The pan ice in Crescent harbor on Saturday disappeared as the wind picked up and the temperature dropped. The dry weather Saturday through Monday was pleasant as the window didn't need scraping and the skiff lines were pliable. This morning the frost was back.
The wind felled two trees over the trail on Sunday between going to town around 11:30 and returning around 5pm. Glad I picked up that penny on the street. They fell right over the trail, one is resting at a height just above my knees, the other at my shoulder. One was roughly 8 inches in diameter the other 11 inches. Fortunately there is just enough room to easily climb over one tree and under the other when traveling back and forth to the dock. Both trees were leaning a little from a previous wind storm, but not so much that I was nervous. So much for my tree knowledge. There were several small branches on the trail, none with that fatal sort of look though. I always have been more intimidated by traveling through the forest during a wind storm than traveling by skiff to town. I'm not sure in a wind storm if a person could hear the tree start to fall in time to move out of the way. I have run down the the trail before, thinking that the raindrop rule should apply to trees. During one huge storm with winds in the upper 70s, two trees fell in the garden, pretty close to the house. Whatever sound the tree made falling was completely lost in the wind.
Both Galankin and Swan lake are frozen, Ian told me that the latter was frozen yesterday afternoon. There hasn't been any sea ice because of the wind the last couple of days, but tonight I broke ice most of the way home. Is was fairly thin and slushy in the channel between town and Morne Island, it didn't slow me down, but I could hear it against the hull. Between Morne island and the dock, the ice was thick enough to slow me down involuntarily. Even with a metal boat I'm not too thrilled about going full speed in the dark into the ice. So I slowed down and enjoyed Mars and the stars. I expect to smash ice all the way to town in the morning.
The birds have been scarce on the commute. I was surprised that more haven't been taking shelter in the cove by the island dock. Saturday commute birds: by dock: 7 buffleheads, 4 mallards, 2 common mergansers, 2 Harlequin, 1 glaucous-winged gulls, ca. ten goldeneyes. Sunday and Monday there were few birds visible through my scarf... Tuesday 13 common mergansers by the Wade's dock. This weekend found 3 Song sparrows, j4 uncos, 1 winter wren and 8 chickadees in the shrubs below and at the feeder.
Cleaning out my email found these quotes posted on a recent the plant of the day (?) that I will try to take to heart."Botanical latin is essentially a written laguage, but the scientific names of plants oftern occur in speech. How they are pronounced really matters little provided they sound pleasant and are understood by all concerned" Stearn Botanical Latin 4th edition. (Pinus is good example of this idea).
"When someone presumes to correct your pronunciation, a knowing smile is an appropriate response" Jepson's Manual Flora of California
I guess I owe an apology to a few people that I have corrected.
No comments:
Post a Comment