A story about the amazing viola and two of its most notable performers. Some thoughts after watching Rebecca Albers perform a new work for viola and orchestra.

Technology is taking away our connections to each other and to the natural (i.e. real) world. @rebeccasolnit.bsky.social offers an insightful look into what is wrong and how to fix it. I hope everyone reads this.

I just got a delivery that has taken more than two weeks to arrive. I suppose the weather is to blame. The order was for what in my family is known as Vitamin M and for which there is no substitute. The package arrived just in time to prevent serious consequences. Now for some vegan pancakes.

Here is an ancient bur oak next to a young loblolly pine, on left in midwinter, and on right in summer. Today is a deeply cold winter day but the oak and pine are no longer dormant. A cold period has eliminated the inhibitors that prevent growth. The trees are ready to grow when it is warm enough.

Many of us are about to be visited by complex weather, possibly including ice storm. Ice can do major damage to trees, even kill them, but an ice-covered tree is hazardous to you. These trees should not be touched. Here are some simple suggestions for managing ice-covered trees.

This free book is an excellent introduction to climate science for everyone.

If you are an undergrad studying science, here is a great opportunity to spend the summer at Johns Hopkins doing molecular and cellular research in neuroscience. This could be the launch of your career, so check it out.

I begin my days with 4 cups of very good coffee. There is no doubt any more that coffee is a health drink. The challenge is to find ethically produced coffee. There are coffee roasters who buy directly from the producers, who are assured of a fair price. I like Little Waves, but there are others.

While we wait for the trees to start their spring burst of growth, it is worth looking at winter details. The intricacy of the bark of this Kentucky coffeetree, Gymnocladus dioicus, is worthy of study, as is the bark of most trees. The coffeetree twig, stout with tiny buds, is very unusual.

A stand of young chinkapin oak, Quercus muehlenbergii, basking in the winter sun. These trees are no longer dormant and are prepared to burst into growth on warm days.

In winter, when deciduous trees are bare, we can really appreciate the form of a tree. Here is a chinkapin oak, Quercus muehlenbergii, on a ridgetop in Nashville. It is now surrounded by young forest, but you can tell by its branch pattern that it grew in an open woodland pasture.

Like many of you, I like to give my favorite trees names. This is Eileen. This oak is stable, but in karst topography, the underlying rock is not. As the rock shifts and sinkholes open, an old tree has to adjust it roots. You can see by the changing branch angles that this is a slow change.

I'm not pining for Spring. Yet. I do want to hang out with my bison friends soon. American bison, Bos bison bison, were abundant in the Bluegrass in ancient times. They, helped by drought, created the woodland pasture habitat that makes the Bluegrass landscape distinct.

This is a great opportunity for a forest ecology PhD.

We mostly talk about real trees here and at Our Trees. Here is a brief discussion of the Tree of Life and its first use in 1837 by Charles Darwin to describe evolutionary relationships. Have a look.

It is still winter but many trees have already had their dormancy requirements met. On slightly warm sunny days, trees can absorb enough heat to stimulate sap flow. This cut maple branch dripped a lot of very sweet sap. Delicious. More to come on this important topic.

One of the reasons that trees are the longest-lived organisms is their remarkable ability to rebuild after stress or injury. This bur oak, growing in a woodland pasture, was struck by lightning more than 50 years ago. It has built a new crown and is growing with vigor.

My friend Kate Armstrong, @brainchain.ca, asked us to post pictures of roses, #PostMoreRoses, but in my catalog of over 200,000 botanical photos, there is not a single one of a rose. If we broaden to the family Rosaceae, we have this nice pear flower in the rain.

In nature, an organism may be both beautiful and terrifying. Take this sparkling emerald ash borer, Agrilus planipennis. The adults are ready to emerge in spring to wreak havoc on ash trees. More terrifying than a king cobra, but that is a story for next week.

Most of our trees are still in dormancy. Some of our earliest flowering trees, though, have minimal cold requirements to overcome dormancy. This male red maple flower is already showing off its stamens. Early flowers can be important sources of nutrition for insects that are active now.

It takes only a couple of days of warmish weather and we all start longing for spring plants, don't we. Gardeners are guilty of this and so are naturalists. But we must be patient. Here is a sassafras inflorescence to remind us of what is to come.

Happy New Year! As I get back to writing, I'll tell you my little secret for concentrating. As a musician (violin, horn), I don't tolerate background music. Music prevents me from focusing on anything else. So I use train videos to help with concentration. RailCowGirl is my favorite.

Next week will be warm enough that I can sit at my favorite writing table between these two venerable trees (bur oak and blue ash) in a nearby park. In 1980, I began discussing climate change in all my public lectures and have continued while the world, especially the US, has failed to act.

I was reminded this morning by @grrlscientist.bsky.social that 2026 is the Year of the Horse. Since I live and work in the Bluegrass, I want to acknowledge the horses that share our habitat.

This would be worth attending if you are in Milwaukee.

The New Year marks a transition for this author: My first book sold out in 2025. I will complete my second book in 2026. Both are about trees: it's what I know.

We probably don't often plan to snack on tree bark, but we certainly do. Cinnamon is tree bark. There are five species of cinnamon from different geographical locations with distinctly different flavor profiles. This one is Cinnamomum verum, Sri Lankan cinnamon. Eat some bark today!

Why are these fir trees floating in a lake? These are Christmas trees pursuing their second career creating fish habitat. Fish and wildlife managers are improving fish management using trees. This is a great use of our trees after their retirement. Read about it at Our Trees, ourtrees.substack.com

Where do our Christmas trees go after the holidays? If we live in the right place, they may have a new career as fish habitat.

This sycamore fruit would make a fine holiday tree decoration, but it is only available in May. Sycamore, Platanus occidentalis.

Here is the fruit of one of the most spectacular trees in our flora, kingnut, Carya laciniosa. With the largest fruit of any hickory, it was called kingnut long before somebody slapped onthe name shellbark hickory. We should restore the original, appropriate name of this tree: kingnut

Another tree that decorates itself for the holidays is oak, not just one tree but over 500 species mostly in the north temperate zone. Acorns were an important food source for people before we invented agriculture, and there were large acorn-processing factories all over the world.

@acidlich.bsky.social A little joy of nature that might brighten your day. Ponderosa pine forest with Humphreys Peak in the background. Coconino National Forest.

Another tree decorated for the holidays is honeylocust, Gleditsia triacanthos. It's not only decorative, but settlers combined it with persimmon fruit to make beer. The gum inside the legumes is sweet and a good thickener. 1/3

Many trees are wearing their holiday decorations, like this pond cypress, Taxodium ascendens. Happy Holidays!

One of the world’s most enthralling places.

My friend Barry Blumberg received the Nobel Prize for his discovery of Hepatitis B and development of its vaccine. He saved millions of lives, but the monstrous fools of the Trump public health agencies are now trying to unravel his work. They will cause millions of deaths, but we can stop them.

Are you an undergrad interested in plants? Here is a terrific summer research opportunity.

On a snowy day, trees created the stage for a scene, but there was no play. Suddenly, a boy walked right into the scene, making a story.

Very interesting. This is the famous lacquer tree, Toxicodendron vernicifluum, related to poison ivy. The lacquer is comprised of urushiol, which is the same chemical that causes poison ivy rashes. Urushiol causes severe skin reactions until the lacquer polymerizes and becomes safe.

Snow caught in loblolly pine (Pinus taeda) cones.

Ursula Davidson was a courageous young botanist. In 1950, she completed the first survey of ancient trees in The Bluegrass. She did this in spite of being disabled, unable to walk because of polio. Read about her at Our Trees.

Coffee and Chocolate This is the next in our holiday trees series at Our Trees. I hope you will read the story, and your comments are welcome.

Asher Elbein, a fine science journalist, has had a prolific year of good writing. Here are his favorite storie. They are worth your time to dive into.

School is closed for at least part of next week, so you may be able to recruit a few good mathematicians for your quantitative work like, for example, dendrochronology. Just be sure to pay them well.

You are probably aware of the global loss of biodiversity. It is happening right in front of us, and many of us don't notice. Here is a magnificent white ash that is now gone. There are things we can do to stop the invasion of foreign insects and diseases that kill our trees. More at Our Trees.

Join us at Our Trees as we begin an exploration of the trees we use during these holidays, including some that may be threatened or endangered. Until December 15, we offer you a 30% discount on monthly or annual subscriptions to everything that Our Trees has to offer.

This famous cartoon by my friend Joel Pett tells us what we need to know while the current climate conference, COPE 30, is dominated by fossil fuel lobbyists. We have it in our power to defeat the fossil fuel oligarchs and their pet politicians. By doing so, we can create a much better world.

Farewell pennies. I have fond memories of pennies in threes. At my elementary school, lunch was free but a 1/2 pint of milk was 3¢. And is it really lunch without milk? My classmates and I carried a few extra pennies in our pockets so that kids who lacked pennies could get their milk too.

Among the large variety of trees we use during the holidays, for decoration and for food, many are threatened or endangered. At Our Trees, we are beginning a series on using these trees. Come join us.