April 2023 - On & Off Earth
After living in town my first year in Louisa, I have lived in or almost in the woods ever since. The first neighborhood I moved into already had the homes connected with moss covered trails. I was happy to join in with trail maintenance and then enjoy wandering the forest on quiet, cushy pathways.
The piece of Louisa forest I purchased was wooded, no hint of a driveway and I had to build trails to even get in to make camp to then decide where a house might go. I worked on the house and added trails; those first trails, now mostly covered in lush moss. Seems if you clear the leaves, moss begins to slowly appear. Many friends would say the growth of my house and the growth of the trails and the moss have moved at a similar pace.
Moss is amazing stuff, growing best in the deep shade of a forest, through deluge or drought, it hangs in there. The fossil record shows mosses evolved beneath the first trees about 350 million years ago, when much of today’s coal was forming (coal is just dead plants compressed to rock). After any bit of a dry spell, the moss on my trails fades and cracks, crunchy underfoot. With even a light misting of rain, it is back to a lush green cushy carpet again. I’m trying to get it to grow everywhere I can; no mowing needed.
Before April is out, there will be grass mowing to do. While the mosses greens up in the woods, yards, too, are in grow mode. I have just found the first tick of the year, seen a couple of black snakes cruising about, and spotted Lady Slippers poking their little orchid heads above ground for a look around. The dogwood are just about to burst into bloom. By month’s end my view into the woods will be much shorter and very green.
March slides into April with the moon waxing brighter every night reaching the Full “Pink” Moon on the 6th. Venus continues to shine bright high in the southwest at sunset as the Evening Star. Speedy Mercury pops up into the southwest sky early in April, highest and brightest on the 11th but is hard to spot just a week later. Mars, a dim version of its former self remains high overhead at dark but is now less bright than many of the still lovely stars of the winter constellations. The Sun moves out of Pisces into Aries on the 20th.
Every six months the Earth and moon line up and we have eclipses somewhere on the planet. This April kicks off a series of three solar eclipses that peaks in April of 2024 with another Great American Solar Eclipse. Next April’s eclipse will likely be even bigger than the 2017 event, with over 4 minutes of darkness along the shadow’s center line. The sun will only be about 80% covered here in Virginia; I will be outside Austin, Texas in the path of darkness. Start making travel plans, good spots are already being reserved.
But first, an annular eclipse (the moon too far out to cover the sun completely) occurs across the SW Pacific this month on the 20th. In October, another annular eclipse will be visible across the SW United States, (about 35% covered here in VA). I’m working on plans to be in Texas for that one, too. To practice for the big one!
April 22nd marks the 53rd celebration of Earth Day but Earth is in the news most every day. Extreme weather seems more the norm than the exception these days. Dramatic, disruptive changes will continue on our planet and proactive adaptions on our part will be far better than reactive responses made after the next disaster. As I’ve said, our home, our choices.
Gettin' snakey
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