The damage to Polareis was worse than I thought - what looked like dense overgrown middle was really many 2' - 3' canes, snapped from oldest canes at the base of the monster and dropped into the center as the loader scooped and dumped the snow. Now that P has broken dormancy and begun to leaf out, they were obvious. Obvious but really hard to get out. And while I was literally stuck in there, I also discovered many many canes that were leafing in a tuft, at the end of a 6' to 7'cane. Looking down low, about a foot from the crown, there are what looked like bud eyes. I whacked a lot of them down to that point. In the process, I was able to discriminate and remove some crossing canes. And then I pitched everything I cut off into the '86 Toyota shortbed, which was like last year overflowing, so did the tarp plus bungee cord thing and SLOWLY drove to the recycling center, like a giant blue marshmallow. And I haven't even started on the Alba.....

Yes, according to the owner, it is incense cedar- however, there were no cones and my photos of the foliage were restricted to the shoots that had been blown off the tree in the wind. This tree had a good crown of foliage until relatively recently when it was torn apart by storms. Since the shoots were newly knocked off (night before) I put them in wet plastic bags and brought them back to try rooting and grafting. I have a seedling C. decurrens and Leyland cypress to try as rootstock. We shall see if this venerable civil war vet will live on. I hope it does! The coast redwood illustrates just how good this species is for the deep south. I have photos of other large ones too. They have healthy foliage and perfectly straight trunks. It seems they could be immortal here aside from an eventual lightning strike or tornado.

I had a couple of pink flamingos in my yard for awhile. I named them 'Tongue' and 'Cheek'. They finally died. I think of,embarrassment.

When I came home from work today I went over to the "bee tree" to see if all of the bees fled. But, luckily I saw a few bees flying around the hive entrance. A couple of years ago they disappeared for a whole year and then reappeared. I still keep thinking of the massive swarm yesterday. That was once in a lifetime experience! I wasn't scared at all because I was so awe struck. The bees are not Africanized. The bee keeper that is giving the class said that if my husband was able to cut the grass under the tree then they are not Africanized. Those bees can't stand any vibration. I wish all of you were there to see this. So, I figure that this picture is the next best thing. Oh, and I wish that I could put a hole in the side of the tree to sneak out some of that honey. Christine