Sunday, October 29, 2017

Weekend Walkabout: Only a Few Years Ago

What a difference a mere handful of years can make in the 21st century on Earth. Here are a few photos from my island "back then":
The Always Charming Florida Marsh Rabbit, MRobb

Florida Dunes in Bloom, MRobb
The Florida Marsh Rabbits and nearly all the flowers are gone now after being Cuisinarted by 2 strong hurricanes. I do not think they will return. Of course, a friend of mine who's been here longer than I have reminded me that my island is a human-created dune. It's only existed for a handful of decades-- so is its return to the sea less sad because of that? I miss the way it used to be, even if that was only the bat of an eyelash in Gaia-time.

Sometimes I feel that when I'm uploading these images to Google, I'm uploading images of our fragile, changing world to the New Virtual Ark. Will Google's AI find them interesting enough to preserve? Will Google's AI survive on a planet where humans cannot? I don't know! And I do remain optimistic, which is perhaps silly at this point, but we've come through crises before. Still, I do feel like uploading some more photos of my little island each week....

Saturday, October 28, 2017

Perfume Post: That Which Survives (Hurricanes and Heat)

Perfumistas like me often debate the ideal conditions for perfume longevity. What precise temperature and level of humidity is optimum? Well, I can tell you what temperature and humidity is not at all optimum....
Hurricane Weather.
Hurricane Weather, MRobb
I've gone through what I call Speed Prioritizing My Life twice in a year, first for Hurricane Matthew, then for Hurricane Irma. In both cases, I had to leave my home and was told that, due to storm surge, I might never see my home or neighborhood again. In both cases I got to return to a damaged, but habitable, abode. Did my perfume collection suffer? OK, that sounds like the most trivial silliness, and on one level, it is. But most of us have collections, and all of us have possessions that just, for no logical reason, make us happy. My perfume collection and tiny perfumery lab has been a sanity keeper for decades.
A few of my lab creations.
So...civil and military authorities are telling you to get out NOW. You have a couple of cars in reasonable shape, some gas in the tank, a family, probably pets, and a whole bunch of Stuff. What do you take with you???

This is why I call it Speed Prioritizing Your Life, and it happens for anyone dealing with a natural disaster, like hurricanes, fires, tsunamis. Earthquakes, you don't get any warning, so they don't count.

Here's what I took for Irma: Sauf Contre Bombarde 32, possibly the finest incense perfume ever created, L'Artisan Parfumeur Traversee du Bosphore, because it's immensely comforting, and there is a charming family story connected to its creation, and Ormonde Jayne Champaca, because I'm nuts for that one, and a bottle of Angel that one of my children gifted to me in London, again, connected to a lovely family story. Those were all I had room for. I couldn't take my scent library or anything from my lab, except for my book of formulae for perfumes I've come up with over the years. Oh, wait, I took a bottle of frankincense eo, because I'm a Frank Nut.

We had all agreed, if the storm surge was severe and our homes and boxes of Stuff headed out into the Atlantic, we'd have a beach salvage party afterwards. Would I find some of my collection out there in the waves? It was a pretty funny image!
OK, Guys, where's my Stuff???

So as it turned out, my home was sort of OK. But with a third of it blasted out, and none of it with A/C for awhile, in days of tropical heat and humidity, the collection did indeed take a hit. What died?

Pretty much anything with natural citrus or florals. Toast. Gross, nasty, burnt and moldy toast. Thrown out with the furniture and drywall. What survived?

Everything based on resins and spices. Not surprising, because these have been used since ancient times to preserve. In Egypt, preservation of the dead for millenia was managed with these fragrant substances. So they are fine. I'm wearing them.

Lots of synthetics like the woody-ambers and the musks were also fine. I think they'll be in our ecosystem, intact, for millenia! Whether that is a good or bad thing is left to be discovered....

Pondering an Uncertain Future....



Thursday, October 19, 2017

Who Will Give a Bug a Hug? (and plant native plants)

Thrips, yeek. Aphids, yuck. Bees, get hugs, wasps, too, even, well, a mental hug. Spiders are groovy. And OK, ladybugs eat aphids, and I love ladybugs, so I guess some aphids are OK. Some beneficial probably eats thrips, too.

And there are so many beneficial insect species on this planet, some we haven't even identified yet. And they are leaving! As I've said before, humans are insuring that this is the Age of Loneliness....
Humans Alone in a Dreary World?
Just because we CAN spray more pesticides doesn't mean we SHOULD. Just because we CAN build another minimall or parking lot doesn't mean we SHOULD.  When we do these things, we lose insects, the very base of the food web, and our crucial pollinators. The BBC has an alarming story which SHOULD keep us all awake at night:

http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-41670472

And of course, the birds and amphibians are leaving, too. Ditto non-human mammals. What kind of planet are we making?? Do you want your kids to live in such a world? I sure don't. Can we convince the Captains of Industry, the One Percenters, that they don't want to live on a barren planet, either, assuming anyone can live on a barren rock...?

On a personal, homey level, this is the time to plant insect-friendly gardens. Bring back our butterflies and moths, our bees and wasps, our beetles and mayflies. My garden got trashed (again) by a hurricane this year, but as soon as hurricane season is over, I'm off to my Native Plant Nursery and I will rebuild. Even if it lasts only a matter of months before it's smashed by the next hurricane, it will give a welcome home to some lonely bugs. How about you?

Will you give a bug a hug??

Fairchild Tropical Gardens, Miami, Florida: home to many insects.

The Rare and Exquisite Cannonball Tree, which loves bugs.