After a cold snap early in October, we've been enjoying unseasonably warm weather here in the city in the woods. On November 1st we drove up to Pisgah State Park in New Hampshire for a guided nature tour by a local professor, Tom Wessels. The walk was extremely interesting - we learned some things about trees that were completely new to me. For example, trees of different species (nay, families, even orders) can root-graft each other to stay alive. He also pointed out that the ratio of biomass between underground and above-ground can be something like 4:5 for a typical forest and considerably greater than 1 for an "old growth" forest.
However, today is probably the last of our warm days, at least for now.
Meanwhile, TiVo can be very frustrating. Can't live with it, can't live without it. When I first heard about it, around ten years ago, I thought what a great idea! When I first bought one, about 8 years ago I thought what a great idea, but what a terrible user interface. The user interface is still terrible, almost unchanged since then. Don't they have programmers?
Last weekend's SPM concerts were really wonderful: a Gabrieli Sonata
"Pian e forte", the Strauss Vier Letzte Lieder with the most marvellous soprano, Sara Jakubiak, and the Mendelssohn 3rd (Scottish) symphony, his last and probably best. The Strauss songs especially are just incredible. What a treat to be able to play this kind of music! Here's a very favorable review from John Zeugner.
Meanwhile, Marylou is receiving tons of messages in the Facebook group Friends of Marylou Speaker Churchill. She's very much in our thoughts.
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Tom later clarified what he said. For an 80-year-old forest, something like half of the biomass is below ground. For an "old growth" forest, the biomass below ground can be as much as double that which is above ground. Gives us food for thought!
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