Nature is strange

We had a freeze last week, the first real freeze of the year. I define a freeze as temperatures low enough to cause ice in the dog’s water bowl. We have had three or four frosts before this but this was the first freeze.

The pastures here are mostly Bahaia and Bermuda grass, both warm season grasses. These don’t grow so well in the shade, so under the trees the growth is more cool season stuff, weeds really.

This place has been a cattle farm for years and years. All through the hot Florida summers, the cattle would lounge under the trees. They ate anything good into extinction and overloaded the soil there with nutrients.

The freeze last week just barley qualified as a freeze. I broke the ice in the dogs dish with one finger, it was less than an eighth of an inch thick. The weather had been warm before the cold front came through and we had some rain. Things had started to green up slightly.

All this has been background leading up to this picture.

That is not a shadow under the tree. It is the only green spot in the pasture. It seems that the tree cover held in just enough warmth to protect this patch from freezing. This picture shows it closer up.

Sorry that these pictures are not the best, I took the picture with the little camera in my mobile phone instead of the good (or at least better) camera.

Can you say "microclimate"?