After 7,048 miles, I am back to the Virginia rainforest and after a day with no rain, the rain is back. (I must give a shout out and thanks to my sweet Subaru- that's Pleiades in Japanese if you didn't know- Outback for doing its job of comfortable, safe transportation over the last 5 weeks of cruising, I know it needed that oil change yesterday.) Gentle so far, and just starting, but likely to continue to soak the already soggy forest off an on today. The mushrooms are loving it, I can see dozens of them, of a least a dozen different types, just sitting here looking out the tirehouse window. Sadly, only 1 shitake on the dozen logs I inoculated last year. At least two of the yard shrooms are edible, the yellow/orange Chaterelles and the spongy on the underside, Boletes. Prime eating! The others, without expert ID, will remain as decoration or for forest creatures to try and most have been nibbled.
In my tour of the US, rain/water has been the rule, only in California the exception. From Nevada to Virginia every river I crossed was ripping along, the Humboldt in the Silver State and it's lush green flood plain, the Colorado is colorado, red-brown and raging, the Missouri up to it's bank with wet fields adjacent, the Mississippi, the big trough for the entire country, full, the Wabash separating Illinois and Indiana out of or recently out of it's banks (fields for miles leading to it looking more like lakes), the Ohio is brown and powerful looking, the badly named New river, brown with white caps. And, the full rain gauge I returned to (5+ inches is all it holds) and the jungle that was my yard and garden are the result. Again, only California remains dry, wish that we could share but Earth doesn't work like that…
The peak Venus/Jupiter show has passed and while I spotted Venus through the Va. haze last night I couldn't see Jupiter. The king of the planets is dropping fast, Earth pulling away from the giant world. The next big sky show will not be visible in the sky, only in photos. Photos sent from the out realms of the solar system across 4+ hours of time at light speed from Pluto. NASA should be getting some approach pix even now but the flyby will happen on the 14th with photos not sent/received for a couple of days after that. It will be on all forms of news, 9 1/2 years in happening and 85 years after Clyde Tombaugh first spotted the now, dwarf planet (#1 Kuiper Belt object). Who knows what we'll see and learn. But until then, if you've been watching the Venus/Jupiter show for the last month or so, keep checking it out, the separation being almost as cool as the closing.
Heard there was another little aftershock here in Va. while I was away, it's still a seismic zone. My guess is there are numerous shakes around the big, fractured planet but I haven't done my due diligence to check the list recently. I'll check that and the volcano list when it's updated later today. It's Earth, don't think it can't happen to you!
While it's warm and muggy here it's still an amazing planet and I hope you get out and wander a bit, Today on Earth.
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