be grateful to the people who make us happy; they are the charming gardeners who make our souls blossom.” — Marcel Proust.
Happy New Year! And may things be much better in 2021!
To see the full article, read the Twin Cities Pioneer Press of Duluth, Minnesota.
At the Winter Solstice,* we saw the planets Jupiter and Saturn form a bright Christmas Star in the sky! It was Jupiter and Saturn’s great conjunction. On that day, December 21st, Jupiter and Saturn lined up so close that they appeared as one bright shining star — the Christmas Star. It was the closest the two planets have appeared in 800 years — perhaps a sign of brighter days to come in 2021.
May the peace and beauty of the Christmas season last throughout the year!
*Monday, December 21st was the first day of winter. It was the winter solstice.
While taking a break from the spring turkey hunting season in 2007, I watched a bobcat as he turned up the lane and directly into the cabin where I was taking pictures. During the archery deer hunting season this September 2020, my brother Doug saw four bobcats — a female and kittens.
Native to North America from southern Canada, through most of the contiguous United States, to the state of Oaxaca in Mexico, the bobcat is twice the size of a domestic cat. Weighing about 20 pounds, it has distinctive black bars on its foreleg. The top of the tail is black with a white underside. The bobcat has large ears with pointed tufts of hair at the ends, and has an orange-tan pelt with black stripes on the face and spots on the body. Bobcats have a white chest and belly, but the belly is heavily spotted. These spots and the color of their coat helps camouflage the bobcat in the thick underbrush.
The bobcat is often confused with the lynx. The bobcat has irregular dark markings only on the top half of their tail, and they have shorter tufts of hair on their ears. The tracks of the bobcat are just slightly larger than a house cat, while the tracks of the lynx are more than 4 inches across. The bobcat is also known as the red lynx.
The thickly forested areas of northern Wisconsin are home to the bobcat. They like alder thickets and coniferous swamps with black spruce, white cedar, or balsam fir trees especially.
Bobcats are on the move during the twilight hours of sunrise and sunset during the summer, but they often hunt during the day in winter. The bobcat specializes in taking larger, rabbit-sized prey. Like most cats, the bobcat is territorial and largely solitary. It uses several methods to mark its territorial boundaries, including claw marks and deposits of urine or feces. The bobcat breeds from winter into spring and has a gestation period of about two months. (EEK and wikipedia)
This clip was given to me by a friend Rick Webb:
Canadian lynx at Big Run Wolf Ranch in Lockport, Illinois.
Note: One reader wrote to tell me that the Lynx link above doesn’t work for her. If that’s a problem for you, try this one.
I’ve always loved the Poinsettia. Because I had a December wedding date, I had my bridesmaids and maid-of-honor carry Poinsettias in their bouquets, and all around us were plants of all sizes and shapes. Last Friday, December 4th, we celebrated our 55th anniversary!
The beautiful Poinsettias (genus Euphorbus) we see decorating building interiors this time of the year are not native to the U.S., but rather to Southern Mexico and Central America. But did you know we have a species of native poinsettias here in America as well?
Members of the Spurge (Euphorbiaceae) family, there are a number of native Euphorbus species. The one most like the non-native is the annual Painted Poinsettia (Euphorbia cyathophora). Its bracts turn orange-red, and it is has fiddle-shaped leaves. Sometimes called Fire on the Mountain, it is closely related to Snow on the Mountain (Euphorbia marginata), which has showy, variegated light-green and white leaves.
In the Midwest, Fire on the Mountain seed can be purchased through Prairie Moon Nursery. The plants grow best in full sun or part shade, in drier soil that has not been composted. It is a good reseeder, but excess plants should be able to be pulled out easily because of the rocky, sandy soil conditions in which it prefers to grow.
All have a thick, white sap that can irritate skin and eyes.
None of the native Euphorbus species, however, are as showy as the non-native Euphorbus species.
Interestingly enough, the Poinsettia gets its name from the first American Ambassador to Mexico, Joel Roberts Poinsett. In 1828 he sent the first plants back to the U.S. where he propagated and shared the plant with friends and botanical gardens. (Mr. Poinsett is also know as the founder of the Smithsonian Institution.)
The native Snow on the Mountain (Euphorbia marginata) is different from the invasive non-native Bishop’s Weed (Aegopodium podgraria) often called by the same name.
Read more about the legends associated with Poinsettia.
