Stones Forming From Rain

Time flies and before I know it, over a month has passed since the last blog. A trip to Hawaii helped to put the wet and dreary weather into context. All that rain we had makes this land lush and beautiful, but it does tend to dampen the mood. In Hawaii we ate right off the tree at our friends place (Malama Ka'Aina Farm)
Passion Fruit, bananas, Tree Tomato (cyphomandra betacea), lemons, and some others that I don't remember the name of.

On the home front we are still harvesting kale, chard, bok choy, Spotted Trout Lettuce, and even a few radishes (not too tasty). It isn't tropical or sub-tropical but it is fresh veggies! Tonight I planted an asian pear and two Pineapple Guava trees. Yesterday one of our apple trees got a haircut.

I'm reading a book of stories by Andrea Barret: Servants of the Map. It is a wonderful collection of stories and of the stories I've read they take place in the early and mid-1800's. Very thoughtful and though-provoking. In one story there is the question about how the stones that fall from the sky are formed from the rain. You might say, huh? But if you think about it, if you didn't know about asteroids, comets, and space debris, what would your guess be about where those rocks come from that fall from the sky. Now we call them meteors and just accept that they come from outer space. Or another is, how do you explain dew? If you didn't know about condensation, respiration of plants, dewpoint, etc.- how would you explain why the grass is wet in the morning when it hadn't been raining?

That leads me to wonder what will people look back 100-150 years and have a chuckle  "How could they have thought that?" What will they say about climate change in 100 years?

I look around Aisling and see a landscape that probably hasn't changed too much since the trees were harvested and the stumps cleared (unless this was a meadow land). But how we see the land has changed quite a bit. Clear cutting has become less common. The Willamette Valley is no longer cleared by burning the brush. However, when I was taking my biology series in undergraduate school there were only three kingdoms and now in the U.S. there are six kingdoms. The way we perceive things change even if that which is in front of us remains the same. Does that mean that everything is changing? Does it mean that since our view of something changes that the object of our observation changes?

As I wander around the property, these thoughts come to me. The subdued days of winter are great times to contemplate these things.