Snow Storm Last Night

I've been putting off adding food to the bird feeders even though it's a bright, happy, sunny day because it's bitterly cold. Rick came early to clear the driveway so I don't have an excuse. As soon as I'm finished writing I'll pick up the mail and add sunflower oilers, niger, and suet.

I tell the dogs that Rick's a friend; they still bark to let me know he's clearing away the snow. I think they want him to leave it; they love running through clean, unbroken snow.

People have asked me about "lake effect snow". They think I must get a lot because I live right on the lake. Lake effect snow is a result of the evaporation of water from a lake and then, as a result of wind, the dropping of that same water as snow someplace else. The wind here is mostly west to east or north-west to south-east. It picks up moisture from Lake Huron and carries it across the lake to - - - - Canada. Occasionally, the wind may go from east to west but that's rare. If you look at the photo, click to enlarge, above you can see Michigan's thumb; I live near the top, where the thumbnail might be, right on the lake. (If you look closely, you can see a cloud near the right side of the tip of the thumb. That cloud was over my house.) Directly east of me across the lake is Canada. Can you see the white area? That's lake effect snow. As you know, Buffalo, New York has an amazing amount of lake effect snow every year. Their snow comes from Lake Erie. It may be better to live upwind from a large body of water - unless you like skiing.

I planted several very small spruce trees, mostly Norway Spruces, last summer in Nord Mark. Some I transplanted from my forest, some I bought. You can't see them most of the year because they are so small and the undergrowth hides them but in the snow, they stand out - at least for me because I know where to look. (Can you find them? How many do you see?) I'm hoping their roots got a chance to grow last summer so that I'll get nice candles, that's what the new growth on firs, spruces, and pines are called, on them this coming spring.

 

 

I keep meaning to look though my old photos to see if I can find some shots of Nord Mark before I cleaned it out. It was an impenetrable tangle of tree-choking mature grapevines, fallen and falling dead trees, and thick underbrush of dogwoods, Juneberries, and viburnums. It looked huge. Now? Not so much. Maybe one of my friends has some old shots? The above three photos are definitely "after" shots. Looks small now.

The spring gardening catalogs have started arriving and the days are getting longer by one minute in the morning and one minute in the evening now. Yay!