Acair Fearann

One of the things that I missed when I wasn’t living in New England was the seasons.  If you live here long enough, you start to figure out what the early signs are for the changing seasons.  August is still summer here, but it is late summer as opposed to July, high summer.  Some things that we associate strongly with New England summers belong to August: sweet corn, peaches, tomatoes (everyone wants to push them earlier…but they just don’t).  Other things belong to fall, white and blue wood asters, onions, apples.

The last 24 hours have shown both of August’s faces.  Yesterday dawned hot, muggy and with building clouds.  The end of a spell of weather that makes one want to stay far away from New England in the summer.  Everything sticky feeling with humidity, but everything wilting because there was no water.  By noon, the wind was rising and the clouds darkening, the cats were edgy, the birds suddenly active.  Mid-afternoon the thunderstorm rolled through, the sort of big thunderstorm that August creates, you know it is coming for hours and then there is cold rain with wind.  The night cleared, the crickets were in full song by the thousand thousands.  And today, partly cloudly, a cool morning, with the high dry wind and sun, about seventy at noon.  No bugs, no humidity.  A day when it feels like you could do anything and you wouldn’t want to be anywhere else.

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I mentioned the value of stuff that works, be it organic or inorganic.  The organic example, also going to go on today if the wind stays down, is Milky Spore Disease.  This nasty little bacterium goes after Japanese Beetles, or more correctly their grubs.  It tends to remain active for about five years, before the number of incoming un-infected beetles out numbers the infected ones.  Most grubs die immediately from it.

This nice example of a very specific predation is what one would like to find for all those introduced pests.

Of course, the space alien baby squash bugs (I swear they look like a cross between a tick and a spider) I am just squishing.

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There are three fundamental approaches: prevent further damage and leave ‘as is’; restore to original ‘showroom’ quality; restore for use accepting that there will be modifications and compromises in material and method. 

The first is the most popular for several reasons: it is the least labour intensive, preserves the most historical information, and for those whose collections are investments is the least likely to reduce sale value because of the emphasis on ‘all original.” (Nobody collects the Irishman’s hammer)  Often, however, this method means the object cannot be used.

The second trades the ‘personal’ historic information of the artifact for giving an accurate picture of what it looked like when it was created.  This can be very useful, but also very disturbing: a Classical marble statue painted in the polychrome style is jarring.  It is generally the most expensive in labour and material.  It also has the serious pitfall that the restoration is always an interpretation.  Get it wrong and not only is it wrong (while masquerading as ‘right’), but you have lost the historical information.

The last is least popular.  It is an approach that presumes that the object doesn’t have to be locked away, can be used and should be used.  My best example is an Oriental rug in everyday use in the house: I recently rewhipped the edges using matching colour wool, as my great-grandmother had done before me.  This protected the edge cording and maintained the tension of the weave.  Without doing that the rug would have had to have been taken out of use.  In making the repair, however, I was forced to use a slightly different type of wool in a slightly different stitch.  It is now a ‘repaired’ rug not an ‘all original’ rug.  Price wise I am sure there is a difference, but on the other hand the rug is stabilized, can stay in use and can be enjoyed.  In this method, interpretation is an accepted fact: I have continued the object’s story rather than stopping it or erasing it: the original weaver, my great-grandmother, and I have all contributed to the object.

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Finally! A wing of a tropical storm I think, nice soaking rain.  Rather useful, somewhat dubious timing since we had guests for lunch, but that is why the house has a nice large porch. 

What is interesting to watch with a heavy rain storm is what happens afterward, the butterflies and moths start to dry themselves out.  From what I can tell the butterflies, at least the big swallowtails, need access to a good quality conifer for shelter.  At least they came down and out of the big hemlocks and spruces once the rain passed.  A good example of the complex requirements that a species can have.

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