Monday Musings

  The remnants of the garden require attention, as it continues to produce. More zucchini and summer squash have appeared, hidden beneath the voluminous leaves. One of the yellow squash will be seasoned and grilled to accompany tonight’s dinner. The others will be grated and frozen. This morning, I seeded and grated several large zucchinis (these were in addition to the above photo). The process produced six large cups, which I sealed in gallon Food Saver bags. (Please excuse my misspelling of zucchini in the photo lol). Each bag of 3 cups is sufficient to prepare my favorite Zucchini Blueberry bread featured in the July 21, 2025 story “National Blueberry Month.” The big, beautiful green zucchini above will render another 3 cups of grated vegetable. I’ve already frozen three 1-cup bags of blueberries shown in the 8/11/25 “Garden Preservation” story. Saturday, I picked an additional 6 cups of the luscious fruit. More sweet morsels to garnish granola and yogurt, or to bake into tea b...

Over the past week, auroras have danced in the sky, with visibility as far south in the US as Texas and New Mexico. We have had excellent viewing opportunities in the dark skies of the North Carolina Blue Ridge Mountains. Indigenous societies  have interpreted these sky-lights in various ways. But what do modern scientists say? Solar Cycle 25 is  approaching Solar Maximum , a period in the approximate 11-year cycle when we will see intense, stormy Sun activity. Once the maximum is reached, the north and south magnetic fields of our star will flip, and the Sun’s activity will gradually slow to a “solar minimum.” The  Space Weather Prediction Center , a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administrations (NOAA) branch, actively tracks the science behind solar events. Daily information regarding the number and intensity of solar flares, coronal mass ejections (CME), and the aurora forecast is available at the above link: you can click on the individual areas and watch their pro...