unnatural by nature II

after yesterday's post i went for a tramp around they yard and was taking photos of the summer-like blue sky when i noticed what looked like green on the buds at the top of the maple tree out front..."nah..i'm imagining things" i said to myself...this morning tells me no i was seeing green...which in and of itself isn't that unnatural..until you stop and think about the fact that it's february...and this sort of thing isn't usually seen until later in march..it would be running a bit early...and it's not just my tree...the neighbors' are going at it too...like a month...so i took the lops and cut the end off a lower branch ( the higher you get in the tree the greener it is...i wasn't going to climb it ) and had a look...the buds are very active and very green even this low in the tree...spring is close...but not close enough...temperatures ( which are just unnatural in themselves...see bottom photo and that was about 10:30 a.m. ) are due to fall below freezing by next weekend...what impact will that have? unknown...it aint natural...stay tuned.

a good friend visiting norway sent me this photo today saying the trees should be covered in snow and the pathway inaccessible...she didn't call it that but i would say snow drought or my images of nordic countries are poorly informed...it aint natural all over it seems...from the california coast ( where there is another dear friend who reports the conditions )to the south end of the inland sea...to norway.