Early Morning Fog Over My Farm
My Bedford, New York farm looks so eerie covered in fog.
Early morning mist and fog are quite common in this area. Fog is essentially made up of condensed water droplets - a result of the air being cooled to the point where it can no longer hold all the water vapor it contains. Fog reduces visibility below one-kilometer, or six-tenths of a mile, making it very difficult for driving and at times even walking.
Here are some recent glimpses of this atmospheric phenomenon and the beautiful spring morning views that followed. Enjoy.
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- On this day, the atmosphere is thick with fog. It’s very hard to see across the hayfields and this allee of London planes, Platanus × acerifolia. Colleague, Liz Malone, who sometimes runs at my Cantitoe Corners property early in the morning before work, took this photo at 5:30am. These hayfields produce hay for my horses – it is all being mowed and baled this week. I will share photos of that project in another blog.
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- I live in a region where there is additional moisture, so when the air is cooled, and the vapor starts to condense, patches of fog emerge. Here is a photo that was taken across the field. Fog reduces visibility quite a bit.
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- Here, one can see the fog starting to lift off the grassy lawn in this paddock. Do you know… the foggiest place in the world is the Grand Banks off the island of Newfoundland, Canada? It gets more than 200-days of fog per year.
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- The fog can be seen just below the great pines. Fog is actually made up of millions of tiny droplets of water floating in the air. It can form in two ways: either by cooling the air to its dew point or by evaporation and mixing – this happens often when the earth radiates heat at night or in the early morning.
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- Liz also likes to capture images of the sky as the fog dissipates. Here, more fog lifts over the field. Dense fog is when visibility is at least one-quarter mile or lower. And, when fog mixes with air pollution, it’s called smog.
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- Some describe fog to be “as thick as pea soup”. This was originally used to describe the dingy yellow smog from burning soft coal common in Europe. Such fogs occurred in London until the Clean Air Act of 1956.
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- This photo was taken from the stable looking down the long Boxwood Allee – everything is much greener as the fog disappears.
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- And just to the left, the sun is rising over the tree line. As the fog lifts, or burns off, more and more of the trees and shrubs can be seen. This happens as the sun’s heat warms the ground and air.
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- By 6:30am, the sun’s glare could be seen through the trees in the woodland.
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- In this photo, it’s difficult to see where the road leads – the view is obscured by the sun and haze.
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- I have four miles of carriage road at the farm, so when Liz runs, she does several loops. Visiting friends to my farm also enjoy hikes through the woodlands.
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- Here’s another view of the sun through the trees. The fog is gone before 7am, and followed by a pleasant and sunny day.
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- The long pergola is just about to go through another transformation. Soon, the gorgeous orange lilies will fill the gardens. Right now, in between the boxwood shrubs, one can see Allium schubertii, grown for its unique and attractive display.
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- Here is a closer view with its loose, star-shaped, rose-purple flowers that bloom in giant, spherical umbels.
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- On the side of my stone wall, the growing sedum that develops more beautifully every year. We first planted this wall in 2012.
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- And here is the beautiful Upper Terrace Parterre with the boxwood and bold golden yellow barberry. Barberry is a tried-and-true classic throughout the season with its vibrant foliage.
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- The climbing hydrangea is overflowing on these tree trunks outside my main greenhouse.
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- Here is the carriage road to my home – with the beautiful bald cypress trees on the left.
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- The smaller trees in the foreground are beautiful European beech trees, Fagus sylvatica, or the common beech – a deciduous tree belonging to the beech family Fagaceae and native to the woodlands of central and southern Europe. We planted these last year and they’re doing great.
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- And this is one end of my Pinetum – an arboretum of pine trees and other conifers I developed behind my Equipment Barn and near this weeping willow grove.
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- Look at the skies above the ancient apple trees and the gorgeous landscape. We’ve had some wonderful and clear spring days here in the Northeast. How are your gardens doing? Share your comments with me below.
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