A.V. Walters–
Did anyone else see that outrageous fly-by video of Jupiter? With it’s colorful swirling storms and regional color differences, it made you think. This isn’t the Jupiter we learned about in school, way back when Pluto was still a planet. This was intense and visceral. It’s a whole new way of looking at something you didn’t think about, much.
Winter can do the same thing for your otherwise familiar landscape. Snow can drift and mold, add cornices and caps, and erase features (like the driveway) that you take as a given. The country’s recent sub-zero plunge caught peoples’ attention. Even here, where it mostly was just winter, we sat back and took notice.
tworockchronicles 
Fun photos, AV. And what exactly are we looking at in the first one? –Curt
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The first photo captured the surreal “craters”created by drifting snow around the tops of my baby tree cages. The cages are nearly three feet tall, so that shows where we’ve been this week. (Except that now we’re in a warm spell and all that has melted!)
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Thanks, AV. When I spent a lot of time up on Donner Summit during the late 70s and early 80s, we used to have to put bamboo stakes if front of and behind our cars because they would disappear over night and there was a real chance that the snowplows would eat them!
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Back home in the U.P., in the autumn they plant stakes (actually tall cut saplings) along the roads so that the plows can find their way. Some folks leave their windshield wipers up to flag their cars, but my Dad used to say that, like life jackets on Lake Superior, those wipers just make the bodies easier to find.
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Macabre, but true; the bit about life jackets and Superior…
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Sounds like your dad had a dark sense of humor. 🙂
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He certainly did. But, as with any humor, there has to be a kernel of truth to be funny.
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Yes.
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Donner…party of four…
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Perfect. It felt like that at times, AV. I remember going out on our second floor entrance, which was how we got into the buried cabin, and waving at the snowplow driver when staying at the cabin by myself because it was my only human contact! –Curt
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Makes me shiver! Are those your hives? Amelia
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Those were our hives, two days ago. Now with the warm spell, the snow atop is gone and they look like hives again, instead of mushrooms.
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Little mushrooms. Interesting perspective. Santa Barbara saw this with mud–all those horrid mudslides that filled streets and buried car. Their landscape will never be the same.
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As a 35 year Californian, we’ve been watching the horrors from afar. First the fires and now the destabilized hills, careening down on disaster-weary residents. Don’t get me started, because these things (including our current 50 degree warm spell) they are the introductory glimpses of climate change.
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Great pics A. V.! Might you, by any chance, have a (*reliable; ) link to the Mars “fly by” to which you refer? *Rather than stumbling about and just hoping, that is; )
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I’ll go look for it. If I find one–you’ll see it here.
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Oh no, it wasn’t online that you saw it?
Or did you actually SEE it at the time?
Sorry, I did see mention of it on Sky News and, while it actually did pop into my head several times, I never did get out there to take a look at the proper time…
Oh wait, I’m on the go, so no time right now, but they might actually have something on the website: http://www.skynews.ca
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Thank you!
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I don’t see the comment which inspired this one, so hopefully it’s just waiting for moderation (and WordPress hasn’t eaten it… ):
But, also on the same subject, if the bees swarmed out of the top bar hive (three times, you say?!) it is a sure sign that they’re not happy with it, so perhaps new digs are in order? (If indeed any were even left behind to have survived the winter… ): And how often have I knelt in the cold beside a hive with one ear to the wall while wishing for an easier way to check for signs of life? A stethoscope would be a great investment!: )
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What few were left in the top bar (and there weren’t many) succumbed to the first cold spell. They need the numbers to maintain temperature.
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No idea how I missed this reply, sorry!
Do you have access to our (your subscribers’) email addies? If you do, then you’ll know why I ask all the questions I do; )
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Also, these were Georgia bees–part of a larger order for our bee club. Nearly everyone reported that the bees were very swarmy. Was it the weather? The bees? Politics? Who knows.
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Yes, it is most likely their Genetics. But, having said that, “swarmy” bees are usually the more old-fashioned type of Apis: more hive protective(aggressive), and, if they’re happy, MORE productive (strong in their brood-making and honey production: )
I don’t know if you’re aware, but Swarming is a big, no a MASSIVE decision that is made, democratically, by the entire hive, not just the queen as had been thought… If they are in a good place, they will happily stay and work hard to be successful in that location; but if not, then they’re not afraid to strike out for greener pastures either!
But – speaking of democracy – I wouldn’t disregard it beeing all of the unrest in the air either; )
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