Weather 2012

All of the above, Trond, This is very typical growth here on farmland-- these wetlands are naturally forested with willow, alder,birch, and spruce and tamarack (larch)- but only some birch and the tamarack and black spruce get to any size-- willow and most of the alders will only get trunks to a few inches across at most, and when our willows get that size, they mostly fall over; However, these wetlands are prime grazing for cattle, so they are frequently cleared by bulldozer when the woody plants start to grow back, and in more heavily grazed areas, the cattle keep the woodies down, or  semi/annual burning can be used. Many places they are left for many years between clearings- this area has not been cleared in decades, except one strip down the centre where a pipleline was installed (oil and gas installations are everywhere here).
The plant communities can change quite a bit over time as it becomes more overgrown with woody plants- those that need more sun are squeezed out, or remain as mostly/non-flowering plants until its cleared again! There are several species I used to see in this area as a kid that are not there anymore, or don't flower, and then some shade plants that have spread more...
Also, all tamaracks were killed by a disease, I think in the 1930's, so they have grown back since then, some are getting a bit of size, and large areas of young trees....
There are lots of deer in these areas, and even more so , moose.. no elk around here (except on farms), though there would have been in the not recent past. Yesterday I 'saw' two moose in this area, they came from the woods not far behind my house, and ran farther back- as I was walking along the road to start my walk. I say 'saw' because I never got a clear look at them, just saw movement and could tell by the size (huge), bits of shape (humped back), colour (black) and movement (fast and loping, not like a deer- bounding) that it was moose... I wasn't even sure about a second animal till I confirmed the second dark spot in the photos...lol

Trond, when you refer to "elk", I think you mean what we call moose (Alces alces as in Cohan's photo), no?

P.S.  It's sort of funny that it might be necessary to use latin binomials to accurately describe not only plants but also very familiar mammals.  ;)

Good catch Lori, I was forgetting about that- I just think of moose as being North American and expect elk/wapiti/ red deer for Europe (the name Red Deer- a city east of me- suggests that the North American Elk/Wapiti/Red Deer once roamed these parts, or settlers thought they did!

Rick, we have P mariana and glauca-  there could be both in the photo, since that shows the edge of the wet area.. more of the glauca are outside the really wet places, so I tend to assume they are all 'Black Spruce' P mariana in the wet places, where all the trees are much narrower and 'scragglier' than the P glauca outside the wetlands, but the P glauca surely do seed in at least around the edges and high spots within the 'sloughs'(as we locally call all wet places of any kind...lol); some of the trees do have the typical mariana profile.

'sloughs' of course cohan! Even when I lived in Ontario I persisted in calling their ponds 'sloughs', along with calling hydro bills the power bills. I guess I didn't live there long enough...
About +3 C today, but windy as the dickens.  Must still be bringing in the warmer weather for tomorrow.  But we still have scarcely any snow, and as I've said, I sure wouldn't mind some. 

Its a little surprising we still have a fair bit of snow, considering how many above freezing days we've had (note: we do have a larger drop overnight than people in some other climates would expect, so the snow/ground get very cold overnight, even on warm days)... most of our paths and much of the driveway still have a snow covering too--- which just gets more and more polished with every warm day!
Faith- I didn't have to talk about 'sloughs' as much (pronounced 'slew' for those who don't know) living in the city, but once I left home I did have to train myself to use words like 'forest' or 'woods' instead of 'bush'..lol -- I still feel a bit pretentious using those 'literary' words for our plain old trees ;)
The other one I have to watch is 'ditch' which is what we call the areas beside country roads, almost always lower than the road, and usually lower than the land on the other side, between the road and whatever comes beyond that (fields, farmyards, pasture, forest) but I presume might mean other things in other places ; the word is used for other sorts of excavations here, but always used for the roadside- as in 'He went into the ditch'(drove off the road); 'It rained so much the ditches had running water in them' etc-- and its the place I do the bulk of my backroad botanising, since everything else is private property!!

The thought of moose, lynx and bears being re-introduced into the UK would be immensely exciting but there are just a few too many people! There have been strong representations to introduce wolves back into Scotland but I think this would be too much for the peace of mind of farmers and gamekeepers. It is only relatively recently that many birds of prey have been increasing in numbers again. Our most exciting 'wild' mammal is wild boar which are breeding in undisturbed woodland again, but are very shy.

I have always regarded forests as very large tracts of trees. In Britain we have pretty much lost these and mostly have woodland even though certain areas are still called forest (eg: Sherwood Forest of Robin Hood fame or the New Forest in the south).

Our weather by the way is ridiculously mild by comparison to Cohan; we have hardly yet had a frost and rarely drop as low as -10°C! Snow tends to cause chaos, but is quite wonderful to see.

Rick, more like "slew" as in "dew"
Much the same as you do by the way you write it eg. boo, dew
The word slough is absolutely "top drawer" isn't it? haha I really enjoy hearing or reading about local or regional words for things.

The word bush is quite interesting, isn't it? I'm afraid that more than likely a lot of the ways it's used around this area aren't proper grammatically, but still interesting...( Cohen, I haven't gone in the ditch for a long time, knock on wood! )

" Oh, he's up north or up in the bush " ( usually working in the oilfield ) meaning forest, muskeg, bush? not highly populated.  (Of course highly populated in this neck of the woods can mean 10-20 people per section of land.)  Could also mean west, or northwest getting closer to the Rocky Mountains and forest. As you mentioned Hoy, the wilderness....

" He's out brushing. " Can mean cutting/taking out bushes, small/large  trees in preparation for
  breaking the land .  I remember helping with this, horrible job!

" Scrub brush" often patches of  small nondescript bushes/shrubs. May also be known occasionally as buck brush.  Mostly weedy type small shrubs etc. 

So now, I have really made a mess of things! bush and brush.
Forest to me means a "real" forest, meaning evergreens.  I often think of the Whitecourt Forest.  And Cohen, getting over in your area as well, forest. I guess around here there are a few spots that verge on being forest area but it's more likely called bush, treed area, woodland.  When I think of forest I thing BIG...

Weather here today is lovely, too lovely for this time of year.  Scares me! Just a light breeze, no snow, and about 4 -5 deg. C.  I'm thinking that when the snow comes we'll  be shocked. 

Woods and forest are about the same to me- and both are 'foreign' words around here-- expected in fairytales ,think: 'Enchanted Forest'
or in more technical speech- eg. a discussion of 'Boreal Forest'.. woods doesn't mean much different to me, though it is  a more genteel term, most likely used for a tract of forest near civilisation, maybe tamer than forest, and probably more for poetry!
Here, its all bush, whether its deciduous or mixed forest (note the use of 'forest' since that's a more technical description...lol) and regardless of the size of the area- though if you can see out from all sides while standing in the middle, it probably wouldn't be called going into the bush...lol

Brush- as in 'clearing brush' or 'brush piles' or 'burning brush' (after its made into a 'brush pile' is also commonly used here-- leans a bit towards meaning undergrowth- which here means roses, many kinds of ribes, shepherdia, symphoricarpos, various prunus and saplings.. and in wet areas, see my comments above- would refer to willows, alders, betula etc... although once talking about clearing brush, it could really mean any unwanted woodies of any size, and brush piles can include mature trees too.. its almost more a description of the unwantedness of the woodies, in the locations they are in, rather than any particular kind of plants...

Absolutely beautiful here today, as well-- sunny, seasonally very warm- I was sweating on a gentle walk in the 'bush'! We were forecast to be 7C as it was yesterday, but it got to at least 10C...

Yes, slough rhymes with boo- or do;
due and dew could be do, but I lean more often to rhyming them with few...lol
I think its ridiculous to have re-named your talks, Rick-- she must have felt 'shrub' was too highbrow for the group....  :rolleyes:

A few  pics from today's walk.... you get an idea of how much the snow cover varies with different parts of the landscape; these aren't just random variations- these are patterns, and reflect typical (no doubt some annual differences due to wind)  zones of lighter and heavier snow cover, which has a significant impact on the plants-- mostly re: moisture levels.. Ruffed Grouse in the first image.. common and frequently seen here..

No one could ever claim English spelling is easy or straightforward-- but it is rich in history!..lol
Its been crazy mild here-- something like 10C today, and still tomorrow- though its supposed to rain tomorrow (its been forecast several times, and fortunately has never materialised-- still too much snow/ice for rain to be welcome!) and possibly snow later, and then temps drop considerably for at least a couple of days....

Yesterday (Sunday) was nearly 12C here, and today at least 10C (still lots of snow though!)
some shots from Sunday, showing how variable the snow cover is- the image with a clear line between the wooded and open area is very telling...
Then a shot of one of my (under construction) rock garden areas, and where most overwintering pots are sunk.. still mostly covered, though some parts are showing through.. then our gravel road, a mix of patches of packed icey snow and loose grave; the melting should be mostly over for now, though not much snow in the forecast yet.. today it was supposed to rain, luckily we dodged that, and temps drop after tonight...

Cohan, we have about the same as you here, not surprisingly, although not the snow. Today is windy as the dickens again, and temps dropping, as they look to be all through the area and down to Calgary, etc.  My sister in Calgary says there was black ice this morning, some drifting, just plain nasty driving.  Winter is on the way???
My seventeen year old son asked me yesterday, " you don't suppose we might just be able to skip winter this year????" Not likely....

I think these pictures really say it all.

Last February 1st

Anemone coronaria blooming in the garden now.

This is my favorite Anemone.  I'm zone five, but this zone 6 hardy anemone has survived the last few Winters.  If this keeps up I'm going to have to plant Mediterranean species.

James

Faith- winter is definitely not skipping this year...lol-- temps are already much lower, and after a couple more mild days, looks like next week will drop farther still, though still not to temps we'd consider extreme for this time of year (daytimes in low -teensC or -20'sC at worst - so far in the forecast- to be really cold for January, it would have to hit at least -30C daytime!
We got a dusting of snow overnight- enough to freshen up our dirty snow paths...lol-- but the roads were clear, it all blew straight across in the strong winds...
James, quite a contrast! Personally, I'd hesitate to plant for the extremes of 'warming' (I'm sure many of us can get away with a zone or two bump in some things)There is sure to be a cold winter or even a few cold weeks thrown into the mix at some point to take out all those tender plants! Seems to be a lot of ups and downs in the general climate mayhem...

Nice sunset!
It always amazes me that some of you Northern Europeans can be farther north than us, yet so much warmer! We would think we were doing very well if we could say no freezing temps yet-- in September! If your warm ocean currents are ever knocked out by melting ice caps,as some suggest, you guys will be trouble!
Sunset is already almost 5pm now...
Winter is back today- windy and snowing, 10cm forecast, then flurries Sunday and Monday, periods of snow Tues....going to -18C tonight, -33C wed morning....

We don't think of ourselves as high altitude -the mountains are still far,  we are under 1000m... ;D
Of course coasts are very different, but at 60 degrees North, even the west coast of NA is colder than you! -5C- so cold... ;) (I know cold is very relative to what you are used to in general, and for the year and season..) Tomorrow its not supposed to get above -18C, with windchill of -29C, and then it gets colder...lol And I expect to go out to saw some wood tomorrow, and if not tomorrow, Wednesday, which may be even colder (and more snow on the ground by then)..

In the end we didn't get much snow- just a couple of cm; luckily we also did not have much wind as forecast- doesn't take much wind at these temperatures to produce severe windchill! We were out doing wood today, and it was cold of course, but I wore my real winter coat for the first time since November, and I was sweating pushing the wheelbarrow. Only cold bits were my cheeks at times (hard to cover the face wearing glasses and not have them fog up- especially breathing heavily working!) and my hands only while I was doing a little snow sweeping at the end...
One advantage of lower temps is that boots, pants bottoms, gloves etc remain completely dry even after handling snowy wood for a couple of hours...

Hopefully that sequence of weather does not leave you with too much ice, Trond!
Wet pantlegs and gloves aside, I did not complain much when we had above normal temperatures for most of December and half of January  ;D

I thought that we would have a warm winter in Seattle, but it seems like that is not the case. It's been snowing for a couple of days and is supposed to get worse... This picture is from yesterday and there is lots more snow on the way...

We're getting some real winter... -30 deg C now, with an expected high of -28 deg C.

Nights below -30C/-22F; this morning was supposed to be down to -37C/-34F; days below -20C;we've just been lucky in the western strip of the province to be out of the severe windchill zone that most of the province  has had-- we had windchills in the -30'sC while other places were in the -40's and -50'sC; today at a high of -24, no wind here.... a couple views from the drive to work Monday and Tuesday.. not as poor visibility as it looks, it's exaggerated by the telephoto lens.. we had very light snow for a couple days- only a cm or two after a couple of days- otherwise drifting and blowing on the roads would have been worse...
The first 3 shots are Monday, last three Tues, when it was bit less clear; the last shot is a spot that normally has a mountain view..

Full albums if you are a sucker for punishment ;)
https://picasaweb.google.com/111492944361897930115/January162012DriveToWork
https://picasaweb.google.com/111492944361897930115/January172012DriveToWork

Todd wrote:

I can only imagine such cold!  We have dropped as low as -13 C this winter..which is still quite mild.  As I type this, we have no snow but expecting 20 cm tomorrow.  Long range is for rain and 7 C next week so with any luck, this next snowfall will melt again.

Todd- yes, zone 5 is unimaginably mild for us...lol-- though really so far we have had only a couple of nights in November near -30, and this week of cold- nothing really- and we'll be above freezing and sunny in a couple of days! Having spent 10 years in zone 5/6 Toronto, I have to say though, that its not so much that winter is nicer there (sounds like this year there would be pretty easy to take!)- definitely more slush, ice and damp cold than we ever see here, and there could be some quite vicious cold windy weather in Jan/Feb with fairly heavy snowfalls, but rather its the fact that the winter is much shorter than here that is most notable, and the fact that spring, (long hot) summer and fall are actually all seasons of substance there! Here its 6 months of winter and 6 months of not quite as cold, with a tiny nearly frost free chunk in the middle of that...lol

Today is our 'cold' day for the week- high of -5C (that's right on for normal, and the coldest day we've had in several; overnight normal low is -18C, none of those in the last some days) tomorrow +7C, then above freezing the whole week (daytime)! Some January!....

We probably get much more excited about snow when it comes, and much less ready to deal with it! This the first day we have had this winter when it has even stayed down close to freezing, with fine sleety snow. I must admit to enjoying it when the snow does come - the landscape just lights up and life slows down a little.

Have been away picking seeds for a day or two . It snowed overnight http://www.odt.co.nz/news/national/195741/midsummer-snow-south . Still harvested the next day but having fun getting it all dry now . Mandy doesn't look all that happy with how much I brought back

700 trash sacks of seed heads. Harvested from introduced weeds

That's a lot of weed seeds! Those are destined for burning?

Actually,Cohan, it's a curious sort of win-win situation in the environmental awareness stakes . I remove the seeds of bad weeds in NZ  ( Sedum acre in this case ) and they end up on green roofs in Europe . Everybody is happy .

I used to collect seeds of our finest alpines but relatively few people grow them so now I collect seeds from weeds . I guess they are easier to grow