TAMARACKS, AND WINDOWS IN TREES

TAMARACK IN THE BACK YARD NOW TURNING GOLDEN YELLOW

YELLOW LEAVES OF RIVER BIRCH AND BRONZE LEAVES OF RED OAK AS VIEWED THROUGH A "WINDOW" IN A BIG WHITE PINE 

Wednesday,  9:00 AM.  42 degrees F at the ferry dock.  It was 34 degrees on the back porch at dawn, and we saw frost on the grass in low spots, and frost on roofs, this morning.  Wind SW, calm with light gusts.  The sky is clear, the humidity 86%.  The barometer stands at 30.30" and is starting to trend downward.  Rain is predicted for tonight and into tomorrow morning.
   The tamaracks, Larix laricina,  in the yard began to turn three days ago, and their needles  are now almost golden yellow.  They will slowly turn to bronze and then fall. The native tamarack is a tree of the very far north and the upper Midwest in North America. Their preferred habitats are swamps and bogs but they grow in nature on much drier sites as well.  The wood is very strong and was commonly used for ship and barn timbers. These are magnificent trees but almost too large for our yard.  We will keep them as long as we can.  Tamaracks bear cones, and the new red-purple cones look exactly like tiny roses; I look for them every spring, but this year saw none.  Perhaps too rough a winter, although they should not have been affected by cold alone.
  Our back porch has a nice view of the lake and Madeline Island that tends to become somewhat obscured by tall trees.  I used to become annoyed by this until I came to the realization that trees not only grow up, they also die, and blow  down, and this has happened enough in the fifteen years we have lived here that I no longer worry much about it. Several years ago we pruned large branches of a big white pine to reclaim some lake view through a "window."  It worked for a while but trees beyond the pine tree continued to grow.  Now we have a spectacular fall view of colored leaves that I wouldn't trade for more water.