Thursday, January 05, 2006

Dearth of Pinecones?

This just in: the Bangor Daily News takes note of a strange dearth of pinecones this year, thanks to a reader's tipoff. I certainly didn't see any on the trees when we were up north.

What does this mean???

This was also noted last winter by a New Hampshire poster on the Farmer's Almanac Message Boards. Of course we all remember that this must mean something, but as to what it means, being so removed from our natural surroundings, we have no memory of that. I have found reference to there being a huge amount of pinecones (which is said to mean a hard winter), but no mention of a lack of pinecones.

In December, a pack of Russian black squirrels attacked and killed a dog in a park in the Far East village of Lazo. Mikhail Tiyunov, a local scientist, was shocked.

"If it really happened, things must be pretty bad in our forests," he added.

Komosmolskaya Pravda notes that in a previous incident this autumn chipmunks terrorised cats in a part of the territory.

A Lazo man who called himself only Mikhalich said there had been "no pine cones at all" in the local forests this year.

"The little beasts are agitated because they have nothing to eat," he added.


What is going on? Oh, your children are lost, Mother Nature.

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