It may not feel like it but, a definite sigh of spring was seen at Katherine’s, last Sunday.  The pussy willow buds had broken and the familiar catkins were coming out.  This is one of the first buds to germinate, and occurs around this time, every year.  What do you think causes this?  Probably not temperature, because that’s not the same every year, but something that’s always the same.  Let me know what you think it is.

The next sign of spring will occur a week after this Sunday.  Guess what it is, before you read further.  OK, it’s the return to daylight savings time.  Remember, you saw it here, first.

The current forecast, for the end of this week, calls for temps in the 20s, with a little fresh snow.  Remember, March comes in like a lion.  Anyway, we may be able to get in another Sunday of skiing and snowshoeing at Swain, thanks to the little varmint from PA, who saw his shadow.  Soon, we’re going to be checking hemlock trees for an invasive killer but, we have to wait till the 6 weeks are up, and the snow is gone.

On our hike at Wesley Preserve this Sunday, we hiked through an area that is an emerging forest.  The first sawmill in Frost Town was built in 1790 just a mile south of the Wesley Hill Preserve along Gulick Rd.  By 1880 three mills were operating, but by 1926 when three artists bought land within the area now encompassed by the Wesley Hill Preserver, the mills and the town had closed for lack of trees and good farm land and the trees were beginning to recover.  One tree in particular stood out.  As I caught up, Wendy and Norm were investigating the tree and the best angle for a picture.  Norm was seeing the shapes and the light in the tree, Wendy was looking through to tree for interesting images framed by the tree. What I saw was two stems that had grown back together in two places.  This last occurrence is called inosculation if the joining is a true graft, or conjoining if the joint remains two separate branches. You also may notice the size of this tree compared to those in the background.  This tree must have escaped the sawmill and grew up in the open field.  I hope to get a copy of Wendy’s and Norm’s pictures of this same tree so we can compare but meanwhile, compare to a second old oak tree a bit lower down on the preserve.

If you want to investigate further, simply Google Hugging trees or Trees grow together.  Sometimes people work hard to help.  Sometimes it simply occurs naturally.