Weather: Snow from late January finally disappeared from most places in my yard by last Sunday. The weather bureau forecast more snow starting Wednesday night. We got a little early on Thursday morning that was gone by noon. As one forecaster said earlier in the week:
“There are all the ingredients for a robust healthy winter event, except they all occur at different times from each other.” [1]
Usually the progression of the sun that dictates some of our weather is too subtle to observe. This week it has been getting into my eyes in the house around 7:30 am.
Last snow: 2/17. Week’s low: 14 degrees F. Week’s high: 62 degrees F in the shade. Winds were up to 38 mph in Santa Fé on Wednesday.
What’s green in my yard: Leaves on Apache plume, cliff rose, grape hyacinths, large-leaved soapwort, blue flax, and some bearded iris, hollyhocks, and sweet peas. Most of the green leaves are close to the ground, often under the protection of taller neighbors. The most exposed leaves on shrubs tend to be fleshy.
What’s turned red in the area: New growth on trees in the rose family, especially apricots.
What’s turned red in my yard: Leaves on some alfilerillo, coral bells and coral beard tongues; some stems on roses are pale green and some are maroon.
What’s turned yellow in the area: Branches on a big weeping willow.
What’s gray in my yard: Snow-in-summer.
Animal sightings: I scarred up birds from shrubs when I was walking around Saturday.
Tasks: More people have cut down large trees. I saw branches down along one road that rises from the river on Tuesday.
In my yard, I picked up broken pieces of pigweed and Russian thistle from outside the fence that were thoroughly wet. The winds apparently took down another long branch on the globe willow. I moved from purple leaf plums to trees of heaven in my annual update of plant records.
First of the local ditch meetings was held last Sunday.
Weekly update: With climate change, perspective is everything. One can say the area has been drying since the end of the Ice Age, since the 1950s, [2] or since 2021. [3] All are true. Individuals chose the date that fits their experience or expectations of reality.
When I am looking at the resilience of the prairie I know things have been changing for several decades in New Mexico. When I cannot order organic brown rice because last fall’s crop has sold out, I am suddenly aware of what has been happening in California.
Rice disappeared from the grocery shelves when the first restrictions were announced for the Coronavirus in the spring of 2020. I am not sure why people stocked up on pasta and rice, but they did. The panic buying coincided with crop failures in Asia, so shortages were widespread. My local store managed to obtain some in late summer, and I was able to return to organic brown rice when the crop was processed later in the year.
Since it has been available ever since, I was surprised when it did not appear on the website I usually use.
Of course, I had not read stories that said rice farmers in California were cutting back their production last spring by 20%. One wonders how long it will take for the land to recover: one farmer said in September that the fields he left fallow had “dried out in the sun” [4].
The preference for a particular brand of organic rice is not just snobbery. Not all rice is the same. The seeds contain traces of organic arsenic, with brown rice have a bit more and balsamic a bit less. This usually is harmless. [5]
More dangerous forms of inorganic arsenic enter the plant through ground water in the South and in parts of Asia. [6] I always assumed it was a consequence of the watering method since that heavy metal is buried deep. From the water it sinks into the soil where it is absorbed by the grasses’ roots and, then, passed into the seeds.
However, there is another source for rice from states along the Mississippi river where cotton was grown earlier. Before the boll weevil, the cotton worm was a problem. The moth finally was controlled in the 1870s when the USDA began recommending “the use of Paris green or other arsenical compounds” in the 1870s. [7]
The heavy metal does not go away, and still can contaminate rice grown decades later. [8] I would guess that the house-brand rice I was able to buy locally came from the South.
Those who live in urban areas and think every inconvenience, like the restrictions from the virus or the weather, is some passing phenomenon designed specifically to make them miserable have a more egocentric perspective than those of us who face the consequences of change every day.
Notes on photographs:
1. Emerging leaves on Apache plume (Fallugia paradoxa), 19 February 2022.
2. Leaves on one-seed juniper (Juniperus monosperma), 19 February 2022.
3. Leaves on cliff rose (Purshia mexicana), 19 February 2022.
End notes:
1. Weather forecast for Albuquerque area, NOAA website, 14 February 2022 at 2:18 am by Guyer.
2. Dan Scurlock. From the Rio to the Sierra: An Environmental History of the Middle Rio Grande Basin. Fort Collins, Colorado: United States Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Station, 1998. Chapter 2, especially 14, 19, and 30.
3. Seth Borenstein. “Western Megadrought Worsens To Driest In At Least 1,200 Years.” Associated Press, 14 February 2022.
4. Luke Leary. “California Rice Harvest Impacted by Drought after Farmers Slashed Plantings 20%.” Sacramento, California: KXTV television, ABC 10, 29 September 2021.
5. Kayla McDonell. “Brown vs White Rice - Which Is Better For Your Health?” Health Line website, 31 August 2016.
6. M. Azizur Rahman and H Hasegawa. “High Levels of Inorganic Arsenic in Rice in Areas Where Arsenic-contaminated Water Is Used for Irrigation and Cooking.” Science of the Total Environment 409(22):4645–4655:15 October 2011.
Tom Murphy, Kongkea Phan, Emmanuel Yumvihoze, Kim Irvine, Ken Wilson, David Lean, Borey Ty, Alexander Poulain, Brian Laird, and Laurie Hing Man Chan. “Groundwater Irrigation and Arsenic Speciation in Rice in Cambodia.” Journal of Health and Pollution 8(19):180911:September 2018.
7. W. D. Hunter. The Cotton Worm or Cotton Caterpillar. (Alabama argillacea Hubn.) Washington: United States Department of Agriculture, Bureau of Entomology, 18 May 1912. 2.
8. Matt Shipp. “Rice Crop Timeline for the Southern States of Arkansas, Louisiana, and Mississippi.” United States Department of Agriculture, Southern Integrated Pest Management Center website.
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