Hail the size of commercial ice cubes came down on parts of Pittsburgh this afternoon. (Hail of this size is most commonly compared to golf balls, but old Pa Pitt is not a golfer.) More than an hour and a half after it fell, this hailstone and many others were still sitting on the grass mocking the 50-degree weather.
Hamamelis vernalis is a species of witch hazel whose native range is restricted to the Ozark Plateau. It will grow quite happily in Pittsburgh, however, and is well worth seeking out. The first warm winter day, from about Christmas on, will bring out these intriguing little flowers all over the bush. They’re not all that much to look at, although they make a beautiful ikebana-style bouquet in a vase. But the scent is sweet and very strong; a few twigs can scent a whole house. When the weather turns cold again, the flowers fold up, ready to show themselves once more on the next warm day. Meanwhile, if you cut a twig and bring it in at any time during the winter, it will unfurl its little flowers and get to work pumping out perfume.
A few days before the official arrival of spring, crocuses have popped up all over the city. Here are two that appeared in Beechview.
Autumn leaves and blue skies reflected in a pond on a farm near Wexford.
A fritillary enjoys the almost overpoweringly sweet nectar of a Common Milkweed (Asclepias syriaca) that grew at the edge of the woods in Mount Lebanon.
A tiny bright red spider (greatly magnified in the picture) skitters along a concrete driveway in Mount Lebanon.
UPDATE: Note the kind comment below identifying this creature as a red velvet mite.
Forsythia lights up the landscape this time of year with improbably bright yellow flowers. This little bush grew at the edge of the woods in Mount Lebanon.
After the snowiest winter in memory, a patch of crocuses makes a welcome sunny splash on a bank in Beechview.
The heavy snow broke branches and brought down cables everywhere, but in the sunlight the snow was beautiful enough to make us forget the inconveniences.
The fourth-deepest snow—about two feet in many neighborhoods—in recorded Pittsburgh history fell on February 5 and 6. The weight of the stuff brought down huge trees and cut off electric power to hundreds of thousands, some of whom are still without power three days later. (Old Pa Pitt himself is forced to post this article as a guest on someone else’s connection.) These scenes are from a woody lot in Mount Lebanon.
The snow bowed these arborvitae trees into graceful arches, although this particular sort of grace is usually unwelcome in traditional landscape planting.
This big maple tree came down across a driveway; here we see it already showing the marks of the bowsaw that some day will finish disassembling it.
