Synchrony is a noun. It means what you can probably imagine even if less than commonly used: simultaneous occurrence or motion. I like nouns more commonly used in verb form. They promote a tuned ear, a cocked head…thought, reflection and inquiry. Synchrony is a pretty word, I think.
The question is…is it?...will it be? in this very odd and premature springtime 2012. Or will 2012 be a possibly ugly food year?
On this eve of vernal equinox - when night and day are of equal duration - I walked in my orchard this morning to see apricot blossoms just about open. Apples and cherries and pears are seemingly close behind both early and not really in the pattern of synchrony they usually have with one another.
The biggest question is whether the temperatures, especially killing frosts, will abate for the remainder of the season? It is hard to imagine that. With a typical last frost date of about 10 May, nearly 2 months away, the odds are that we will have a disastrous fruit season.
Add to that the issue of bees and an unusually mild winter where bees have been existing in their hives (or natural refuges) at a heightened state of metabolism, burning up their winter honey stores faster than they would, are now possibly out of honey with no natural sources of food yet waiting for them. They could have a massive die-off over-taxed with yet another challenge atop the continuing mystery of CCD (colony collapse disorder). Without pollination, we don't eat. Without insect pollination, we at least eat less. Without bee pollination, we will certainly eat less variety - especially fruits.
Is nature doing a double-play of synchrony? Will she open blossoms early to accommodate the early rising of honeybees? (The domestic honey bee, by the way, is not native to America.) Is this an odd synchrony in play with an odd climatic anomaly?
Stay tuned…but at least be aware. Things are amiss. These glorious days may not be so glorious nor a harbinger of things positive. 3/19/12 BBB
Kurt Cobb, whose blog I read at The Energy Bulletin, had a great post entitled An Eerie Winter. He felt we needed to pipe eerie music into the sky to give people a clue about how they should be feeling about such a warm winter. And I agreed...but it so, so hard to not rejoice in early spring.
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