January: The Dog Course
Song of the day: Bruce Cockburn, High Winds, White Sky
Today’s Phenology: Temperature hovering around freezing for the last several days, leading to minor snow melt and some ice in places. Sun is neglecting us. Landscape is varying shades of white. Foxes and/or coyotes spotted on neighborhood security cameras. Many bunny tracks in the yard. Eagle spotted riding the winds over the river, looking for dinner. Crows dominate the bare trees. A damp cold that creeps into your bones. Sunday evening always feels like sunday evening, a school night, the end of control over time. The clock is ticking.
End of the Season, St. Paul Saints, last home game of 2017
Song of the day:Louis Armstrong, When the Saints Go Marchin’ In
centering stone
Song of the Day: Harold Budd, Robin Guthrie, and Eraldo Bernocchi, Winter Garden
Common Good Books, St. Paul
Yesterday’s Phenology: A bit of a boring day. Sunny, mid 70s. Walked around the pond, the baby geese are about.
Song of the day: Percy Sledge, When a Man Loves a Woman
Coffee Roaster, Dunn Brothers Coffee, St. Paul
Yesterday’s Phenology: Another good day, overcast and cool. Maybe a few sprinkles in the evening, maybe a little sunshine. Seagulls wheeling in the sky, making a racket. May have been Parking Lot Gulls, actually.
Song of the day: Sarah Vaughan, Black Coffee
one from the archives, june 2010, wutelco
Yesterday’s phenology: an overcast day, temps in the upper 40s, nary a drop of sunlight to be seen. Green shoots are busy shooting up.
Song of the day: Tom Waits, Underground
One from the archives: Brian Boru Pipe Band, St. Patrick’s Day Parade, St. Paul, 2010
Yesterday’s phenology: March continues. Temps maybe crept into the 40s. Snow receding. Grass beneath all brown and dead looking. Martha reports seeing a murder of crows harassing a great horned owl in the morning. There certainly are many crows aboot. That must be a sign of something. “When hundreds of crows do thee see, then…?”
Song of the day: Sinead O’Connor & The Chieftans, The Foggy Dew
one from the archives, Kat-Keys, march, 2010
Yesterday’s Phenology: Sunny but not so warm. Mid 30s? Slow melting. Crows. Jupiter and the Moon up in the early morning sky, very bright.
Song of the day: Harry James and his Orchestra, It’s Funny to Everyone but Me
night caffe
Yesterday’s Phenology: Any day, now, phenology is going to start busting out all over. But not yesterday, which was overcast and cold like February should have been. It was in the upper 20s, but felt colder. Probably due to the 60s we’ve experienced lately. Context is so important. Anyway, it was cold, and getting colder now by the minute.
Song of the day: Frank Sinatra, One for my Baby
One from the archives, sculpture, st. paul, march 2010
Yesterday’s Phenology: Well, as you might suspect, after a day in the 60s and thunderstorms, the temperature dropped last night and I woke up to a dusting of snow on the ground. Minnesota. The day started off gray and then morphed to partly cloudy, and the temp got up into the 40s, I think, but the big story was the wind, it was windy all day, very windy, 30 – 45 mph winds. The clouds were all dramatic and fast moving. It was an interesting day. The geese around the pond, and the crows, seemed to be enjoying the strong winds. Like they were having fun up there.
Song of the day: Paul Simon, American Tune, 2015
One from the archives: First Bank, St. Paul, March 2009
Yesterday’s Phenology: A very nice spring day. Probably got up into the upper 50s, and the wind died down, so it was actually almost warm out there. The wee snow-drop flowers are a-coming up in the garden, seems to be a few more than in previous years. Crows still rule the sky, but I did see a flicker, singing an odd song. Maybe it wasn’t a flicker. I’ll have to check the film.
Song of the day: The Drifters, On Broadway
crow party
Yesterday’s Phenology: Well, I don’t have much to tell, being stuck in my cube all day. No frost on the windshield in the morning. Seemed sunny out, from what I could tell. I oughta get out more, I guess. The days are lengthening out nicely, I should make mention of that, how nice it is to drive to work in the early dawn light, and come home and it’s still light out. Makes a big difference. Well, makes a bit of difference.
Song of the day: Meade “Lux” Lewis, Yancey Special
Raymond and University, 5:55 pm
Yesterday’s Phenology: a more typical late February day. Temps in the low 40s. Lakes still largely ice covered, but bare of snow, so you can’t always be sure.
Song of the Day: Bennie Moten’s Orch, That’s What I’m Talking About
