Lake Michigan Transmogrified

This is what Lake Michigan looks like when cold air picks it up and drops it on evergreens (if you don’t live near the U.S. Great Lakes, Google “lake effect”). It’s always fun to wake up to the beauty of new snow flocking everything. Here are some of the evergreens in my yard.

Canadian Hemlock (Tsuga canadensis)

Austrian Pine (Pinus nigra) with the interesting results of Yellow-Bellied Sapsucker visits

Douglas Fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii)

Balsam Fir (Abies balsamea)

White Spruce (Picea glauca)

Blue Spruce (Picea pungens)

Norway Spruce (Picea abies)

Arbor Vitae (Thuja occidentalis)

White Pine (Pinus strobus)

Holly (Ilex sp.)

Christmas Fern (Polystichum acrostichoides)

Marginal Fern (Dryopteris marginalis)

Amazingly, these trees were purchased as seedlings for about one dollar apiece from the St. Joseph County Soil and Water Conservation District in northern Indiana.

“Let a slight snow come over the earth, and the tracks of men

will show how little the woods and fields are frequented.”

Henry David Thoreau Journal, February 3, 1857.