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Spring equinox

Spring is here in the valley.

Today is the vernal equinox – the spring equinox – when the length of day and night are equal (equi = equal, nox = night). Actually, “They are not exactly equal, … due to the angular size of the Sun, atmospheric refraction, and the rapidly changing duration of the length of day that occurs at most latitudes around the equinoxes” [Wikipedia]. Here in New Hampshire, Sunrise was at 6:51am, Sunset at 7:01pm.

For those who welcome the arrival of spring, today is when we are adding more minutes of sun per day than at any other time. We’re on the steep part of the curve! This is great news for our solar tracker, which put in a banner effort today under nearly clear skies, with a total production of 45.57kWh:

Technically, the equinox is “the instant of time when the plane of Earth’s equator passes through the geometric center of the Sun’s disk” [Wikipedia]. This year, that occurred at 0937 UTC, or 5:37am here in Lyme, which happens to be about when I got up this morning.

Interestingly, it has long been noted this is the “day when the Sun rises due east and sets due west, and indeed this happens on the day closest to the astronomically defined event.” [Wikipedia again].

On cue, the Connecticut River decided it is also ice-out day – the day the winter’s ice breaks up and the river begins to visibly flow. I’m pleased to see open water, because it means that bald eagle might be seen more often in our neighborhood once again, now that it has an opportunity to fish.

ice-out on the Connecticut River, in front of our house

The forecast shows nothing but clear skies, warm days (50-60º) and cool nights (20-30º). Great weather for sugaring! More on that to come…

Retroblog – Dharamsala

Revisiting an epic trip.

One of the most epic trips of our year in India involved our travels from Delhi to the remote village of Dharamsala in the foothills of the Himalaya, where we met up with old friends for a few days around New Years’ Eve. The travel itself was the most challenging – but the time in Dharamsala, with its visit to a school for Tibetan refugee children, and the headquarters-in-exile of the Dalai Lama, was entrancing. A hike up to snowy Triund Pass on a sunny New Year’s Day offered incredible views. Check out the story of the round-trip journey, of Dharamsala itself, and our hike on New Year’s Day, for the full story. It’s worth a visit!

We stop at a tea stall, while hiking with the Hookes to Triund pass in Dharamsala.

Pie day

pi, anyone?

Happy pi day! March 14 is known as “pi day” because its date (written in US format) is 3/14 and the mathematical constant π is, of course, 3.14…

So I decided to make pie. I have been making a lot of yogurt, lately, and the process always leaves me with leftover whey (the yellowish clear liquid that results when you strain the cooked yogurt). So I found a recipe for lemon whey pie (way lemon pie?) and, I must say, it came out pretty well. At least, the meringue looks great!

Snowflakes

Snowflake photography is hard.

It’s snowing lightly this morning, quite a change from the 50-degree sunny weather that has worn hard on the snowbanks this past week. It’s a welcome opportunity to pretty-up the view of the nearby hillsides and to coat the dirty old snow in a fresh coat of white.

I recently read a New York Times article about the amazing snowflake photographs produced as a hobby by Nathan Myhrvold, a retired Microsoft executive, like the one below.

Image copyright Nathan Myhrvold, from the New York Times.

I decided to dash outside and give it a quick try. Needless to say, my attempts – photographed in about five minutes using a handheld Nikon camera and a routine lens, of flakes freshly fallen onto a microfiber cloth – are not even worthwhile saving. Myhrvold’s work has taken years of experimentation, custom-designed equipment, travel to remote locations, and incredible persistence. It’s beautiful work, and I highly recommend a scroll through the photos in the article.

Who knew microfiber cloths have such texture?

Mount Roberts

What a difference a week makes!

It’s Thursday, and that means it is time for another outing. I was constrained today by a need to be home in time for a meeting at noon, so I selected one of the New Hampshire “52 with a view” peaks that is new to me and yet not too-far of a drive: Mount Roberts. It turns out to be a great destination… and the conditions were radically different than last week. Read on…

The summit of Mount Roberts includes grand views of the White Mountains, including Mount Washington in the center distance.

Winter pizza

Pizza tastes even better in winter.

Regular readers may recall that we built a pizza oven last summer, out beside the patio. Well, we’ve worked hard to keep a pathway shoveled over to the oven all winter… and we’ve taken advantage of it a few times. It’s a bit tricky to cook pizza on cold, dark nights! Today, however, we built a fire in the morning and were ready to bake by noon, on a sunny warm (25º) day.

Because I’ve also continued to experiment with Indian cooking in our Ultrapot pressure cooker, I made some chicken tikka masala and decided to make a pizza out of it, adding shiitake mushrooms and curry leaves for extra flair. Here’s the result; pretty darn good, on a late winter’s day!

Woodpeckers

They keep busy!

Despite the winter season there are plenty of birds around here – chickadees, blue jays, cardinals, crows, ravens, owls, and even a bald eagle. The woodpeckers are still here too, and keep quite busy. One of the most impressive woodpecker projects is a pine tree I pass often on my walk through the local woods. It’s impressively deep, and hints at a tree that may be rotten at the core.

Welch & Dickey

A perfect day for these two popular peaks.

One never hears of anyone climbing Mount Welch, or Dickey, or Dickey & Welch. It’s always Welch & Dickey. These twin mountains are a popular pair of small peaks in central New Hampshire, on the south edge of the White Mountains. Part of their popularity is the loop trail that goes over both peaks, making a far more interesting hike than the usual out-and-back route one might use to approach a single peak. Today, a brilliant late-winter day, Andy and I followed the classic route and enjoyed perfect trail conditions, blue skies, and crystal-clear views. Read on and check out the photo gallery!

Mount Dickey (left) and Mount Welch, White Mountains of NH.

Chocolate

Feel free to send all the extra chocolate to me!

It is perhaps not surprising that I developed an even deeper addiction to chocolate when we lived in Switzerland, where world-class chocolate was available in numerous local shops. Here in New Hampshire, we buy the best local chocolate we can find, and sometimes special-ordered some Läderach Swiss chocolate by mail.

So I was interested to read this recent news story about the dramatic drop in chocolate consumption in Switzerland in the past year – to the lowest level in forty years. Maybe it’s because we moved out in July! 🙂

Solar flat

Even on a windy day, we can still generate power.

It was a wild and windy night, as a cold front blew away yesterday’s warm temperatures. Our solar tracker is designed to protect itself by going flat when there are gusty or strong winds, and that’s how I found it this morning.

Solar tracker goes flat in windy conditions.

You can see the anemometer at the far-right corner, which is on a gimble so it can measure horizontal wind speed even as the tracker tilts.

That picture was taken about two hours ago. It’s now quite sunny, and still windy; the tracker is still flat (and thus not pointed at the sun), but still generating enough power to serve the house, charge the battery, and feed the grid: