18 Comments

Another great read, thank you.

Regarding time:

http://blog.idonethis.com/science-of-slowing-down-time/

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This post made my heart smile. I too love Arisaema - they are a true gift from Mother Nature. Thank you Neko for sharing your thoughts, your world, your music. You too are a gift that I am ever thankful for.

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Not quite as exotic or extreme weather in Yorkshire UK, but the seasons mean everything to me and keep me grounded as I walk my local wooded valley, first ever sighting of deer in the spring was this years highlight!

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The return of summer is marked here by the return of the woodpeckers to their designated pecking tree as the little songbirds sing out from their shadowy perches, making for a lovely sonorous treat when I open the windows. In deep summer, the frogs on the creek add their chorus to the mix. Some nights I won't put on any records so that I can hear them unobstructed.

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Random snowmelt streams across a hidden trail. Clear, thin ice bridges that seem to shatter if you look at them too long. Step carefully over.

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I hear what you're saying about black flies. I spent a week at Mt Katahdin with one eye shut, back in the day, because of a black fly bite!

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A new snowfall on an intensely cold winter day stuns me -- the snow hanging on the trees, the cold so sharp that it stings to breathe (and when you do, the clouds linger in the air), the intense quiet as the drifts swallow sound, and just the absolute purity of it all.

But, I think my most favorite day of the year is the one when the mayflies emerge and swarm along the southern sun-warmed side of my home.

Named Ephemeroptera, as they live for just that one day.

If had a choice, that day would be the first of the year:

To mark the emergence of life, remind us of the ephemeral essence of lifespan, and as encouragement to fit as much joy in the time that we have.

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Gorgeous newsletter. Thank you for doing it! I plan to get on the paid list soon. Also love being in the blizzard (as long as I am home and not needing to move far from my area) and in the cracking cold. Excellent point about the movie in our heads, western system of time, Doug firs with sharpened ends. Because I was able to continue working during the pandemic, I was able to think a little more about what I wanted to work on. Your newsletter on nature and life is a cool approach to that. Cheers!

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37=25 modulo 12, because they have the same remainder when you put 12 into them.

(12*3)+1 & (12*2)+1

108=216 modulo 12, but also modulo 9, because 12 goes into them both evenly, with the same remainder, in this case 0, but so does 9

are there two numbers with more than one modulus, whose modular remainders vary, unlike 108 and 216, which when put into 12s or 9s just come out with a remainder of 0? I don't know

"modular arithmetic"

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Jack in the Pulpit / arisaema triphyllum

“Fillet of a fenny snake” (Macbeth) Shakespeare... Also known as Indian Turnip, Parson-in-the-Pulpit, Lord-and-Lady, Cuckoopint, Aronskelk, Iroquois breadroot, Starchwort, Memory root, Bog onion, American arum, Devil's ear, Pepper turnip, Dragonroot, Wake robin, Cooter-Wampee, Plant-of-Peace, Cobra lily, Petit precheur (Quebec).

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I do want to add that I so miss the dramatic changes of seasons. Having lived in Australia for ten years, I miss the seasonal changes in Ontario more and more....

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Blackflies.....they are the worst. they bite and leave open wounds! They enter eyes, nose, ears.....yet they only breed in rushing water.

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The days definitely do linger longer and the seasons they make stretch to a much more contented length (at least for me) when we measure their passage through the slower pulse of wild things. Clocks and calendars are overrated. The time they count becomes irrelevant when we're paying attention to the right things. I think that has something to do with why childhood is slow and adulthood so often moves at mach 5. As kids, our focus on the world hasn't been corrupted yet. As adults, we've lost sight.

That said, there's some science here, too.

https://www.iflscience.com/brain/why-time-speed-up-get-older/

Turns out life (weird!) perhaps really is like a movie we're playing in our heads. The problem is the camera is getting as old as we are. All the more reason to aim it at fireflies and hawkweed as often as we can.

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Oh man, you get snow buntings? I've yet to see one.

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I feel I have accepted the existence of mosquitos. Seeing that I live in Northern California now over my home state of Michigan may have changed my view since they are far less a plague. Ticks on the other hand, truly the worst. I’m sure some creatures love nibbling them. I just pick them off my dogs and curse the little suckers.

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We’re dealing with loads of those caterpillars that give you rashes. I hope they turn into something beautiful cos I want to all to disappear right now.

Mosquitoes are evil beasts, much like black flies.

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