The ground beneath female white ash trees is littered with seeds. Almost white, they look fresh and optimistic. Makes me think there’s hope.

/in , /by
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So far this summer has been dry as a bone (“near- drought conditions,” the weather service calls it) followed by stream-filling thundery deluges (“rain, heavy at times”).
As of 11 a.m. this morning, the storm has dumped 26 inches of snow in Dorset.
Both black ash and white ash leaf out much later than most other trees and are now easy to spot. The flattened, tan-colored bark on many ash trees sometimes makes them look like they have a bad case of mange. But this condition is caused by a fungus that just feeds on dead bark and does no harm. Not to be confused with damage from the emerald ash borer.
A lot of things are described as “growing like a weed.” In our garden the weeds really take it to heart.
When people aren’t complaining about drought, conversations turn to dog ticks. How many did you pick off your dog or yourself today?
First outdoor lunch; no jackets needed.
The per day change in day length is at a low around the solstices: it’s changed less than a minute per day since December 9th. Starting today, the increase in day length is more than a minute per day and it’s going to increase to about three minutes a day until we approach the summer solstice.
About one in a thousand ash trees is able to kill some emerald ash borer larvae and forest geneticists have crossed these rare trees with each other in the hope of finding an ash tree that can kill all the larvae.