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random thought
Jan. 13th, 2011 08:09 pmI was taking the commuter rail into Boston yesterday during the blizzard, which is my favorite way to enjoy fresh snow. I'm inside, nice and warm, but able to watch scene after scene unfold, fierce and delicate, my eyes feasting on unending beauty, but newly insatiable with every change.
One of the things that struck me this time around was the pine trees, the way the branches bent down like a folded-up umbrella under the weight of this thick, wet snow. The smaller branches of the deciduous trees curved, and some of the larger ones snapped, of course, but by and large they were able to stand unmoved because their leaves weren't there to hold so much snow that they'd break.
And, since I'm a geek, I ended up thinking about evolution. Losing your leaves in the fall is quite handy when heavy snows fall. But the evergreens have their own adaptation: bending. Lumber people talk about hardwoods and softwoods. I'm fuzzy on which trees give which type of wood, but I know pine is considered soft, oak hard. I don't know if there are any hard, unbending woods that come from evergreens, or any soft deciduous trees.
One of the things that struck me this time around was the pine trees, the way the branches bent down like a folded-up umbrella under the weight of this thick, wet snow. The smaller branches of the deciduous trees curved, and some of the larger ones snapped, of course, but by and large they were able to stand unmoved because their leaves weren't there to hold so much snow that they'd break.
And, since I'm a geek, I ended up thinking about evolution. Losing your leaves in the fall is quite handy when heavy snows fall. But the evergreens have their own adaptation: bending. Lumber people talk about hardwoods and softwoods. I'm fuzzy on which trees give which type of wood, but I know pine is considered soft, oak hard. I don't know if there are any hard, unbending woods that come from evergreens, or any soft deciduous trees.