Addendum:
The below verbiage is my January column. Since I wrote it, it has snowed. So besides the photos that went with the c olumn, I have added some photos that I took on the 24th.
What a drab month this has been. The Northeast is going through a snow-drought. We are more than 60 percent below average season-to-date for snowfall as most of the precipitation that has fallen this winter has been in the form of rain. In fact the rainfall is above average for this time of year. But what we did have was a week of artic cold! My lucky little daughter went on vacation to Florida that week! I sure wish I had been there! It got down to -7 degrees here at the Pond one morning and there were three mornings with below zero temps! Yuck! And temps that cold without a snow cover are also bad for gardens. There is a lot of winter kill in those conditions.
What those artic temps did down the Pond is freeze everything up solid! Even the warmer weather we had this past weekend couldn’t get rid of the ice completely. But what it did do is thin it out, especially along the shoreline and above the channel that flows through the Lagoon, under the Causeway into the Pond, and down towards the dam on Lake Ave. On Monday, the 19th, the Fire Department was down at Ice House Park practicing their “Ice Rescue Skills”. A reminder that the ice really isn’t safe. Ice melts from underneath when warm (by comparison) rain water enters the system. The ice could be very thin and you wouldn’t even know it. We have seen people go through the ice after going after their dogs. Don’t go out on the ice if your dog falls through. If the ice can’t hold your dog, it certainly can’t hold YOU! The dogs can get out themselves most of the time. And if you have your dog on a leash, you can pull the dog to the shore no problem! Another reason to obey the leash law!!!
The weather was still nice on Monday, the Holiday, so I headed out to walk the Lagoon. The little Chickadees started following me as I headed down the trail. Their easily recognized call of ‘chick-a-dee-dee-dee’ could be heard in every bush and tree. Because the water level has gone down since our arctic blast, I found some very unusual patterns in certain spots around the Lagoon. Frozen waves dripping from below after the water level dropped, bubbles of gas coming from below, frozen in time, and leaves caught in the ice. So many patterns and designs in nature can make even a drab, snowless January walk more interesting.
The next full moon is on Feb. 3rd. It is called the Full Snow Moon. When I was young, we always referred to January as the cold month and February as the snowy month. Our biggest snow storms always seemed to be in February, just in time for February vacation!! I guess even the Native Americans knew that February was the snowy month!
The below verbiage is my January column. Since I wrote it, it has snowed. So besides the photos that went with the c olumn, I have added some photos that I took on the 24th.
What a drab month this has been. The Northeast is going through a snow-drought. We are more than 60 percent below average season-to-date for snowfall as most of the precipitation that has fallen this winter has been in the form of rain. In fact the rainfall is above average for this time of year. But what we did have was a week of artic cold! My lucky little daughter went on vacation to Florida that week! I sure wish I had been there! It got down to -7 degrees here at the Pond one morning and there were three mornings with below zero temps! Yuck! And temps that cold without a snow cover are also bad for gardens. There is a lot of winter kill in those conditions.
What those artic temps did down the Pond is freeze everything up solid! Even the warmer weather we had this past weekend couldn’t get rid of the ice completely. But what it did do is thin it out, especially along the shoreline and above the channel that flows through the Lagoon, under the Causeway into the Pond, and down towards the dam on Lake Ave. On Monday, the 19th, the Fire Department was down at Ice House Park practicing their “Ice Rescue Skills”. A reminder that the ice really isn’t safe. Ice melts from underneath when warm (by comparison) rain water enters the system. The ice could be very thin and you wouldn’t even know it. We have seen people go through the ice after going after their dogs. Don’t go out on the ice if your dog falls through. If the ice can’t hold your dog, it certainly can’t hold YOU! The dogs can get out themselves most of the time. And if you have your dog on a leash, you can pull the dog to the shore no problem! Another reason to obey the leash law!!!
The weather was still nice on Monday, the Holiday, so I headed out to walk the Lagoon. The little Chickadees started following me as I headed down the trail. Their easily recognized call of ‘chick-a-dee-dee-dee’ could be heard in every bush and tree. Because the water level has gone down since our arctic blast, I found some very unusual patterns in certain spots around the Lagoon. Frozen waves dripping from below after the water level dropped, bubbles of gas coming from below, frozen in time, and leaves caught in the ice. So many patterns and designs in nature can make even a drab, snowless January walk more interesting.
The next full moon is on Feb. 3rd. It is called the Full Snow Moon. When I was young, we always referred to January as the cold month and February as the snowy month. Our biggest snow storms always seemed to be in February, just in time for February vacation!! I guess even the Native Americans knew that February was the snowy month!