Winter green

© harrington

Welcome, Thanks for stopping by. I thought today, being Presidents' Day, and George Washington having that apocryphal story about chopping down a cherry tree hung on him, would be a good time to update you on the growth of my dawn redwood forest. As you can see in the picture above, I haven't killed the seedlings. As a matter of fact, no seedlings were harmed in the production of this forest. (You can probably also see in the picture above I'm still struggling with depth of field, but that's a different kind of growth issue.) Given water and nutrients and sunlight, nature is pretty resilient. (Doesn't mean we should trash it though, but you knew that.) While, out of general curiosity, I was researching the viability of seeds, I came across the advice to put them in water and the viable ones will sink and the others will float. That reminded me entirely too much of an old New England test for whether or not a woman was a witch so I didn't follow it. My way of checking on whether the seeds in the kit were viable was to plant them about a month ago. I have, thus far, many more treelings than the instructions suggested I would. On a cold, gray February day, they're great company. Cheerful but quiet. I'm looking forward to seeing them actually branch out. I'm also looking forward to warmer, melting days when it'll be a pleasure going for a walk in the woods and seeing the green that overwintered in My Minnesota. There should be some green mosses and lichens. Before we get to melting, however,  most extended weather forecasts are mentioning daily snowfall, some plowable. The good news is that should help with our drought and DNR's concerns about an explosive spring for grassfires. Those of us who live in grassfire country find an ordinary Spring exciting enough without explosives. Keep your ears open for mating great horned owls and your eyes open for legislative shenanigans. It's legislative season, you know. Please make time to swing by again tomorrow. We'll be here continuing to opine on what there is to love and  love not so much about our Minnesota and, from time to time, reporting on successes (or lack thereof) in growing things and taking their pictures.