Jane Powers

Book cover of Urban Plants by Trevor Dines

I'm made happy by all the excellent, slightly abstruse words in Urban Plants by @trevorthebotanist.bsky.social. Here's one: endozoochory (seed dispersal in animal poop). But my favourite so far is BATOLOGIST: one who studies BRAMBLES. Thanks, Trevor, for brightening this rainy day 😊
#urbanplants

It was all artists and hippies and workers connected to the port.

Yes! Death of a mother is pretty world-rocking.

I’ve lived in Dun L for years. It used to be tremendously cheap and unfashionable.

Oh bummer.

Well, if it’s any consolation, I’ve been in bed all weekend with some ghastly respiratory bug. But, yes, the night sky lifts my spirits hugely.

The sky is so good tonight even in my light-polluted town. Jupiter is there. Orion too, and Sirius — brightest star in the sky now.

Oh, that is sad. So young. I was 29 when mine died, also of cancer. But there is a world of difference between 22 and 29.

Oh, that is just perfect. I love that, a “children’s moon”. Your mother sounds like a warm and funny woman!

Full moon in the sky, with chimneys and houses underneath it. A tree in the foreground.

Get outside if you have clear skies! Bright and beauteous full moon to the northeast. My phone pic does not do it justice. Such a thrill to see it after all the rain, rain, rain.

That’s a pity! It’s so lovely and delicate. And delightful — with the egg and pupa and food plant.

That’s gorgeous!

And re Keble Martin, I demanded it from a friend for my 21st birthday, aeons ago. I still have it. A lovely book.

That is beautiful! Gorgeous whiskery Grimmia.

I guess I was too late. No shimmers here and the green was barely detectable. I lived in Minnesota when I was younger and they were pretty spectacular there, dancing in the sky.

Mine was half an hour later. Could you see that with naked eye? I’m jealous, if so. I wish we’d have ten minutes of dark sky now and again. The lights here are so bright.

Night sky shading from green to a reddish purple.

If you’re feeling left out because you couldn’t see the #northernlights, well I couldn’t either in light–polluted Dun Laoghaire. Just a faint tint of green, barely perceptible to the naked eye. My cheating phone, however, had slightly better luck. But, I still feel I didn’t witness #auroraborealis

That’s lovely — he’s probably doing aphid clearance. Good boy!
We had 14 bird species in garden today 😊 Temp has been hovering between 0° and 2° during the day — really severe for our normally balmy garden.

Fox in a mass of plants

Garden visitor: phone pic through window. He/she has been here quite a bit since the cold snap, cleaning up under the bird feeders. I’m pleased at the healthy state of his/her coat. The local foxes had a lot of mange over the last few years.

“And, not all red valerians are red…” 🤔

Night view of a town with lines of chimneys and windows. A tall antenna on the Garda station shoots skyward. The moon is bright and there is a glimpse of silvery sea over some of the roofs.

Just a phone pic. But it might encourage you to go outside and look at the magnificent moon, with Jupiter in attendance below. Lots of light pollution where I live, but the sight still thrills me.

It's an old and obvious pattern. An unpopular president - failing on the economy and losing his grip on power at home - decides to launch a war for regime change abroad.

The American people don’t want to “run” a foreign country while our leaders fail to improve life in this one.

I did!

2°C and a biting north wind, especially by the sea. Glad to be home!

Clump of daisy-like flowers against backdrop of withered stems.

Orange flower with green caterpillar among a mess of green-grey leaves

I managed an hour for my second #NewYearPlantHunt Seventeen species in flower. This clump of Scentless Mayweed agg. is so much hardier than all its brethren on the East Pier in Dun Laoghaire. And this Pot Marigold in a back lane has a very cold caterpillar on board

I've got a similar grass, but not sure what it is. My grass knowledge is woeful. Maybe cock's-foot?

Thank you for the encouragement. Husband has taken up baking, so I don't need cake, but maybe hot chocolate :)

Might do! Question: should I cover same ground and go farther, or start from where I wimped out? Thanks!

Satellite map showing 1.5km walk through an urban area

I wimped out after half an hour of my #NewYearPlantHunt. Didn’t make it to the seafront or any of the back lanes. I forgot to put on appropriate footwear and my feet refused to go farther. Still, I got about a dozen species in flower.

Opinion | Knitting Helps Us Embrace Life’s Messy Imperfections (Published 2023)

www.nytimes.com/2023/12/26/o...

For all my fellow knitters out there, or those who know a knitter, an absolutely beautiful animation about this intricate craft.

Support the Bill to Ban Fox Hunting in Ireland - Irish Wildlife Trust The Irish Wildlife Trust supports the Bill to Ban Fox Hunting in Ireland. We are calling for a free vote for all TDs on this Bill. It is an amendment to the Animal Health and Welfare Act (2013) which ...

Support the Bill to Ban Fox Hunting in Ireland 🦊

Background & call to action here 👉 iwt.ie/support-the-...

@banbloodsports.bsky.social @irishenvnet.bsky.social #BanFoxHunting

Newspaper cutting with headline: “So where’s the new Geoff Hamilton?” (He was the presenter of Gardeners’ World decades ago.)

I’m trying to empty one of the filing cabinets in my office, and came across this. No idea why I kept it. From the Daily Telegraph in 1997. Older gardeners will get a laugh out of it.