Another Week Another Snow Storm

Well since I started this blog it has snowed almost every weekend to some extent. Even this morning as I ventured out there was a little snow from last night and a good frost on everything.

This I am not happy about and neither are others, they even indicted Puxatawny Phil for fraud, due to him predicting in an early spring. Yet the closer I look the more spring I see everyday.

We are technically in spring because we have passed the Vernal Equinox on March 20th. This means that the days are longer than the nights and the earth is starting tilt towards the sun (for the northern hemisphere). I took a look at a plant (I am not sure what it is since I just moved in the house and have not seen the blooms) but I can see many buds being protected by their sepals.

I looked up to see what the plant could be, so I started my normal Google search and found this site which seems like a cool resource. The app to identify trees leafsnap it is able to identify trees by pictures of it leaves, I am going to try it as soon as my trees have some leaves. Also I found http://plants.usda.gov/characteristics.html, but I am terrible at this identification game.

Any help?

Here are some other pics. and thanks for the help!!!!

A day without a friend is like a pot without a single drop of honey left inside. - Winnie the Pooh

Ok you must be wondering why I used a Winnie the Pooh quote... ok maybe not...

The reason is because I have a tree in my backyard with a tree hollow and it reminded me of Winnie the Pooh getting his honey. 

These hollow as seen below in my tree are just holes that form in the tree. They are can form for a variety of reasons including, natural forces like wind, attacks from other organisms including insects, bacteria and fungi, they also can be caused when a tree self prunes. I tried figuring out what caused this hollow and am struggling, but seems because the location that it have been from a branch that was there at some point.  

I unfortunately can't see anything to interesting in my hollow besides miss which seems to inhabit my entire backyard, but these can be great habitats for all sorts of organisms. Depending on the size of the hollow the organisms can be extremely small like bacteria and fungi or can be rather large like This is because they can be a good shelter and hiding place for them. 

I am going to keep an eye on this hollow and see if anything grows and blooms in there. 

Until next week...

"A rolling stone gathers no moss"

As I ventured out this week to see the living organisms in my yard this week, I noticed this moss on some non-moving stones. I have noticed it before but really took a look at it, as that is the purpose of this blog...

Here it is, as close as i could get the ole iPhone to focus. This moss is growing on a retaining wall, so it is literally growing on concrete, which is pretty hard to do. It is just hanging out with some of it's buddies too!

Moss is a non-vascular plant. It is defined by dictionary.com as "any tiny, leafy-stemmed, flowerless plant of the class Musci, reproducing by spores and growing in tufts, sods, or mats on moist ground, tree trunks, rocks, etc."

Moss uses diffusion to carry water and nutrients throughout the plants and this is why they cannot grow very far from their source of water. This can be seen in these photos.

           

I tried to identify the type of moss by some Googling, but couldn't actually identify it. I looked at this doc , but couldn't diversify it. Does anyone know what this is?