Seeing Nature's Gold

     

 

    OMG, where has the year gone? It’s Autumn already. The colors of the flora and fauna don’t change a lot here in the south of Tenerife as the seasons change. That's because our climate doesn’t fluctuate as much as it does in other parts of the world. However, when the sun disappears early in the day we know Autumn has arrived.

    While I was never a lover of the plummeting temperatures and rainy days in Scotland, I miss the changes in the color of the flora when Autumn arrives.

     I've included some photographs from Scotland that capture those Autumn moments and a short poem by, American poet, Robert Frost. 

     I would also like to thank the loyal readers of my blog which is celebrating its eleventh year this month. THANK YOU.

     Nothing Gold Can Stay

Nature first green is gold,

Her hardest hue to hold.

Her early leaf's a flower;

But only so an hour,

Then leaf subsides to leaf.

So Eden sank to grief,

So dawn goes down to day.

Nothing gold can stay.

Robert Lee Frost 1874-1963

   

Saving our World

   

   
In the last few years, the world has suffered many major ecological disturbances. Here in Tenerife for example this year we have experienced the worst forest fires in 40 years. 

    In 2021 the lives of our neighbors on the island of La Palma were turned upside down when the volcano, Cumbre Vieja erupted. It had been nearly 50 years since another one of the island’s volcanoes, Teneguía had spewed lava over the islanders and this new eruption came as a surprise to the islanders. It was known Cumbre Vieja was active as the old ridge groaned and moaned regularly, similar to my old spine. However, it never was imagined that these threats of eruption would come to fruition.

    Many of you reading this may have experienced a natural ecological disturbance first-hand in the forms I have mentioned above, or caused by ocean currents, and in the Earth’s  orbital changes.

 

    Then again we also now know that many disturbances are brought about by us humans ourselves. Whether, through industrial development, deforestation, and pollution we now know that certain actions are destroying the atmosphere around us.

    Today September 16 is International Day For the Preservation of the Ozone Layer the theme this year is, fixing the ozone layer and reducing climate change.

     

   I want to finish today with an extract from the poem, There Will Come Soft Rains by, Sara Teasdale. She wrote this poem with the Great War in mind but I believe her words are pertinent today.

Not one would mind, neither bird nor tree,  

If mankind perished utterly;

 

And Spring herself, when she woke at dawn  

Would scarcely know that we were gone. 

   

   

Little Treasures

 

 

    Here in the Canary Islands, potatoes play a huge part of the everyday diet. Due to high tourism and local love for these little treasures, the island’s locally produced supply can’t keep up with the demand. 

     Therefore, 80-90% of this versatile vegetable, the King Edward variety to be exact, is supplied from Kent, England. Unfortunately, imports have had to be suspended because of a plague of the Colorado beetle having been found recently. 

     Meaning, that to a nation of spud lovers there is now a shortage, caused by a potato rush. Of course, these greedy profiteers have been buying in bulk, which has now led to supermarkets and wholesalers limiting purchases.

     Hopefully, new trade deals will be made and new imports will begin soon, but this quote from Louisa May Alcott says it all, ‘Money is the root of all evil, and yet it is such a useful root that we cannot get on without it any more than we can without potatoes.’