Spring Bee Hiving Moon
Our country is so big, so very, very big as Monty Python might say. Having recently transited the central portion of the country from Minnesota through Texas and back up through Colorado, then the plains again this week, and an outlier six days spent in the southwestern states of New Mexico and Arizona, I can testify to that with seat time. Well over 5,000 miles this month
While it’s probably true that I share more culturally with Texans and folks from Kansas than I do, say, with folks native to Thailand or even France, (though in some matters like religion and politics, I have my doubts), it is also true that the geographical difference between our hectare at 45 degrees north and that of another hectare outside Lubbock, Texas is great. Soil types, climate, native vegetation, water availability, history of land use, former inhabitants, current state of the aquifers, natural resource policy, native fauna, degree of environmental degradation are all different.
Here in Colorado the big difference is topography. They have more top in their -ography. Leaving near or in a young mountain range like the Rockies is not the same as living in the heavily glaciated state of Minnesota where three major biomes: Big Woods, Tallgrass Prairie and Boreal Woods meet. Water versus rock. Flat versus high and variegated. With grandkids here, I often wonder about the difference between a young mind formed with snow peaked mountain ranges in view every day and one surrounded by lakes and rivers and trees. Not sure what the effect is, but my guess is it’s substantial, or at least will be for a certain type of young mind, that is, one open to the world around them.
I’ll be interested to see how Gabe and Ruth take shape as the years go by. Rock. Mass. Snow. Barrier. Hard. High.
