It’s that time of year again…

First we get the buckets ready, clean the pans, gather firewood. Late in the winter, it’s maple syrup time…

Recently watched: The Man Who Fell to Earth (1976), Twin Peaks seasons 1 and 2 (and started season 3 last night), Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me (1992), Twin Peaks: The Missing Pieces (2014).

Reading: The Living Great Lakes (Jerry Dennis) and The Chaos Protocols (Gordon White).

From the NASA Planetary Defense blog:

While still an extremely low possibility, additional observations and analysis of asteroid 2024 YR4 indicate that its impact probability with Earth has increased to a 2.3% chance on Dec. 22, 2032. Ongoing observations from ground-based telescopes involved with the International Asteroid Warning Network will continue while the asteroid is still visible through April, after which it will be too faint to observe until around June 2028.

NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope will also observe the asteroid in March 2025 to better assess the asteroid’s size. Currently the asteroid is estimated to be 130-300 feet across.

There is a tree next to my house. I’m not sure what kind of tree it is, but each year I think it’s dead. It drops its leaves earlier than I would expect, branches fall out of it, etc. Each year I’m sure that it’s the end.

But, so far, each Spring it wakes up and explodes in almost pure white blossoms. For several days it is spectacularly beautiful, and it remains beautiful as it drops the white petals and the yard looks like it snowed in the night.

The tree doesn’t have a lot of leaves, and what it has are often covered in rusty spots that look like a disease. Each year I’m sure that it’s the end. But each year (so far!) it makes lots of small, hard red berries or fruits of some kind. The leaves fall, but many berries stay on the tree into winter, although they shrivel up and look like they forgot to fall.

At some point, the snows come. And then birds flock to the tree and eat the berries. They come in groups, sometimes robins, sometimes other kinds. Turns out that the berries didn’t forget to fall. They were just waiting.