Monday Muses

Seems like every year brings more good news for the folks out there who think the world is too cool. To my way of thinking, mind you I am no scientist and claim no special knowledge, but folks this seems to be a trend line. Now I am not claiming I know (or at this point care) what is causing this climate change, but climate change it is, and our actions are contributing to the outcome.

Global Highlights:

• Based on preliminary data, globally averaged combined land and sea surface temperature was the warmest on record for January-April year-to-date period and third warmest for April.

• Global land surface temperature was warmest on record in April. Temperatures were above average in Europe, Alaska, western U.S., eastern Brazil, northwestern Africa, and most of Asia. Cooler-than-average conditions occurred in the Middle East Region and the eastern half of the contiguous U.S.

• Precipitation during April 2007 was above average in the Northeast region of the contiguous U.S. and most of South America. Drier than average conditions were observed in Japan, southeastern U.S., southeastern China and most of Europe.

• ENSO conditions remained in a neutral phase during April.

Source: NCDC: Climate of 2007- April Global analysis

Sunday Morning on My Google Reader

I slept late this morning and once the coffee was done I started with my Google Reader feeds for a change. Some of what led me on to the full story are...

The Rural Life

The Scent of Lilacs

By VERLYN KLINKENBORG

Published: May 20, 2007

I am writing from a mile high in a small Wyoming town on the edge of the Wind River range. The snow on the nearby buttes — the gift of late April — has finally melted, and the creek bottoms and pastures and hayground are an unhoped-for green. The drift of cotton from the cottonwoods is almost over, but the lilacs are still in high bloom. The town is nearly damp with their scent.

Source: The Scent of Lilacs - New York Times

I come late to my appreciation of Verlyn Klikenborg. Now that I have discovered "Rural Life" I chase his writing to wherever I can find it.

Coming clean about mess of peas

By LEON HALE

Copyright 2007 Houston Chronicle

On the way home from Winedale the other morning I stopped at a vegetable stand in Hempstead and bought a mess of purple hull peas.

These were peas still in the hull, so they had to be shelled. Took me about an hour to shell this particular mess. Purple hulls have the reputation of being easy to shell, and they do sit loose in the pod and come out easily once you get the ends snapped off.

Source: Hale: Coming clean about mess of peas | Chron.com - Houston Chronicle

Go see Leon's recipe for cooking up that mess of peas. He'll also explain how you can turn that mess of peas into a three course meal...

I guess I've killed enough time this morning, so I better start moving (though I did manage to fix breakfast and eat with Sherry already). If you have a moment swing over to Fragments From Floyd and check out Fred's post today. He is pushing us all to be who we like to think we are...Go see what I mean.

So far the doors are open and the kittens are all over the floor...I expect to be shutting the house within the hour as the heat heads above 80 for another Texas spring day...You all enjoy.