Tree Trio #ThursdayTreeLove

Yesterday, the oppressive (by our standards-my readers in India would laugh for hours if I stated the temperature, so I won't) heat was back, but we wanted to walk outside, and we ended up taking a 30 minute or so walk along a flood wall.

We admired these trees.

Trees don't have the option to duck into shade or air conditioning.  They stand, rain or shine, heat or cold, sun or ice.

Some have showy blooms.   By this time of year, our trees are mostly done blooming.

Some of them stand alone. 

This tree is actually three separate trees, each with what appears to be three trunks. The mini-grove stands near the Susquehanna river in the Southern Tier of New York.  

People like quotes with trees.  I don't have a quote for today. Instead, here's a tree joke:

Q.  What are three trees standing together called?

A.  A trio.

Joining Parul at Happiness and Food for her twice a month Thursday Tree Love.

The Catalpa and the Climate #ThursdayTreeLove

Everything in Nature seems to be so sped up this year.  I know the winter was mild, but still...

I've done an annual (or nearly annual) post on one of our prettiest native blooming trees, the catalpa.  I happened to look at a post from 2019 on that year's bloom.  The post is dated June 27, 2019.

In 2017, my post was dated June 22.  In 2013, also June 22.

In 2020 (that year we want to forget) the pictures were taken on June 21.

This isn't the only plant that is blooming ahead of time in my Southern Tier of New York garden.  I already have one day lily blooming (not the ones you see in commercial landscaping, which are blooming, too) and some others have buds.  

Last year I lived in USDA zone 5b.  This year it's been upgraded to zone 6a. (The higher the zone number the higher your average winter temperatures are - that's an oversimplification but it will do for my purposes here).   How can people deny something is happening?

But back to the early blooming catalpas.

Fast forward to this year, 2024. First, a few facts about these native trees.

This is a native tree (Catalpa speciosa) with beautiful, showy, fragrant blossoms in the late spring/early summer. They can grow upwards of 40 to 60 feet (18.28 meters) tall and make a good shade tree.  Their beautiful white flowers  make a mess for the homeowner who has to clean them up.  If you have to cut one down, they make (I understand) good lumber.

After they bloom, they grow long "beans", which can be upwards of 20 inches (50 cm) long.  In winter,these beans are shed. Time for another cleanup.  

You'll be cleaning for a long time, too, as these trees can live as long as 150 years.

Today is June 13.  The trees have been blooming since about June 6.  They look to be at peak right now.  

This first photo was taken near Otsiningo Park in Binghamton, New York on June 7.

Here's another from June 7.

In my neighborhood, I can get closer.  Let's look at photos taken June 11.

Let's get even closer.

Finally, I hope this shows the size these trees can get to.

I am llinking with Thursday Tree Love, brought to us by Parul and her blog Happiness and Food.

Love flowers?  Join me again Saturday for more flowers at Garden Bloggers Bloom Day.

Four Trees A'Blooming #ThursdayTreeLove

"Let's take our hearts for a walk in the woods and listen to the magic whispers of old trees." -Unknown

These aren't all natives or even in woods, but they are all beautiful.

 Four trees that bloomed in the past couple of weeks in my part of the Northeast United States.

1.  A young red horse chestnut tree.  Learn more about the horse chestnuts here.  The red horse chestnut (Aesculus x carnea) is a hybrid coming from a cross between a horse chestnut and a buckeye, and may have originally come from Germany. It's increasing in popularity where I live.

2.  White dogwood (Cornus florida) in a wooded area off a popular rail trail.  Dogwoods are native to where I live and is a small understory tree when in the wild.  They are also popular in landscaping.  Their bloom for 2024 is over now - this was taken about a week ago.

3.  Pink dogwood, planted along the same trail as a tribute to a young woman who died from cancer. Pink dogwoods are native also but aren't common in the wild, as the pink flowers arise from a recessive gene.

4. It's hard to see this but I think this is a wild rhododendron.  I've never seen it locally (although they o grow in this area) and this came as a surprise.  I wish I could have gotten closer to it. 

Joining Parul at Happiness and Food for her twice a month #ThursdayTreeLove.

Pink and White Parade #ThursdayTreelove

This past two or three weeks, our spring trees in the Binghamton, New York area showed off their blooms for us.  Here are some of the highlights.

West Middle School (the junior high that one Rod Serling attended) April 25.

Flowering cherry Binghamton May 1.

Pink dogwood Vestal Rail Trail May 2. (This tree is planted in memory of a young woman who died years ago from cancer.)

Flowering Kwansan cherry tree last week (they are dropping their pedals now).
 

My crabapple May 3 (its flowers are gone now, too). 

Finally, a white tree (apple?) in bloom on the Vestal Rail Trail May 4.  Such sweet memories, as we move on to lilacs and other spring delights.

Joining Parul at Happiness and Food for #ThursdayTreeLove with my pink and white tree flower parade.

Snowy Thoughts #ThursdayTreeLove

Snow has not been common this winter where I live in the Southern Tier of New York State.  I would estimate we've gotten less than half the snow we normally get.  I'm noting here that our record snowfall for a winter season was 135.2 inches (343 cm)  in the winter of 2016-2017. 

But I finally have some snow pictures for you.  And some thoughts.

A tree shadow in snow.

A close up.

Love that deep blue sky after a snow.

Evergreen bushes.

And now, the thoughts.

According to our local National Weather Service office, Lakes Erie and Ontario have less than 2% ice cover.  This is important, because we are prone to what are called lake effect snows, fed by moisture from those lakes. At this time of year, the lakes should still be frozen over and in those circumstances, we don't get those lake effect snows. 

This winter, I don't think those lakes ever froze over. I think the highest in mid-January they were about 13% frozen over.  They should have been 60-70% frozen over, if not more. 

No ice cover now means we may be getting set up for a major dump of snow in March, and possibly even April.

So?

April snows, when they happen, are heavy.  Trees break and fall on cars and on houses.  Bad for the trees.  Bad for houses and cars and those who get in the way of the falling trees.  It's dangerous.

Also, there is a total eclipse of the sun on April 8, and the area of totality will cross New York State (it won't be total where I live, alas).  Thousands of tourists are expected in cities such as Buffalo and Rochester, both of which are in the zone of totality.  And both cities are near these lakes and both cities are known for their snowfall.

Buffalo's record snowfall in a winter, for example, is 199.4 inches (506 cm)

This may get interesting for those who love trees.

Joining Parul at Happiness and Food for her #ThursdayTreeLove.

Blue Skies Starlings and Trees #ThursdayTreeLove

"I heard a winter tree in song.  Its leaves were birds, a hundred strong. When all at once it ceased to sing. For every leaf had taken wing." Mervyn Peake.

February has given us in the Southern Tier of New York a gift.  We've had four days in a row with blue skies (a break from our normally whitish and dreary winter skies) and mildish temperatures.

Well, mildish for us, anyway.  Yesterday it got up to 43 degrees F (6.1 C).

Our local trees celebrated, along with a flock of European starlings (the tiny black dots at the tops of the trees), who were settling down for the night.

 I tried to zoom in a little, but didn't want to cut off the parts of the trees full of birds.

This tree even has visible buds on it - it's one of the earliest trees in our neighborhood to bud out, although that is still months away. 

And this?  It's just hanging out, waiting for the signal to wake up from its long winter sleep.  In the meantime, the European starlings may seek it out, too.

I hope this weather doesn't fool the trees.  Actually, it won't - we are supposed to be back in the freezer by Sunday, and may get some snow next week.

Joining Parul at Happiness and Food for her twice a month #ThursdayTreeLove.

The Bones of Winter #ThursdayTreeLove

“I prefer winter and fall when you feel the bone structure of the landscape – the loneliness of it, the dead feeling of winter. Something waits beneath it; the whole story doesn't show.”- Andrew Wyeth.

We've had all kinds of weather this past week - snow, ice, rain.  It's been a good week to stay inside - fortunately, I haven't had to go out much.

Snowy backyard. 

Dark eyed juncos, a bird that lives further north but winters here, flocked to our snow laden feeders.  The males are black on top and white on the bottom while the females are more grey on top and white on the bottom. They seem to be more common when there is snow on the ground.  

We did see sun at the beginning of the week.  I admired another Norwegian maple.  Doesn't this tree look battle scarred, with all its missing limbs?  Yet, it perseveres. 

The bones of winter.

Now, it's staying above freezing, and that means more rain but I am not complaining.

A day without ice or snow coming down is a good day.

Joining Parul at Happiness and Food for her twice a month #ThursdayTreeLove.

Snow At Last #ThursdayTreeLove

"The color of springtime is in the flowers, the color of winter is in the imagination" - Terri Guillemets. 

I know readers of Parul's #ThursdayTreeLove have been waiting for photos of trees covered in snow since a number of participants live in climes where snow is not part of their winters.

Sunday and Monday, we finally got enough of a snowstorm to make it happen.

Doesn't it look like a winter wonderland?  These pictures were taken Monday.

These pictures look like they were taken in black and white.  I assure you, they were not.

A birds-eye view of a backyard.

Here's a closeup of the snow.  It was heavy and clumpy.  I'm grateful I didn't have to shovel it.

Trees share their beauty with us all year long.  Where I live, many trees bloom in the spring.  In summer, they provide shade and cover for birds and animals.  In fall, many of our trees sense the decreasing daylight, their signal to go into winter hibernation. Before their leaves fall, the leaves shed their green and show their true colors - yellow, rust, red.  The leaves, once on the ground, compost and enrich the soil.  The mulch they create also protects the roots of perennial plants.

In winter, they provide places for birds and squirrels to store food.  Squirrels build nests in trees as year round homes.

These trees may seem to be fast asleep but, in reality, amazing things are happening beneath the surface to allow those trees to survive winter.

Nature is amazing.

Meanwhile, as of today, the snow is almost all gone. Our up and down winter continues.

Joining Parul at Happiness and Food this second Thursday of January for #ThursdayTreeLove.

Trees Decorated and a New Zone #ThursdayTreeLove

In past years, I might have shown you pictures of snow covered trees.  This year, those pictures have been scarce.

Our climate is changing.  I remember back to when my son (now in his 30's) was a toddler and he would play in snow tunnels dug under the two or three feet of snow accumulated by now.  Now, we have rain.  And some temperatures close to record highs for late December. 

In November, our area was reclassed by the USDA from gardening zone 5b (minimum temperatures -15F to -10F, or -26.6 C to - 21.6 C) to 6a (minimum temperatures -10F to -5F or -23.3 C to - 20.6C)-.  Many parts of the country were similarly reclassed, with increases in minimum temperature of 3F (us) to 5F (Tampa, Florida, where I lived years ago).

A new gardening zone for a new year.

Maybe now I can try to grow camillas again.

But back to the trees.

Week before this we had flooding in low lying areas, and then the temperatures dropped below freezing.

This picture was taken in Otsiningo Park on December 20.

But there is one constant for December besides below freezing temperatures - decorated trees for the Christmas holiday.

These were taken at an annual event called Home for the Holidays that same day.

If you want to see a former mansion with decorated trees, you've come to the right place.  I didn't look to see if these were real trees - I doubt it, but if they aren't it's good, in a way, to know that living trees weren't sacrificed for a few days of beauty.  Of course, a lot of wood was used in the building of this mansion, as you can see.

Trees give us so much.

The window is beautiful, but oh those trees.

Thank you, trees, for all of this.

Joining Parul at Happiness and Food the last time in 2023 for her #ThursdayTreeLove.

The Local Famous Christmas Tree #ThursdayTreeLove

I took this picture from a TV program on my television in late November.  I hope the TV network people don't mind.

This is the 2023 Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree in New York City just after its tree lighting ceremony.

Just a few days before, it was growing peacefully in Vestal, New York, perhaps a mile or two from where spouse and I exercise walk on the Vestal Rail Trail.  To the best of my knowledge, I never saw it while it was in the ground.

It is (or was) a Norway Spruce, 80 feet (24.38 m) tall, 43 feet (13.11 m) wide, weighing 12 tons (10,886 kg).  Each year there is a hunt for the perfect tree for Rockefeller Center, continuing a tradition begun in 1931 by construction workers building the Center.  

It's considered a great honor for your tree to be chosen - it must fit into several specific requirements.  The homeowner or land owner doesn't get paid, but they can attend the ceremony if they wish.

Here's the story of the person who donated the tree - a social worker and assistant professor at Binghamton University.

It is lit daily, starting November 29, through January 13, 2024, with some 50,000 energy saving LED lights and a 900 pound (408.23 kg) star tops it.

I can be sad about the death of this 80-85 year old tree (its estimated age) but this tree will bring joy to so many people visiting or living New York City this holiday season.  After its reign is over, it will be milled into lumber for use by Habitat for Humanity.

And the donor will receive a new tree.

Joining Parul at Happiness and Food for #ThursdayTreeLove.

Thankful Thursday Thanksgiving #ThursdayTreeLove

What am I thankful for today?  So much.  Being able to spend a small Thanksgiving (I like it that way) with some family.  Having food on the table. 

I am thankful for all the people in my life who have been friends, family, mentors, co workers, or those who were in and then out of my life during a time I needed them. Many of them have moved on to wherever we go after our time on Earth is done. Others are still here - I have never thanked them enough.

I am thankful for the people working today to safeguard me, and make my life comfortable.

I am thankful for living in a part of the world where I can enjoy fall color in its season.

Today I'll be busy so here is more of the bounty at our local farmers market, continued from yesterday. 

 Here in the United States, today is Thanksgiving, a day to spend with family or friends if at all possible.

First mushrooms of the season.  This is a winter crop for this particular farmer.

Parsley root.

Living herbs.

Cranberry sauce, made homemade by me, for today's dinner.  Here's the recipe.

And, before I go, a song for the season.

I hope you have a happy Thursday or Thanksgiving, free of drama and full of love.

Joining Parul at Happiness and Food for #ThursdayTreeLove.

Fancy Fall Finery and First Dark Eyed Junco #ThursdayTreeLove

A note to my readers:  I had thought about pulling this post prewritten yesterday afternoon and, instead, blogging about the tragedy last night in Lewiston, Maine.  I've decided to go ahead with this post.  

I may be blogging more about our ongoing American tragedy this Saturday, when the latest facts are more clear. 

So, for today, a different topic.

Winter is just around the corner.  The birds have told me so.

Well, one bird did.  Yesterday, I saw my first dark eyed junco (Junco hyemalis).  These sparrows spend the summer in Canada, and then they move south and winter to their south, including where I live in the Southern Tier of New York.

When we see them, we know snow can't be far away in the future.  Yet, it is so mild today.

We have fall color finally.  It crept up on us with all the cloudy weather.  We've had sun on and off the last few days, just in time to present to you the beauty of nature.

Tree against blue sky and clouds, October 20.
 

Japanese knotweed and trees.

Our neighborhood.

 Rust colored.

Joining Parul at Happiness and Food for #ThursdayTreeLove.

Be Like a Tree #ThursdayTreeLove

We all should aspire to be like a tree.

Trees are patient and do nothing before it's time.  This year, they are slow in revealing their fall color, alas.

I took these pictures October 9 at Salt Springs State Park in Pennsylvania. By a brook, only a little color was showing.

Here's a nearby view.

But a tree has lessons for us in all seasons.

Each year one of our parks has a scarecrow contest before Halloween.  This was one of the entries from this year's contest.  There is a lot of good advice here.  "Be Like a Tree.  Know when to let go.  Bend before you break.  Keep dancing.  Connect with your roots.  Stay grounded".

There's nothing here about patience, but perhaps I should add "Your time will come".

As it will for our trees shutting down for their long winter sleeps.  Yes, I will be patient.  The time for color will come.

Joining Parul at Happiness and Food for #ThursdayTreeLove.

Trees in Love #ThursdayTreeLove

Spouse and I arrived at a place about 20 minutes before it was set to open, so we decided to walk in a nearby park and get some exercise.

Although we've been living in this area for over 35 years, this is the first time we've ever visited this park.  It had a nice walking trail and it was a pleasant walk.

I saw these two trees and I was moved to take their picture.  I forgot why I wanted to take the picture but when I saw it on my phone, I thought it looked like the two trees were trying to touch each other.

Were they in love?  Were they long time companions?  Or just friends?

Some scientists believe trees can communicate with each other.  I wonder.

Joining Parul at Happiness and Food this fourth Thursday of September for #ThursdayTreeLove.

Japanese Pagoda Library Tree #ThursdayTreeLove #4CLSRoadTrip

Time for another road trip, this time to a library I've used hundreds of times over the past 35 plus years.

On the grounds of the George F. Johnson Memorial Library in Endicott, New York stands a Japanese Pagoda Tree.  These trees bloom in late August, unlike most trees in our area, which bloom in the spring.

The tree.

This may help give you a little scale.

Close ups of the flowers. These were taken August 18.

Entrance to the George F. Johnson Memorial Library.

Inside, a clock.  It keeps time nicely.

I believe this is the house that used to sit on this property, owned by George F. Johnson

Here's a little history:  this library has existed since March of 1915, known originally as the Endicott Free Library.  It was located several blocks from the current library.  It moved several times before finding its permanent home in the current building in 1967.

The Endicott Free Library (later renamed the Ideal Home Library) operated one of the first bookmobiles (horse drawn) in the Northeast United States starting in 1916. It was a Ford flatbed truck used by someone else during the day.  It became a bookmobile in the early evening using removable book shelves. If your community has a bookmobile today, it may well have been inspired by the Endicott bookmobile.

Eventually, the library was named for industrialist George F. Johnson, who died in 1948 but is still beloved in this area for his philanthropy. If you are old enough, you may remember Endicott-Johnson or Father and Son shoes.  Here is a short history of the library and the population of immigrants and others it served.

After Mr. Johnson died, his homestead was purchased by the Village of Endicott.  The current library sits on its grounds. 

Mosaic, George F. Johnson Memorial Library

Also joining Parul of Happiness and Food for her #ThursdayTreeLove.