March 2026: Making “E Pluribus Unum” Matter

March 26, 2026March 26, 2026 / Chris Thaiss / Leave a comment

Grey Squirrel munches on an acorn while relaxing on an Oak branch on the southwest bank, then sees me with my nosy camera, during March 12’s gorgeous, fleeting snowfall

In this month’s blog:

Neighboring: Making “E Pluribus Unum” Matter

Garden Update: After “Snowcrete,” Marching toward Spring

Climate Log: Scorching the Earth and Robbing US Citizens

The March 2026 Photo/Video Gallery

Neighbors: Mallard Mating Pair and 5 Red-Bellied Cooters share the same log, southeast shore, balmy March 10

Neighboring: Making “E Pluribus Unum” Matter

Minnesota native and famed journalist Thomas Friedman explores in this essay how Minnesotans fought back against violent ICE incursions by helping their multi-ethnic neighbors carry our their lives and keep their shared economic community strong during the depths of January winter. The article is well worth reading for how it demonstrates Americans giving meaning to the US motto “e pluribus unum” (“out of many one”) that adorns the Great Seal of the United States. The peaceful, valiant stand by Minnesotans against the Trump regime’s efforts to divide Americans against one another shows what the motto really means: treating all members of our highly diverse country as our “neighbors,” all together in building this great nation despite incessant efforts by some powerful people to divide us through manufactured fear and lies.

All Creatures Our Neighbors

The spirit of this blog, month to month, extends the idea of “neighboring” to include not only the diverse multi-ethnic, multi-lingual human community in which we live here in Northern Virginia, but also the countless other creatures–plants and animals of all sizes and skill sets–who inhabit with us. Writer Robin Wall Kimmerer indeed uses the term “more than human” to describe the lives of these our fellow creatures, to do justice to all the talents and strengths that they possess–that far surpass what we humans, in our prideful ignorance, can do, though we consider our human selves to be superior to our fellow creatures.

A third House Sparrow lands beside two others on Greenbrier vines along the southeast shore of the lake, cold morning, March 17

When I watch a House Sparrow fly forty miles an hour into a dense cloud of leaves, then stop fully in a silent instant, then speak in a range of pitches to its neighbors, then take off again as part of a perfectly coordinated group, all I can do is marvel in respect. In comparison, it’s all I can do to stay balanced on my painfully slow two legs and maybe, if I’m lucky, snap a photo of one of these birds before they zoom away.

One of the many first blooms of the year on Oakleaf Hydrangea, east of the lake, cold morning, March 17

When I hunker indoors when it’s cold outside, but then spy the first new blossoms of the year on the Oakleaf Hydrangea outside in the wind, I marvel at how this plant–and all plants–can thrive in harsh conditions that make us humans hide. This little, quiet, infinitely complex flower demonstrates what no human has ever managed to achieve–the miracle of turning sunlight into totally efficient energy (AKA photosynthesis). Such delicacy, beauty, and strength that I should never take for granted, but almost always do.

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5 of our 6 Broccoli plants, in ground since October, present flowering heads despite a tough winter, March 11

Garden Update: After “Snowcrete,” Marching toward Spring

On a balmy March 20, Song Sparrow calls and preens on the high fence surrounding our garden community. Such exaltation from a creature so small!

When to plant? Last year at this time, as you might recall, I complained in the blog about the sudden cold snap on March 9 that killed off our Tomato and Peppers seedlings. A warm early March had fooled me into hoping that real spring had arrived. But that mistake convinced me that the balmy Marches I’d loved in California would not be repeated here in Virginia. Instead, when we community gardeners gathered for our annual planning meeting on February 21, the staff cautioned us to wait until May 1 to put our veggies and flower seeds in the ground! Up until that point, the ground is still too cold to sustain the little annuals who’ll love the summer sun. It’ll be all I can do to wait until May 1.

But Fall veggies are an exception. For those of us who can’t keep our hands out of the soil, there are some veggies that do thrive in Fall and Winter in this climate, and many more plants that comfortably lie dormant underground and sprout again when it warms up. Beets, Radishes, Onions, Kale, and Garlic are among those that can be safely planted late in the year. One of my neighbor gardeners has a full bed of Kale now green and dense after the awful “snowcrete” February. (See last month’s blog for the grim details.)

Just after the “snowcrete” has melted, this sturdy Broccoli plant has survived, but no head yet appearing, February 19. See the next photo for an update!

My Fall favorites for this garden plot are Broccoli and Cauliflower. We planted both in Fall 2024, and the mild winter helped both produce edible fruit, so we tried again in Fall 2025. The 12 plants (6 of each) were coming along fine through December and into January, expanding their green leaves. But when the 7 inches of snow hit on January 25 and turned solid for the next 3 weeks of below freezing temps, we thought that the plants would not survive.

Well, the Caulifower didn’t. But 5 of the 6 Broccoli did pull through, with some damage, and now in late March there are multiple flowering heads slowly expanding.

Broccoli plant survives February “snowcrete” and is now producing multiple heads, March 24

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Climate Log: Scorching the Earth and Robbing US Citizens

The orange dots represent locales in the US West that have set high temp records for March (CNN Weather, March 24)

While the greatly unpopular US President cheers the thousands of his bombs that have destroyed large portions of drought-ravaged Iran, and while the US media cover every one of the President’s incessant words, he never spends even one of those words on the high temperature records that are being set here in the US (see photo above).

The band of wildfires, some having consumed more than a million acres, stretching from Montana three thousand miles across to Florida, March 24, with more in the forecast (Washington Post )

Nor do the massive wildfires that are scorching a huge band of this country from Montana across the Plains and all the way to the President’s beloved Florida merit even one smidge of his attention. Of course, he’d never acknowledge these disasters because he denies that they exist and denies that they will proliferate because of the fossil-fuel-caused climate change that he also claims does not exist.

Firefighters try to stem this wildfire in Flat Rock, North Carolina, one of hundreds of fires now burning across the US, March 24 (Washibgton Post photo)

Is anyone helping the people of those drought-stricken and fire-plagued states? While the President goes to Congress to ask for another 200 billion dollars to finance even more attacks on that scorched, drought-ravaged nation halfway around the world, not one dollar is being asked for re-funding the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) or the federal Forest Service, who used to help the beleaguered states in times of disaster when Joe Biden, both Bushes, Obama, Clinton, Reagan, and all the other Presidents actually cared about the people of the US.

LA (shown above) is one of many places in the West and Plains states with record-setting March temps. The international science collaborative World Weather Attribution explains, March 25

Prices and Profits. And because the President’s adventure in Iran has closed off much of the world’s access to his favorite “drink,” oil, prices of oil and gas around the world–including the US–have gone up like one of his rockets. So everyone in the US who still drives those millions of cars that are stuck using gasoline is paying higher prices than they’ve seen in years, with no cap in sight.

Who profits? Though he claims that he feels bad for US drivers, the President likes the price-spikes just fine, because the higher the price of gas, the more profit he and his billionaire friends who run the big oil companies just rake into their pockets. So does his good friend Vladimir Putin, who, thanks to the President’s lifting of sanctions, no longer has any limits placed on how much Russian oil he can sell. Ka-ching, ka-ching, ka-ching.

Which Drivers Don’t Feel the Price Shocks? EV drivers and, to a lesser extent, Hybrid drivers don’t feel the price spikes like the gas-only drivers do, but note how clever the President is: he’s made sure that the US is the only Western country that doesn’t help the clean EV market grow, so too few Americans can even buy EVs. As a result, the gas price spikes hit way more people in the US than they do in Europe, where clean EVs are the most popular new cars bought. Not only is Europe (and increasingly South America) buying EVs in record numbers, but China’s company BYD, who makes the cheapest EVs, has now surpassed Tesla as the most successful EV company.

The Han model from Chinese automaker BYD, designed for the potential US market, March 2026. BYD’s motto is “Cools the Earth 1 degree C,” its business mission

Don’t forget the cost of tariffs. Too bad for us that the Trump tariffs on clean Chinese vehicles are so high (100%) that they can’t be sold in the US (Canada, with much lower tariffs–just 6.1%– has contracted with China to import BYD autos). So the Trump tariffs are just another way that the President stiffs US drivers of gas cars, isolates the US in an expanding EV world, and insures the revenue flow to himself and his buddies from the ballooning prices of his favorite fuel.

How Trump counts on ignorance. And as long as Trump keeps silent on the heat records and wildfires in his own nation, he’s counting on most people to not make the connection between gas emissions and the rapidly deteriorating environment. So the people, the land, and all creatures just suffer more.

Extreme drought over 3/4 of the President’s adopted state, March 24–but mum’s the word

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Our Cherry trees in the community sprang into bloom from a few warm days this week, March 24

View toward north with Cherry Laurel in snowfall, March 12

The March 2026 Photo/Video Gallery: From Snow Beauty to Denuded Hills to Spring Blooms

This month saw both a brief, gorgeous snow shower and enough balmy days to bring out the blossoms on all our flowering trees. It also brought a shocking denuding of some of our precious hills by the power companies (oil and gas) with whose pipelines our plants and animals share our space around the lake. We hope the grasses and wildflowers will grow back soon. We’ll be watching.

Lest we forget, our community shares space with electric towers and gas and oil pipelines. On March 23, crews denuded hills west and north of the lake. In 2025, no mowing occurred and the growth of grasses and wildflowers brought in more pollinators than we’d seen before.

Eastern Bluebird crowns the Columbia Gas pipeline marker northwest of the lake, March 19

Newly denuded hillside above the Columbia Gas substation north of the dam, March 23

Northeast woods coming into bloom on a warm March 21

View to south end park in snowfall, March 12

Downy Woodpecker climbs Katsura tree east of the lake, warm March 23

Downy Woodpecker stabs for seeds from a feeder on the southeast side of the community, warm March 21

Chipping Sparrow in sapling on the north shore of the lake, March 21

Blooming Red Maple on west shore covered with snow, March 12

Cardinal male perches in Tulip tree in shadows along the west bank, March 21

American Robin alert on the east path on a warm March 19

Snow-covered Evening Primrose, northeast shore, March 12

Canada Goose mating pair swim along the northeast shore on a warm March 19

White-throated Sparrow juvenile high in Sycamore south end of lake, warm March 7

Cardinal male calls from the Tulip tree on the west bank, on a breezy March 21

White-crowned Sparrow, uncommon here, calls amid Greenbrier along the southeast shore during brief snow squall, March 2

Cardinal female high in Serviceberry southeast side of lake, March 21

Song Sparrow calls from Grapevines along the northwest shore on a cold, windy March 1

Eight Red-bellied Cooters crowd on to the log on the north shore of the lake, March 23

Turkey Vulture in silhouette high over lake, warm March 7

Red-winged Blackbird high in Oak, south end of lake, warm March 7

Mourning Dove atop Chestnut Oak south of lake, misty, warm March 6

Mallard mating pair feeds near nest as Red-winged Blackbird calls, southeast cove, March 7

And on to April, with hopes for better news for all of us neighbors in the nation and the world…

March 2025: New Spring, New Climate, New Garden

March 27, 2025 / Chris Thaiss / Leave a comment

*With warmer temps come the Turtles, who emerge above the surface once the temp reaches 60: four Red-Bellied Cooters on a log along the north shore of the lake, on a warm and windy March 18*

In this month’s blog:

Wildfire USA: The New Normal

We Start a New Garden in a New Climate

Always Time for St. Paddy’s Day and Cherry Blossoms

The March 2025 Photo/Video Gallery: New Sightings in Nearby Places

A Tree Swallow–first sighting!–and a male Red-Winged Blackbird share the rail of the dam structure at nearby Lake Newport, on a cool, cloudy March 16

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Climate Log: Wildfire USA: The New Normal?

Exceptional drought in Plains states leads to wildfires from Texas and Oklahoma north through Kansas and Missouri (USA Today and Fox Weather, March 14)

Though you’ll never hear a word about this from the new federal administration, for whom climate change, they say, “does not exist,” even the Fox Network can’t ignore the extreme drought conditions that have been ongoing for at least two years now in the Plains states–and the frequent wildfires that are now defining late winter in the middle of the country.

High winds and storms in the Plains states were accompanied by tornadoes, like this one that touched down in Missouri, March 14

Wildfires in the drought-plagued Plains states are dreadful enough, but now Florida joins the parade of drought-ridden states with fires up and down the peninsula.

This map from CBS News on March 20 shows “active fires” in most regions of the state, even toward the Keys and across the Panhandle.

While we’re used to hearing about hurricanes there in summer and now fall, plus high ocean temps and sea level rise along its coasts year-round, drought has become yet another climate concern in the Sunshine State.

National Weather Service warning for Miami and South Florida, March 20

Much farther north, the climate news this month (and this is no surprise at all) is that yet another record was set for the earliest melting of the Arctic Ocean ice cover, as reported in the Washington Post by Brady Dennis, March 6.

Greenland ice chunk in melting Arctic Ocean (Evgeniy Maloletka, AP photo , March 5)

It’s particularly noteworthy that the Trump/Musk administration is very interested in the U.S. acquiring Greenland as a territory. If they truly believed that there was no climate change, they’d assume that this melting was a temporary weather event. But their claim that climate change doesn’t exist is really just pretense, used by the fossil fuels cartel to justify the administration’s rollbacks of environmental protections and their attacks against renewable energy. The cartel and their political enablers know that the melting is part of the worldwide warming trend, and so the administration wants Greenland–just as they want to acquire Canada–as a military and trading launch pad for shipping across the now watery Arctic, as Forbes’ Garth Friesen, among others, reported in January 2025 in “Why Trump Wants Greenland.”

In this new normal of drought and higher temps, and while environmental rollbacks continue, we can look forward to more wildfires in more places. Indeed, just today (March 26) there are National Weather Service “red flag warnings” in the western edges of Northern Virginia.

Wildfire on New York/New Jersey border, as this blog reported in November 2024

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We Start a New Garden in a New Climate

In our new garden plot, our first flower seedlings, March 22

For the first two years since our move from California in 2022, we had been on a waiting list for one of the highly-coveted garden plots in the four large clusters of plots maintained for residents by our urban/suburban town association. Finally in late August 2024, a 190-square-foot plot 2 miles from our home lakeside community came open and we leaped on the opportunity. Although this plot would be a far cry from the almost 2000 square feet of garden we had gloried in for 17 years around our home in the Sacramento Valley, and which had been the basis for this blog from 2015 to 2022, we promised to make the most of this new setting.

Cauliflower growing in our first small fall/winter garden plot in our town, November 24, 2024

On this small new plot, we planted three veggies suited to fall growth: broccoli, cauliflower, and red cabbage. In hopes that they would also thrive, we experimented with flowers, too: the perennial chrysanthemums we knew would be happy in October and November, celosia, and gerbera daisies–plus bright yellow and purple pansies, who, as we knew from prior experience in this climate, could go dormant over the winter, then come back in spring.

Our first plantings in our first small Virginia garden: broccoli, cauliflower, red cabbage, mums, daisies, 3 weeks old, in the rain, September 24

The broccoli and cauliflower plants did well enough before winter to give us some tasty heads, and the cabbage produced colorful purple leaves. The mums (as expected) were champs for a couple months before the current flowers wilted, as were the pansies. But the other flowers died with the first freeze, along with our wishful thinking (!) that Northern Virginia in winter would prove as hospitable as California. Because this winter, as we reported in our January and February entries, proved far colder and snowier than our first two winters here, we got what we should have expected.

A New Garden Plot!

In early February, current plot holders were informed that there were several slightly larger plots that had become available, and we were invited to apply for those. One such plot, 225 square feet, seemed particularly attractive, as it was both closer to the road (for unloading purposes) and more sunny than our first spot, which was beside the woods of tall trees. So we applied and got lucky. We have now for the past month been clearing the new plot of plants that had taken over (mainly tough little blue speedwell and purple-flowering henbit), getting the soil ready, and stocking up on flowers and veggies, so that we could begin planting as soon as the weather warmed up enough to avoid any more freezing nights.

We have also met other nearby gardeners, who cheerfully answer our questions about their experiences in this climate and in these spaces. Routinely, gardeners also share equipment, such as buckets, wheelbarrows, and used wood for raised beds. Moreover, we’re assured, among the rules of use is the promise by each plot holder not to steal or damage others’ plants or produce. The better we get to know each other, the more we look out for each other.

Cleared third of our new garden plot with seedlings of chard, mint, basil, thyme, tomatoes, peppers, zucchini, and strawberry plants, March 22

Besides the veggy plants listed in the caption above, we’ve also planted two blueberry bushes–a plant unsuited to the hotter California climate–with more plant varieties being planned. The blueberries are already budding, just one week in. A third of the plot will be for flowers, with three “Ps”: pansies, petunias, and peonies already in ground, plus dianthus (see photo at the top of this section.)

Another advantage of these well-used garden plots, which have been cared for by a range of gardeners over the years, is that the soil is free of rocks (!) and is easily diggable as far down as needed. Another great feature of these garden clusters is that, for the reasonable yearly fee we pay, the town association provides mulch, compost, and manure, as well as convenient faucets around the cluster for watering.

Our plot, early in our design process, with part of the rest of the plots cluster in the background, March 22. More photos to come, as the garden grows!

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In March, Always Time for St. Paddy’s Day and Cherry Blossoms

*East of our lake, Cherry tree in full bloom, warm, sunny March 25*

Last year at this time (see the March 2024 entry), we had a lovely, but also sobering, visit to the Tidal Basin in nearby Washington to see the Yoshino cherry blossoms in full bloom and visit the Jefferson Memorial, an annual pilgrimage for us in all our years here before 2006 and our move to California. This year again we are making this trek–and will describe it in detail in next month’s blog.

Two hints: we’ll be updating readers on the huge renovation project in the Tidal Basin in response to climate change and sea level rise, and we’ll be profiling three real American heroes who are honored amid the blossoms. (No, not Thomas Jefferson.)

Two St. Paddy’s Day Treats

Jean’s homemade Irish soda bread, March 17

Jean:

I’ve been streaming a lot of old British Baking Shows recently, and I especially enjoy Paul Hollywood’s master classes on bread. His strong arms and hands are made for the magic of kneading bread. But St. Patrick’s Day includes a bread that doesn’t get kneaded–Irish soda bread, of course. It’s rather an acquired taste, not the most exciting in its basic form, so in addition to studying Paul’s simple, classic technique, I checked out some recipes that called for a more enriched dough.

Hollywood makes soda bread either with all white flour or half white and half whole wheat, which I prefer, as a way to increase the fiber and protein. The most important ingredients are baking soda and buttermilk. I used a mix of flours (including one cup of oat flour and and one of white whole wheat out of the total four cups of flour), plus some sugar, butter, and egg, as recommended in this recipe.

The added sweetness is up to you; you could try a couple of tablespoons of sugar instead of 1/4 cup, if you want it less sweet. The egg also is optional, as it is in scones, but it does make the dough richer. https://natashaskitchen.com/irish-soda-bread/

In addition to golden raisins, I added caraway seeds because I like that flavor and a bit of crunch as well. As always, make this to your taste and have fun with it.

Here’s one more of my treats in honor of St. Patrick’s Day: making these a sandwich cookie was a spur of the moment inspiration!

Jean’s oatmeal sandwich cookies with cream cheese frosting inside and mini-M&Ms for an added pop of color and flavor, March 19

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Venus, high above the lake, and beneath the moon, 7 PM, a clear, calm March 3 (yes, that orb is 25 million miles away)

The March 2025 Photo/Video Gallery: New Sightings in Nearby Places

In last month’s entry, I gave the impressive statistics from the worldwide Great Backyard Bird Count. Check it out. So many species in so many countries, recorded by so many devoted birders. As impressive and heart-warming as those numbers are, this month’s news from Audubon and the Cornell Lab of Ornithology sobers us to the fact of the continuing sharp decline in the U.S. numbers of birds. https://www.audubon.org/press-room/us-bird-populations-continue-alarming-decline-new-report-finds

Habitat loss to development, air and water pollution, global warming, use of pesticides and herbicides, and other factors have not only killed birds, but have killed off the insects and plants needed by bird populations to thrive. And the same factors that are killing birds are making our own human hold on life more tenuous for billions around the world.

Decline year by year of many classes of birds in the US since 1970 (Cornell Lab of Ornithology), March 2025

The Good News

But still, day by day, our local and migrating birds call all around us, and their songs thrill us, and when we spot them and take pictures of their beautiful evanescence we feel the same joy that we always have in the presence of birds. Indeed, their fragility makes us appreciate them even more and perhaps even pushes us to try harder to help the rest of the human world pay attention.

And sometimes, as you’ll see below in a video and two related snaps, the unexpected and truly serendipitous happens on a bird walk.

So here are a selection of this month’s photos, taken not only along our local small lake, but also at another nearby lake and at a local woodland park.

Three Canada Geese in a panorama toward downtown buildings on a sunny, sparkly, windy March 17

Male Cardinal in a budding Cherry tree east of our lake, at sunrise, March 19

American Goldfinch in Serviceberry tree, southeast side of our lake, on a warm, windy noon, March 18

Young male Red-winged Blackbird atop an Oak east of the lake, warm morning, March 20

On a chilly afternoon, March 13, I pan the treetops southeast of the lake, and hear the calls of a Cardinal, a Tufted Titmouse, a House Sparrow, a White-Throated Sparrow, and a Carolina Wren–and, as always, local traffic

Song Sparrow and House Sparrows on Japanese Spindle Bush, southeast side of the lake, damp, chilly March 15

Song Sparrow sings in Red Cedar along the north shore, warm March 11

Sharp-Shinned Hawk perches in Red Maple very near our home, just after chasing, but losing, a Sparrow out of a nearby bush, February 28. See next video.

This Sharp-Shinned Hawk flew just past me after chasing a Sparrow through a Spindle Bush, and then perched in this Red Maple along our path, February 28. A totally unexpected and serendipitous shot!

My photo of the Sharp-Shinned Hawk flying past me in pursuit of the Sparrow, who got away, February 28

Red-Shouldered Hawk in Tulip Tree, southeast woods, March 10

Mallard pair along west shore of our lake, in twilight, March 4

House Finch female in Mulberry tree along the southeast shore, warm March 11

Downy Woodpecker scans on Red Maple, southeast bank, damp, cold March 15

I’m part of a town association birding party at a nearby park and lake, cool, cloudy March 16

Double-Crested Cormorant–first sighting of the year–at nearby Lake Newport, March 16

Red-Bellied Woodpecker high up in Oak, nearby park, March 16

Rarely seen Eastern Towhee behind Honeysuckle, in woods of nearby park, March 16

At nearby Lake Newport, as part of the birding party, I see these 2 Ring-Neck Ducks, a first sighting for me, dive into the water, but then more of the ducks break the surface! March 16