Beautiful Morning

It looked like a winter wonderland when I woke up in Brooktondale this morning,  about 1000 feet above the lake.  I found that the ice had melted in Ithaca,  where I drove to do some business.  I drove up route 13  around 10 am,  on the stretch between Stewart Park and the Mall,  which cuts a diagonal up the Cayuga Lake Valley with sweeping vistas of Ithaca and the Lake.  I looked across the lake to the other side of the lake,  and noticed that above a certain altitude the trees were silvery — they were still covered with ice.  I rounded the bend at the end of the straight segment of the road and suddenly the trees around me were covered with ice as well.

One thing I like about the Ithaca area is the variation of microclimates:  it can be raining downtown but snowing at Cornell.  Downtown gardeners appreciate being able to grow plants that would otherwise need to be a few hundred miles south to grow;  the microclimates on the slopes of the finger lakes are essential for our growing wine industry.