3/02/12 ARTIFACTS OF THE STORM, AND TAG ALDERS

SNOWY CRABAPPLE

...FROZEN FRUIT

SPECKLED ALDER

MALE CATKINS WAITING TO BLOOM

PACK ICE IS BACK AGAIN

Friday, 9:00 AM.  33 degrees.  Wind N, calm. It is overcast and the barometer predicts snow.    The roads and driveways are just too slick to walk on much this morning.  Buddy and I are tired of the icy conditions.  We have been walking on the beach where it is easier to stay vertical, but with gasoline prices approaching four dollars a gallon I would prefer to walk the neighborhood roads.
        The pack ice has filled up the bay at the beach and the south channel again, as far as the eye can see.  Two days ago it was absolutely clear of ice.
        The storm left some beautiful artifacts, trees draped in snow and ice, some, like this crabapple, still bearing frozen fruit.  The conifers have been particularly impressive, drooping with ice and snow, some branches bending to the ground with the weight.
        The speckled alder, locally called tag alder, Alnus incana, is very common along streams and in swamps of the northeastern to Midwestern US and Canada.  It is a large shrub or sometimes a small tree to twenty feet tall.  It is called "speckled" because of the obvious, speckled lenticels of the smooth, cherry-like bark.  At this time of year the male catkins are very obvious, hanging pendulously from the branches, along with the small, cone-like flower structures of the prior season.