Unfurling

 

The buds are unfurling, Spring has arrived!! I took a nice long walk through Battersea Park along the Thames River in London yesterday and it was glorious to see all the signs of life amid the muddy puddles and brown leaves of winter.

Barberry (Berberis vulgaris)

A Judas Ear fungus (Auricularia Auricula-judae), which despite it's gelatinous texture is actually edible and quite popular in dishes in China. Boy do I like eating crazy things outdoors, and I wouldn't mind taking a nibble, but this is not a texture I want to eat regularly.

This is a holly (leaf on the left, bud on the right), but not the type of prickly common holly I usually imagine (Ilex aquifolium). This is a Highclere Holly (Ilex altaclerensis), which has either no spines on its leaves or just a few forward pointed spines. Like a common holly, the leaves are thick, but they are relatively flat and remind me a bit of waxy tropical leaves.

Wild Garlic (Allium ursinum), smells amazing when it's growing in the forest! I remember the first time I smelled a field of wild garlic growing beneath the beech trees in a Swiss forest and was just carried away with the amazing smell that reminded me of dinner. It's edible too!!

Elderberry (Sambucus nigra)

The elderberry has sprouted too. My Mom and Dad used to make the most amazing elderflower champagne (lightly fermented) in the springtime. I will never forget the sweet flavors in those reused Grolsch swingtop bottles that we waited weeks to taste.

Blackthorn blossoms

And the Blackthorn (Prunus spinosa) is in bloom. This gorgeous tree blooms beautiful cherry blossoms on a bare tree. Even before the leaves have sprouted, these flowers pop open and welcome springtime! It looks like snowflakes hanging on a tree, so wonderful! It's dark fruits can be harvested after the first frost and used to flavor liquors. These are most often called Sloe Gin (after the berries which are referred to as sloe). I would absolutely looove to make Sloe Gin someday, it sounds just lovely. Come see the recipe here.

Blackthorn blossoms and the first leaf buds popping

Blackthorn tree. See all the white snowflake-like blooms?

Oak buds (Quercus sp.)

And let's not forget, spring is also mating season. The birds are wide awake and beginning to pair, squawk, grow fancy plummage, and court their potential mates. This Moorhen (Gallinula chloropus) was friskily checking out the dock.

While these Mallards (Anas platyrhynchos) have already decided on each other and are happily waiting for bathing season.

This Magpie (whose scientific name is aptly Pica pica) picks and dances it's way along the puddles in the park looking for worms.

 And a few other flowers and sights along the way:

Gorse (Ulex europaeus)

Welcome Spring!!

Hail the Red London Buses

I hailed my first bus today! Yes, oddly, in London, the buses do not automatically stop for you, but rather, you must stick an arm out to let them know that you are at the bus stop for that specific bus. It's quite intimidating and certainly feels like an honor when this massive, double-decker red bus stops just for you! I thanked the driver, who nodded in approval of my matching long red coat and swiped my Oyster card. Triumphant!

Turns out, the iconic red 2-level London buses have recently received a green upgrade. The environmentally conscientious buses, introduced as early as 2006, operate on 38 routes across London. These are diesel-electric hybrid buses which utilize regenerative braking, like a Toyota Prius does. They use less fuel, produce less pollutants and greenhouse gases, and they are quieter than the older buses. The Mayor of London has promised to roll out 600 new buses for London (TBfL) by April 2013 (NOW!) which will be even more improved and will look a bit sleeker. I'm not sure if I have been on one yet. And to take it one step further, by 2015, buses will be retro-fitted with NOx (Nitric oxide and Nitric dioxide) reducing technology. They are really ontop of this!

And they should be. There are an astounding 19,500 bus stops and stations across London which have the capability of serving up to 90% of the city population. Impressive!

Recycling in a new town

So as some of you know, I have recently moved to London where I am slowly but surely settling in and making myself at home. It's fantastic so far! I am really enjoying it and I already feel like I fit in here better than I ever did in Zurich. I hope this feeling continues!

As always, along with the administration and paperwork and all the other little details of change that accompany a move, I am learning to navigate the London recycling system, called Recycle for London. Their website is impressive to say the least. They give you ideas for the original 3 Rs of recycling (which are so drilled into my head since grade school that I haven't consciously considered them in years):

1. Reduce

• reduce your food waste because it can be used for compost instead and creates methane gas in the landfill
• buy less! (wow, this is a novel idea for a market economy)

 2. Reuse

• reselling or gifting used furniture, clothes, and other goods
• selling things at a "car boot sale" (now, I had to google this because I didn't think it sounded legal...apparently it looks something like this and it's like a big flea market but with car trunks instead of stand. Erik, we're doing this when you come to visit! And here's a list of them in London)

3. Recycle

I am super excited about the London recycling system. Not only can I recycle all kinds of things including some I never could in other towns (MD, Tampa or Zurich) like detergent and shampoo bottles and drink cartons, BUT I can also just throw everything in the same bag and then into the big recycling container for the building! Once recycling becomes this easy to do, there's definitely no excuse to slack on it! I like it already!

Mapping Natural Resources

My second bachelor`s degree from Penn State is in Geography and over the years I have been able to use GIS (computer mapping) to do some really interesting analysis of habitats or resources by putting them into a spatial context. Not only does seeing things visually make a huge impact on people, but mapping and adding a spatial component to conservation issues can largely influence decision making.

The Trouble with Lichen - John Wyndham (1960)

Wow, I just finished reading a book that was recommended to me called The Trouble with Lichen by John Wyndham. It was written in 1960, but it is surprisingly still very relevant to social issues we face today. I`m typically not big on sci-fi books, but this one really hooked me. Despite having been written so long ago, this book fantasizes about what would happen to the global society if scientists discovered an organic and limited anti-aging substance.Can you imagine? Who would get the treatments? How would this change demographics, employment schemes, social benefits, the feminist movement, and our personal relationships?

Not only is this book written beautifully, with simple yet poetic prose, but the political aspect is very engaging. Wyndham uses his characters to play differing sides to the scientific/socio-political debate of what life would be like if we lived centuries long rather than 80 years. PLUS, there is an overarching feminist debate that goes well beyond a sought after "forever-young" potion. Brilliantly written! As a botanist, I can only hope that I discover something one day that causes even a little stir in the scientific community.

Try to get your hands on this book!

Learning from our elders

We have all heard of other cultures and even our ancestors who looked up to their elders, went to them for wisdom, and accepted elders as their leaders. These days we have lost a bit of that. Many of us have distanced or fading relationships with our grandparents. We are expected to mingle within our group of peers. And politically, retired talented, achieved and wise people are considered a hindrance to the economy.

I have had a long distance connection with my grandmother for all of my life (until these past two wonderful years with her). When we would visit grandma we would try to glean stories from her past, watch her cook amazing meals, and tried to learn what it takes to become so old, so happy, and so settled in life.

It`ll be worth your Time

I need a new watch. Ever since the beautiful Victorinox watch that my mother lovingly bought me for my 21st birthday has disappeared (to be honest, I now can`t remember what happened to it...was it stolen? lost? broken? It was obviously traumatic because I remember it dearly, but have blocked the blackness out of my mind), I have felt a bit naked. Well, actually, at first, I felt naked, very naked. But then I started to enjoy the freedom of not knowing the time. But now, living in Switzerland, it`s a big necessity. The country not only makes cool, very expensive watches, but it also runs like clockwork...literally, to the second. I love running for the train these days and seeing that I still have 30 seconds before the conductor signals that the train will be leaving the station. Those 30 seconds are like gold! I can suddenly halt my sprint and slowly saunter down the train platform as if I had planned this all along.

Ok, back to the point. I need a watch. I have been looking for a new one for a while. Sure, I gaze into the windows of the hundreds of shiny watch stores in Zürich. But what I really need is something with utility. Something that will simply tell me the time, will sit well on my wrist, and is cheap and possibly sturdy enough to survive the moments when I absent-mindedly dunk it in the river or a big muddy hole.

Then I found these. The Face Watch. 

Inspiration

Wow, check out the adventure this guy, Ken Ilgunas, is doing and writing about right now. On September 4, 2012, he started out on a 1,700 mile hike of the proposed Keystone XL Pipeline route. He began in Hardisty, Alberta, Canada and has been hiking south through Canada. By this past Saturday, he has already made it to Oklahoma through a series of foot pain (he broke a toe just before embarking on his journey), interviews and adventure.

He is an inspiration! Not only is he doing something that is quite interesting from an environmental policy standpoint, but he is also managing to keep up on blogging while camping and hiking. I am very impressed!! It was a personal and professional goal of mine that I failed during the Treehugger Tour 2010. The technology is getting better and I am learning with time.

Check out one of his videos from Christmas.

Zombie Masters

image source

Zombies make for a great horror movie and a good quick Halloween costume. But what makes zombies really quite funny and stomach-able is that they are not real. Or are they? (cue dark dramatic music...)

Back on track...

Well, I know it`s been a while. Actually it`s been ages since we have spoken last. I decided that it was time to pick back up on this blog. As much as it was a relief when I stopped posting, a task which was virtually impossible during my road trip which took me into off the grid places, I have been missing it. I felt like it was a bit of a personal and scientific outlet for me. I have been surprised to hear over the years from many friends that they actually read my blog...thanks guys!

You know when it really struck me though, just how long I have been silent on this blog? When I looked at my picture and saw that young smile and the words "27 year old environmental scientist." Things have changed!! Well, not the environmental scientist part, I am even more of an ecology lover now than 2 years ago. But the age part has. I am now sneaking up on 30 and hoping it doesn`t even see me coming!

So what has changed? I just finished my masters degree in Environmental Science (Ecology and Evolution) at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) in Zürich, Switzerland. Now I am standing in front of the "door of endless possibilities" again. This time it just has a few more gold etchings and windows in it. I will turn the handle, jump through to the "greener" side, and let you know what happens on the journey. 

My graduation ceremony