Ice in the Middle of May
After two mornings in a row with a low temperature of 33, ice was heavy on all metal surfaces, especially my old Buick. This is very unusual for this elevation, this late in May. My previous record for a May frost was on Cinco de Mayo in 2011. Grandfather Mountain had a low of 18 yesterday with wind chills below zero. I still took my sunrise walk both days, and the images below made it all worthwhile.
It’s amazing how sensitive plants are when it comes to producing flowers. Somehow they know that pollenators cannot fly in low temperatures, so they delay opening flowers until they are sure that something will be there to spread their pollen. This year, the plants are over three weeks late in blooming. Sure enough, when the temperature climbed to 70 this afternoon, the bumble bees, honey bees, and wasps, were out in force. They remain dormant until the temperature goes above 65 degrees.
Today, the blackberries finally began to bloom after such an extended winter.
On my way to the gym in Marion this afternoon, I stopped to enjoy the beauty of a huge horse pasture covered with tiny yellow wildflowers. You can see them on the video, along with my breath at sunrise this morning, and Buddy showing me how he has learned to debark my newest hiking stick. Where do dogs learn these things?
Wow, it made me shiver watching your breath, thinking how cold it must have been. So love the pastures of yellow flowers, it reminds me of seeing yellow flowers in the Napa Wine country on one of my visits. My Peanut is like Buddy, she really gets into debarking tree branches, now if only i could get her a job doing that lol