Friday, 7:30 AM. 42 degrees, wind NW, light. The sky is mostly blue, and the barometer predicts sunny weather. Yesterday evening we had some sustained high winds as the high-pressure system moved in.
As a rule, once one notices a particular thing or event , one suddenly sees similar things previously ignored. So it is with the catkin flowers; the aspen, Populous tremuloides, catkins shown here are quite large and obvious once one looks for them. In early spring an aspen tree truly looks “in bloom,” and is quite attractive. The male catkins of the common tag alder were releasing their pollen while the snow was still on the ground, and the oak male catkins will be obvious shortly. The pollen released by male catkins is borne on the wind, not by insects, to the female flowers, and such wind borne pollen adds significantly to the pollen count for allergy sufferers.
We have made good progress on our big planting job, but we must now wait for the wildflowers and grasses which will be in the greenhouse for another three or four weeks.
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