Luzula

It is probably obvious from recent posts that I have been indulging in biology nerdery recently! Even before I moved in, I was looking forward to making a species list for my 10 hectares. I have various biotopes on my land: garden, pastureland with oaks, open field with grass, spruce plantation, clearcut, running water and a pond, and a small patch of deciduous forest. The wild trees and bushes I have are: oak, elm, lime, ash, hazel, maple, cherry, wild apple, birch, alder, aspen, rowan, alder buckthorn, bird cherry, red and black elderberry, spruce, and one tiny pine. : D This is obviously good for biodiversity!

I could of course have gotten much further on the list if I had been more active early in the fall, but I had just moved then and was, um, quite busy. But after Christmas, when I was at about 220 species, I thought, well, I'm going to reach 250 species by New Year! Which I did quite easily by focusing on mosses, which are a specialty of mine that I hadn't looked at much here so far. And then I thought, I'm going to get 300 species before my housemate is back from England! Which I have now managed, as he comes home tomorrow. Species number 300 was a roe deer that just wandered past. : D

It became more of a challenge after it snowed, but I managed: yesterday I got seven species by a combination of searching for specific ones I knew ought to be here somewhere, and by getting creative and, for example, seeing what insects might lurk in the cellar underneath the small cabin (answer: the mosquito Culex pipiens). I love digging where I stand, because it means that I also see new species I've never seen before. I mean, otherwise I would never have bothered with that mosquito! Yesterday I also identified two wood-living fungi I'd never seen before.

Here's a breakdown of what I have so far:
vascular plants: 89 (I'm bound to get more in the spring and summer)
mosses: 75 (I wonder how many more there are? perhaps 100-120 in total?)
fungi: 45 (I've barely scratched the surface, I know...)
lichens: 31 (there are so many crust lichens I can't identify!)
invertebrates: 30 (this can grow vastly in the spring/summer, if I only have time!)
birds: 26 (I'll be relying on previously mentioned housemate here; he's a serious birdwatcher)
mammals: 4 (roe deer, fallow deer, red squirrel, and a yellow-necked mouse which we caught in a trap and gave to the cat to eat--I ought also to be able to see wild pig and European hare which are certainly around here)
reptiles and amphibians: 1 (common toad)

Of course, I can also increase biodiversity with my own efforts: I'd like to have a pile of sand for hymenoptera and other insects to make nests in, and make sure to have flowering plants to attract insects, etc.

Americans! (And others, I suppose, but the plants are native to America.) Have you tasted any of the following, and if so, what did you think of the taste?

- Ribes aureum (according to Wikipedia known as golden currant/clove currant/pruterberry/buffalo currant)
- Ribes divaricatum (the variety known as black honey-berry)
- Ribes cynosbati (apparently tastes of violets?)

Also, are these species, which seem to grow wild and be native to North America, subject to a lot of plant breeding such that there are lots of domesticated breeds, as there are with Ribes species native to Europe such as black currant, red currant and gooseberry? I found these American species for sale at German plant nurseries and am now tempted...the first two especially sound interesting.

Lady Eve's Last Con by Rebecca Fraimow (2024)
Read for book club. I LOVED this! : D I bounced off The Iron Children, but this book was entirely different. It's fun and fast-paced and with a grabby narrative voice, and it turns out that f/f with two characters who don't really trust each other (until they finally do) is just what I wanted to read. Sol and Ruthi have so much chemistry together, and I also enjoy all the details of Ruthi's high society con job! It's interesting how we're so deep in the POV of the main character, and it really colors the view of the other characters. I would probably get along well with Esteban, we could talk about soil and I wouldn't mind his social awkwardness! And obviously Jules fell in love with him, so he must have something going for him. But Ruthi really dislikes him, which very much colors what we see of him.

Trädgårdsboken om jord by Håkan Wallander et al (2020)
And...a book about soil! : D As it relates to gardening, that is. We're still working on where to grow our vegetables, and my sister who has expertise in this area was here this weekend. We did some tests that were in this book, and determined that probably we should just do it on what has been the arable land in the past. Like, there's probably a reason that there was a vegetable field there before. It's fairly clayey soil, which my sister thinks is at bottom good, but in the short term it's quite compacted and will need work. We're thinking about starting out with various green manure crops with deep roots that might help us improve it. Though potatoes and some other crops can be grown in hay/compost beds on top of the soil, too. Er, sorry, this was not really a review of the book.

It is now a little more than a month until I move into my new place. I keep feeling like something will happen to prevent it, like having miscalculated on the finances of it all or something (but obviously I've worked through them multiple times and also shown them to my mom!). It's such a change in my life that I wonder if it will actually happen??

But on the other hand, things are now much more settled: I have found three housemates who want to live with me, and whom I am excited to live with! ( More about this )