Friday, November 03, 2006

First Snow and Ice.

Burning Bush

11-3-06 VERMONT: We came up two days ago on a warm afternoon and had snow that night. The snow was gone by noon the next day, but things were white at 7 AM. There was 4.95 inches of rain in the gauge, all that just since October 19. The storm with high wind and rain that dumped all the branches on the yard in Short Hills did the same here. I spent the last hour of daylight after we arrived gathering a cart load of sticks and branches. The next day after the snow melted, I did garden clean up and today I did a little pruning and cleared dead fall off the pasture fence. We have a couple broken rails from a fallen maple limb. I prefer doing the garden clean up in the fall rather than damage emerging shoots in the spring with the rake. Also the snow melt in the spring is dependent on sun exposure so some places can be cleaned when other stuff is still under a foot of snow. You have do clean up several times.

The pasture was mowed yesterday and looks great. There is something pleasing and satisfying about the look of a mowed field. Perhaps some part of our sub-cortical brain knows there is nothing in the short grass who wants to eat us.

This morning when I went out in the pasture to do fence mending, that sounds sooo country, the puddles from all the rain had a thin cover of ice. The trees are leafless except for beech and oak that carry a few brown leaves through the winter. Some shrubs, like these burning bush, still have color.

We have dinner with the Hanlons tonight and the Koreys tomorrow.

1 comment:

Bob said...

The burning bush is looking good. There are still quite a few leaves left on the trees here in the UK.