White Rain

Maryland, 45 min drive NE of Baltimore. Picture is from Baltimore. Dense foliage in the woods down there already.

Coming back from Edgewood just in time for 50 degree weather...going to be 90 down here on Saturday, crazy gradient.

On business travel in Edgewood. Great weather down here, upper 70s and sunny during the day with low 50s at night. Trees are full down here with the nice spring light green hue. Looks like June typically does at home.

.24” of on the day, rained almost all day but light for the most part. The gypsies have not made it up here the last few years. Mostly a pike south problem. Hopefully they stay down there or die off.

Well yesterday was perfect so this is our payback day. Steady showers. Everything is greening up nicely though.

Only a stray open bud or two on the Norway maples here. Still basically barren. overall the trees are mostly grey with closed buds. The exception are some decorative flowering trees, willow and some red flowers on silver maples. Pretty crazy for May 1st.

Nope, not to long now though I don’t think. Especially with this kind of weather.

Its huge in New England. If you were to talk to the average person though, they would probably say 2600 feet doesn’t make much difference. Everyone assumes you need massive elevation as they base their opinion off the west. Sitting with a bunch of engineers and scientists in Natick years ago we had talked of going skiing at Wachusett. They were convinced that the elevation difference between there and Natick would result in zero difference in snow cover because it was “only” 2000 feet. The linear nature of temperature falls with height combined with the colder climate didn’t register with them.

I’m not a big fan of white pines, fragile with shallow root systems. We have a few on the edge of our property too. Dangerous near a house. As far as evergreens go, We have mostly blue spruces, many have gotten so large the bottoms are now dying though which ruins their appeal some. Nice trees though.

I believe both trees in the picture are Norweigen, the back one is massive with 4’ diameter. It shades out all vegetation, which is a big part of why they are considered harmful invasive. It feeds off a stream on our property. Nice for expanding the yard and creating a shaded area for the kids to run around and play.

Probably make for tough walking at Barre Falls, that place is a bug magnet.

We have several maple types in the yard. The only one that has made any real progress is a silver, red maple is slightly behind. The Norwegian maples’ buds are maturing but no action yet, similar to the sugars if not slightly behind. Poor resolution makes it hard to see..but here is the idea Norway RedSugarSilver

Grass finally starting to green up and also getting some action with the forsythia. Trying to grow some fruits and vegetables in pots this year to keep them away from bunnies. They cleaned out our flourishing broccoli last time we planted them.

Especially when there is no where to swim with frigid lakes, swimming pools and a 45 degree ocean. That’s the true appeal of hot weather. The exception perhaps is if you go to college and can enjoy some early season campus lawn sights and activities.

High temp was 57 today after a low of 31. Vegetation is about as far behind as I can remember, not much budding evident. Although there is a bit more red down in the lowest spots. Once the freezing mornings stop I expect things should accelerate.