California Is on Fire

California is on fire.  Normally this is not news, as the fire season has gone from 3 months to about 6 months.  But.  This is the peak of the rainy season.  California doesn't have the usual spring-summer-autumn-winter of temperate climates, but rather a Mediterranean climate with a rainy season and a dry season.  So if it can spawn wildfires during the wettest part of the year, that means we may as well skip the remaining steps and consider that climate change has delivered a 12-month fire season.  We don't really have a fire season anymore, but rather a fire region.

Vocabulary: Wildfire Terminology

The California wildfires have brought attention to some terms relating to wildfires and thermodynamic phenomena.

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Birdfeeding

Today is cloudy and cold.  It's above freezing, though, so the snow is subsiding toward slush.

I fed the birds.  I've seen a flock of sparrows, a flock of mourning doves, several starlings, a pair of cardinals, a tufted titmouse, and a dark-eyed junco.

I put out water for the birds.

EDIT 1/12/25 -- I did a bit of work around the patio.

I  put out more water for the birds.  I've seen a fox squirrel at the hopper feeder.

I am done working outside for the night.

 

Unsold Poems for the January 7, 2025 Poetry Fishbowl

The following poems from the January 7, 2025 Poetry Fishbowl are currently available. Poems may be sponsored via PayPal -- there's a permanent donation button on my Dreamwidth profile page -- or you can write to me and discuss other methods. There are still verses left in the linkback poems "Qui Gatta Ci Cova," "Pumpkin Spice Prosperity," "Delight in Another," "A Sense of Weather Changes," "Ouroboros Insects," "The Loving Embrace of Night," "Generations of Cooks Past," "Homefree and Clear, " "One Bite at a Time," "Stars and Diamonds," "Mishpocha," "Changing Your Nature," and "Besa."


"Around the Year in 50 Birds"
Summary: This haiku collection is a calendar of seasonal bird symbolism from Japan.
150 lines, Buy It Now = $75

a bush warbler
returns from its winter home --
its song breaks the ice


"Eyes Wide, Mind Open"
Summary: Crina is curious about everything.
28 lines, Buy It Now = $15

"To the Beat of Plunging Hooves"
Summary: Horses have shaped history.
8 lines, Buy It Now = $5

"The Unknown Depths of Our Lives"
Story Date: September 2024
Summary: Lynx pursues happiness through knitting and cats.
323 lines, Buy It Now = $162

Lynx was tall and rangy, with
long wavy hair streaked in lighter
and darker shades of brown.


"Why Be Good?"
Story Date: December 2014
Summary: The telepathic kittens explore morals and mischief.
14 lines, Buy It Now = $10

Snow Leopards

... have regained almost all their historic population size in Kazakhstan. \o/