FREEZING FOG, NORWAY SPRUCE, AND A FATE TO BE AVOIDED

FREEZING FOG..MAKES ROADS AND WALKS QUITE SLIPPERY IN PLACES

GROVE OF SNOW-LACED NORWAY SPRUCE

THE DEEP SNOW MAKES THE TOP WIRE OF  FENCES ALMOST INVISIBLE ...

...SO IT IS QUITE IMPORTANT TO OBEY THE SIGN...

...WHICH IS PRETTY MUCH IGNORED

Monday, 8:30 AM.  1 degree F at the ferry dock, 5 degrees on the back porch.  The sky is mostly clear with a few high, thin white clouds.  The wind is westerly, light. The humidity is 84% and the barometer is trending down, currently at 30.31". There is a freezing fog which is evident over the channel but almost imperceptible here on the bluff, but I can feel it on my face; very tiny crystals of ice, which have coated the roads and made them very slippery in places and difficult to walk on.  I don't think I have ever experienced anything quite like it.  It will disappear as soon as the sun warms it up a bit.
   A magnificent grove of Norway spruce, Picea abies, occupies most of the block between Ninth and Tenth Streets and Wilson and Manypenny Avenues. They are quite beautiful laced with the latest snowfall. They were planted by naturalist and good friend Andy Larsen when he was a boy, and his grandfather owned the land.
   The snowmobile trails on the outskirts of town have some rules and regulations, which are often ignored.  The admonition to stay on the trails and the warning concerning  barbed wire fences is a particularly important one this winter, as the snow is so deep it is often level with the top wire of the fences. Running into barbed wire on a snow machine is a fate to be avoided.