The week of January 16-22 is historically the coldest week of the winter in West Virginia, based on average high and low temperatures. This year is keeping to that schedule, as we have just had the two coldest nights of the year.
After this, the average temperature starts inching up a degree every few days or so. Interestingly, the famous January thaw most often happens in the week following the coldest week, which seems contrary to logic but history says it’s so.
If the thaw is long and warm enough, my witch hazel shrub blooms out, so I look forward to that. It is a spirit lifter. Under ideal conditions, they will even cast enough fragrance so you can smell it walking by. It needs to be sunny and above freezing most of the day.
If it misses the January window, it usually finds circumstances in February to bloom. I had planted some in front of the temple but a mid winter blooming shrub with not visually impressive blooms was too subtle a joy for temple denizens and they destroyed them.
If someone would want to collect some branches to offer the Deities, there are a lot of witch hazels on the Palace lawn. Let me know if you are interested and I will give you a heads up when mine blooms.
This week signifies the halfway point of the winter, so time to check the woodpile and sure enough we have more than half of what we started with left so I am guardedly optimistic we have enough firewood for the winter.
I have had some wood pulled out of the forest to cut up and split, so ideally by the end of the winter that will be done and the woodpile restored to full status and have all summer to completely dry out.
Wood laying on the ground, even dry wood, can have around 20% moisture in it. If it gets up into a pile, it will dry down to around 12%. Moisture has to be converted to steam before the wood will burn, and the energy it takes to convert the moisture to steam is lost up the chimney instead of heating the space. This means you have to burn more wood to get the same amount of heat, which means more carbon dioxide is produced.
As is often the case when attempting to live the natural lifestyle, living in harmony with natural cycles produces a lower carbon footprint.
January 21, 2008 at 1:34 pm
“Practical country water-witches
Are true believers in her worth
And cut for wands the hazel switches
That point out hidden veins in earth.
When even scarlet oaks grow duller,
And many common trees to night
And frost and wind have struck their color,
This one has just begun to fight.
November is her month for flowers,
Though custom calls for them in May,
Welcoming us when winter lours
With all we need to keep us gay. . . .
This poem has a thought behind it:
The hazel’s tangled threads of gold
Tell us that spring is where you find it,
Even in age, even in cold.”
–from The Witch Hazel,
by George C. Homans
(copyright 1988, Transaction Books)
January 21, 2008 at 3:33 pm
There are several varieties of witch hazel. Hamamelis virginiana blooms late in the fall as described in this poem.
I have H. vernalis which blooms hair trigger at the slightest inference of spring.
The “thought behind it” would remain the same. :-)
January 22, 2008 at 1:26 pm
On the subject of firewood . . .
“Beechwood fires are bright and clear
If the logs are kept a year
Chestnut’s only good they say,
If for logs ’tis laid away.
Make a fire of Elder tree,
Death within your house will be;
But ash new or ash old
Is fit for a queen with crown of gold.
Birch and fir logs burn too fast
Blaze up bright and do not last,
it is by the Irish said
Hawthorn bakes the sweetest bread.
Elmwood burns like churchyard mould,
E’en the very flames are cold
But Ash green or Ash brown
Is fit for a queen with golden crown.
Poplar gives a bitter smoke,
Fills your eyes and makes you choke,
Apple wood will scent your room
Pear wood smells like flowers in bloom
Oaken logs, if dry and old
keep away the winter’s cold
But Ash wet or Ash dry
A king shall warm his slippers by.”
—old poem from
Surrey Council, UK
January 22, 2008 at 5:45 pm
Elm smoke does stink!
I guess they didn’t have locust back then, because that would have gotten a good review.
Good thing about the ash, because the tree I had pulled up waiting for processing is an ash.
January 23, 2008 at 10:35 am
Robinia pseudoacacia:
Robinia is a genus of about 10 species native to eastern North America and Mexico. The genus Robinia is
named for Jean Robin (1550-1629) and his son Vespasian Robin (1579-1662), herbalists to kings of France
and first to cultivate locust in Europe.
–http://www2.fpl.fs.fed.us/TechSheets/
HardwoodNA/pdf_files/robpseudeng.pdf