Bloom is off

When my brother, my sisters and I were young, we were aware of Henry David Thoreau, as one of the books in our parlor bookcase was a 1912 “Everyman’s Edition” of “Walden, Or Life in the Woods.” My father had been a student at the Cheshire School in Cheshire, Conn., and he had kept some of his schoolbooks, of which this was one.

In a recent edition of the Boston Globe there was a fascinating article titled “Troubling Toll In Thoreau’s Backyard,” with pictures of some of the flowers he knew and wrote of at Walden Pond that are declining because of global warming. Still thriving is the harlequin blueflag, but declining in numbers are the Canada lily, the Carolina pink and the New England aster. (That is my favorite aster, lavender to pink in color, found frequently here in Maine.)

Thoreau was born in Concord, Mass., on July 12, 1817. He died in 1862 at 45 years of age. He was a student at Concord Academy, and at the age of 16 entered Harvard College – a great sacrifice to his family financially. He then helped his father in his graphite pencil business and kept a school while he was writing poetry, literary works and nature essays. He was about 28 years old when he set up his hut by the brink of Walden Pond. He wrote about his two years there in the Walden book.

A Boston University professor has been working on the flora study in the area next to Walden Pond, just across an inlet from the site where Thoreau’s cabin once was. He said, as he stood there one afternoon, that “if you came out here looking for the flowers Thoreau saw, you wouldn’t find many of them. It’s a sad message.”

Species that have responded to rising temperatures by flowering earlier than Thoreau recorded – on average, seven days earlier – have managed to survive.

Those that are not flowering earlier are dying off, including many familiar families such as orchids, irises, sunflowers, dogwoods, lilies, roses and buttercups.

Whole groups of related plants are at risk of extinction from global warming, the researchers said. One explanation of why the plants that cannot alter their flowering time have been in decline is that their pollinators -insects and birds – have adapted to arrive earlier in the season.

The birds and insects arrive when some of the plants have not flowered, so they can’t pollinate the blossoms, and thus, no seeds are produced.

The last paragraphs of the article: “Thoreau was one of the first people calling for us to protect and care for nature, and part of that caring is opening yourself up to being sad when it’s harmed.

“But he didn’t want us to give in to that sadness. There’s an awful lot of nature that is still there for us to appreciate and preserve. I think that’s the message he’d want us to take from this.”

That quote is from Phil Cafar, an environmental philosopher at Colorado State, who has written a book about Thoreau’s ethics.

Pianist praised

The Nov. 28 New York Times had an interesting article about pianist Lang Lang’s performance with the New York Philharmonic in Avery Fisher Hall. His flamboyant playing has received some criticism, but his two Chopin concerto recordings are being well received.

At age 9, as a prodigy on the piano, he was wrenched by his father from his home in Shenyang, China, and taken to Beijing to study piano with a professor there.

The Times article tells of Lang Lang’s playing as bothering some listeners. It mentions his flashy playing of well-known musical pieces. The Chopin concertos and other recent recordings he has made are receiving praise. The article says, “It may be an amazing thing to say of a 26-year-old pianist who could play Chopin’s 24 etudes, among the most technically challenging pieces in the repertory, in concert at age 13, but Lang Lang is a work in progress and that is good news for classical music.

“Meanwhile, he does important charitable work and has started a foundation to support the musical education of young people. Today some 50 million children are studying music in China, 36 million of them the piano, Mr. Lang proudly reports in his recent autobiography.”

Hash it out

“Revolutionary Recipes,” a 1993 collection of updated recipes from the time of the American Revolution, provides today’s entree, which could help you use up some of that leftover Thanksgiving turkey.

Chicken (or turkey) hash

A?3?4 tablespoon margarine or vegetable oil

2 tablespoons flour

1 small onion, chopped

11?2 cups water

Salt and pepper

2 cups cooked chicken or turkey, chopped

Heat the margarine or oil in a large skillet and blend in flour. Add onion, slowly pour in water, stirring to thicken. Season with salt and pepper “according to the taste of the man of the house,” as one 17th-century recipe directs, add poultry and simmer for 15 to 20 minutes. This may be served in a bowl, as is, or over toast, cornbread or waffles.