Earth Day and Arbor Day

Earth Day is April 22^nd. That's this Friday. I've always liked Earth Day. People get all concerned about the condition of the planet and want to clean up trash and stuff. I would be nice to have more of that, but I'll settle for what we can get.

National Arbor Day [USA] is April 29^th. I'm sure you realize by now I like Arbor Day too. I wish the two days were farther apart. They're like birthdays too close together, they just get lumped together rather than fully appreciated for their own uniqueness. Well, since I'm only blogging once a month now, I'm going to do that too. [Yes, I'm a hypocrite, guilty of my own complaint. And yes, the Dragon post will have to wait yet another month. Earth Day and Arbor Day only come once a year and are too good to miss.]

One of the things I love best about the natural world is watching it reclaim damaged areas and take back what belongs to it. I love the part of Rudyard Kipling's Jungle Book II 

 Strawberry plants seeded and fertilized by birds in our yard
make delicious strawberries.

[One of my favorite books.] where Mowgli calls on Hathi, the elephant, and tells him to “Let in the jungle.” Then the wild animals invade the village full of people planning to burn his adopted family as witches because he could talk to the animals. [No humans were harmed in this “letting in of the jungle.” Jungle Book Wiki page] I can picture it so clearly, everything trampled and broken and exposed to sunlight, all the stored seeds starting to grow and the vines snaking their way into the farm land. [Yes, I am looking forward to seeing the new Jungle Book movie, but I haven't had the chance yet, so don't tell me if that part is in the movie or not.]

Here's a link to a short, short series of pics that show plants overcoming obstacles to grow and reclaim. My facebook page reshare of Jamie Janover's The Force of Nature [It tickles me to see the slow, steady struggle and eventual victory over man's liberal use of restraint against nature. I love cheering for the underdog.]

I've recently been researching for my series tree cover on islands off the west coast of Ireland, a rather specific piece of information that is very hard to track down. So I looked into Google Earth, decided it was way more involved than I needed and just went to Earth View Maps to look at the islands. It's a useful tool to find out current information. Unfortunately the rocky islands seem to support very little tree growth. I failed to find anything I would refer to as a forest. I'll have to figure out a plan B for that one, but the tool was useful.

I hope everyone has a great Earth Day and a great Arbor Day too.