Lots of snow so far this winter means lots of plowing and gritting, and more recent warmer weather and stronger sun means the grit laden snow piles are getting ugly and dirty … until we get a heavy rain storm, these piles remain to make the side of the road look dreary!
Fish alive
Since returning from Florida and finding the bubbler detached from the pond, I’ve been worried that the fish might not survive this year – the bubbler normally keeps air flowing in to the pond water, and an opening in the ice; but detached this year, ice was solid to at least 10″, with no fresh air 😦
Now, with no snow for a few days, and sun doing melting, the ice on the pond has thinned, enough that we can see orange patches under the ice:
Happily, these orange patches move around too! So at least some of the fish have survived so far.
We installed a second bubbler today, which hopefully will assist the fish in continuing to survive through the rest of this long cold winter.
Temperature by Rhododendron
The Rhododendron plants outside our bedroom window help us to tell how cold it is … today for example, overnight was cold; I took this picture about 7:30am when it was maybe 15f (-9c):
You can see how the Rhododendron has “dipped” it’s leaves nearly vertical, presumably as an adaptation to allow any falling snow to drop off the leaves and prevent breaking branches!
This afternoon, 3pm, the temperature is close to 40f (4c), and the Rhododendron has responded:
M&I / GBMINI 