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.
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