Full Mardi Gras Maple Moon

 The Full Mardi Gras Maple Moon rise nearly synchronous with the setting sun on February 5, Sunday, so I declare that day the Full moon. My calendar says could be Saturday or Monday but who can tell. They will look the same to me.

This FMA is also dedicated to my friend (???) Pat, last name to remain unstated, after that comment at the Andalusia Ball where he was The MC. "Perhaps we could wow the crowd with a recitation of that months FMA! Nobody would notice..." This proclamation came form him after I told him he missed an opportunity, the stellar MC he is, of introducing the Tree Whisperer, moi, to the hometown crowd. He could have mixed it in with the Mayor Pro Temps, High Sheriff and so on. And I can always use the free advertising in my little side gig, it is so hard to be an expert in your own backyard k y'all... and then he throws that barb back at me and laughs irreverently. Now, I know who my friends are...

Name of this month's FMA comes from brother John (and my Dad) who, traveling to BR-town along the I-10 noted the woods are full of Mardi Gras Maple blooming since Christmas solstice. December January SRM Swamp Red Maple blooms are not that rare, but this year I noted along with the SRM bloom a significant bud swell on many of the trees by early January, after that major early cold. Our Dad named the SRM Mardi Gras Maple because of the color they offer our deciduous forests about Mardi Gras each year. SRM bloom December/January and that is it for the male plants until the leaves develop showing some color. The females in contrast to the males keep the strong color as the winged seed inflate and increase in color as they do beyond Mardi Gras.

Bud swell on other tree species is usually later, worth keeping an eye on since I'm noting early stem and some leaf expansion.

From NATIVE GARDENING In The South by William R. Fontenot 

...or as I refer to him, BMBF, Bird Man Bill Fontenot. Bill was my introduction to Bird Watching and landscaping to attract birds and wildlife.

From the dedication in the book:

                                        To Our Father

                                        Who is in Heaven.

                                        Hallowed is His Name.

Ah, Bird Man, what a guy! 

I have been meaning to call Bill. On these cool nights, during my walk to the coop to collect eggs, when it is not raining, I hear night birds calling. Big calls, so I'm figgering some kind of Whip-Poor-Will relative like Chuck-Wills-Widow???? OR could be some kind of night-feeding crawfish-eating wading-bird flying over Ol Jim's Coop. Bird Man will know...

I reference his book extensively to teach my Environmental Landscape Design, ENVS 410 or as I like to call it, Enviro-Wacco Landscaping.

From the former Poet Lauriat of Utah David Lee, in Mine Tailings:

Ode to the Robber Barons

                                   On open pit mining

May you live 

In greed and gluttony

May you die

alone and unmourned

May your memory

vanish from the Earth

Near the back of this fine book of poetry I found this about the author. "Dave is in advanced training to achieve his goal of becoming a World Class Piddler."

My feeling is that Dave is succeeding quite well at achieving his goal.

1-17-23 My bud Dennis called to say that he has been watching a Bald Eagle in his horse pasture next to his house. Dennis lives on the edge of the marsh above Weeks Island. Eddie says they are not all that scarce here in the winter. Eddie lives on the western edge of the great backwater/overflow swamp along the Atchafalaya.

In response to what seems like endless rain this winter, after no rain last winter. Kai Siedenburg in Poems of Earth and Spirit:

The Gift of Rain

For the first time

in a long time

it rained today--

each tiny droplet

a gift

to a thirsty plant

or animal.

Seeds say "yes!"

Plants say "yes!"

Parched mosses

say "yes, yes, yes!"

From the tiniest

soil microbe

to the tallest redwood,

we rejoice.

Gratitude y'all, gratitude!

1-22-23 Early am, 7ish. I look out the front window to see a large bird on the ground, crow sized or a bit larger, different look to it though. After a moment i see it fly up to a 5' chain link fence top-bar, just perching for a bit. Then it is down on the ground again, this time in a groove (drain, small ditch) out of site. Now she is up with wings spread very gracefully. My first thought is shoots that hawk is crawfishing, it is so wet. Now I realize it is bathing. We have so much rain on rain the ground is saturated and standing water is everywhere. Not a bird bath, a hawk bath in my front yard! Gratitude y'all.

My favorite Janisse Ray poem y'all:

from A House of Branches-

Eleventh

I know where 

the ribbon snake 

lives--

under the maple 

by the barn.

One day when I

was there

a dead leaf

cracked like fire

and I saw her, 

slip of green

I followed  

I followed 

around the waist

of the tree, through already 

dying grass.

When she turned

to face me, eyes 

burning, she

studied me.

I--- wanting 

to feel her softness,

her certainty, the stove

of her tiny heart---

touched one finger, 

only one,

upon her perfect tail

At that moment

the tree opened

and she wound

inside, her 

passageway

dark and narrow.

Long before

I turned away, 

no doubt, 

she lay 

on her mat of earth

at the bottom

of the maple, 

among the roots, strip

of brilliant 

kindling.

The eleventh commandment is

love the earth,

love the tree,

love the snake.

Love the moon y'all, get out an enjoy it, looks as though we may get some breaks in the cloud cover. Include those kids and old people. P and I will be out with a glass of tart red each to raise them to you our friends.

Oh, I have set May 31 as my last day to work here. June is my first day of retirement. YeeeHawww!

peace love possumhugs

BT