Fog and Clouds Over My Bedford Farm
My Bedford, New York farm looks so eerie shrouded in a blanket of thick fog.
As many of you know, I live in close proximity to the Cross River Reservoir, where early patches of fog are quite common. 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. Last week was quite foggy, cloudy, and rainy - low visibility made it difficult for driving or even walking in some areas.
If you follow me on Instagram @MarthaStewart48, perhaps you saw some of my recent photos - here are a few more. Enjoy.
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- Much of last week was gray. The skies were cloudy and the morning atmosphere was thick with fog. This is a photo looking across the horse paddock – so dense, little can be seen in the distance.
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- Fog 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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- I took these photos while touring the farm early in the morning. Fog reduces visibility quite a bit. This is one side of my long Boxwood Allee. 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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- Here are two of my giant white pines. It is even hard to see the surrounding landscape in the distance, but the sun is trying to shine through the clouds overhead.
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- Looking above the stable, the sky is completely covered in clouds.
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- As the morning progresses and the fog lifts, the shrubs and trees become a bit more visible. These are the six weeping hornbeams that line one side of my soccer field where my grandson, Truman, loves to play when he visits.
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- This is the Pin Oak Allee with my large orchard on the left. These trees still have many more leaves that need to fall.
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- The American beech trees hold onto their leaves. The American beech, Fagus grandifolia, is native to eastern North America. It has golden-bronze fall foliage. The leaves persist in winter after turning a rather pleasing tan color.
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- Here is a view looking into the woodland and the hayfield beyond. The autumn colors of yellow, red and brown are so amazing.
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- The weeping copper beech, Fagus sylvatica ‘Pendula’, is a cultivar of the deciduous European beech. I have several of these trees around the farm. It has sweeping pendulous branches and purple leaves. I love all the interesting forms.
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- These wild geese can often be seen resting in large numbers in my paddocks. All the activity of my working farm doesn’t bother them one bit.
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- In the center is one of several giant sycamore trees – the symbol of my farm. Platanus occidentalis, also known as American planetree, western plane, occidental plane, buttonwood, and water beech, is a species of Platanus native to the eastern and central United States, the mountains of northeastern Mexico, extreme southern Ontario, and possibly extreme southern Quebec.
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- This is the first Linden Allee I planted at the farm. It is located along the carriage road behind my stable adjacent to my peafowl pen. Linden trees are deciduous trees that are prized for their hardiness and adaptability. This time of year, the leaves take on a beautiful golden hue before eventually dropping off.
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- The Metasequoia, or dawn redwood, is a genus of fast-growing deciduous trees, one of three species of conifers known as redwoods. These are so pretty in fall. They have feathery, fine-textured needles that are opposite each other and approximately a half-inch long. Don’t confuse them with the bald cypress needles, which grow alternately. These red and brown needles will soon fall for the season.
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- And look at its bark. The bark of the dawn redwood becomes deeply fissured as the tree matures.
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- Leaf blowing is now in full swing. There are so many leaves to blow this time of year. It is very important to remove the leaves after they fall in order to maintain a healthy and attractive lawn and garden. A thick or matted layer of fallen leaves casts excessive shade over the ground below and can prevent adequate sun, nutrients, and water from reaching grass and other plantings.
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- The crabapple trees have dropped all their leaves – they look even more sinister with the backdrop of clouds.
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- This photo was taken as I drove down the long Boxwood Allee – everything is much greener as the fog disappears. On this day, the fog lifted revealing a bluish sky.
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- This is the newer Linden Allee, which extends from the old corn crib to my vegetable garden – it’s very hard to see down the allee through the fog, but on a clear day, the view is gorgeous.
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- Here, the ancient apple trees in the middle of the paddock are visible, but the landscape behind it is not – still blocked by fog. Last night was also quite stormy – high winds and rain. Today is expected to be sunny with some clouds with temperatures in the low 50s – conditions that will show a different, but still gorgeous autumn scene.
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