As anticipated, the temps have dropped to sub-zero again in the past couple of days, but right now they are hovering at the zero mark. The sun is shining, so I stepped outside to drink in some of the fresh, crisp winter air.
Hands down the thing I like most about winter is snow. The textures you can find, especially after a fresh snowfall, are beautiful and abundant. I don’t have a fancy camera (I use a Nikon Coolpix P600), but it takes pictures that hold clearly the memories I’d like to have permanent reminders of, which is enough for me! Today I wanted to try to capture some of the striking sights I found on my short neighborhood walk – wonderful, sunlit textures that actually didn’t take long to find!
Snow hugging evergreens is breathtaking to me… it’s as though conifers and snow were meant to live together, which, in many places, they are. I love the contrasting colors, the way the snow helps each pine needle to stand out. When I was younger I was an avid downhill skier, and one of my most vivid memories is of snow-laden evergreens bordering the chairlifts. So beautiful!
This pond is attempting to freeze over, which under normal circumstances it would have done long ago. But it’s a backyard pond with a floating heater in it, maintaining open water throughout the winter for wildlife. This means there is always a transition between snow, ice, and water, which offers up some wonderful and always shifting viewing and photo opportunities. Bordering this pond are some native grasses and a few milkweed plants that are just starting to take hold. Before the snow gets deep enough to envelope them, the browned stalks of these plants help to make this pond more interesting and varied.
Learning, often through observation, how animals survive in harsh winter climates is fascinating to me. Squirrels may be abundant in this area (and considered as pests to some folks), but to me they are still well worth watching. They are resourceful and determined – but not all of them survive. About a week ago we had a Red-tailed Hawk hanging around our backyard, a type of hawk we don’t see often in our heavily wooded area. It didn’t take long to find that our yard had provided a good hunting ground for this raptor, and it was dining on a member of our squirrel population. One squirrel provided the hawk with meals for a couple of days before it moved on. Sometimes predator-prey scenarios are difficult to watch, but a balanced ecosystem is how nature flourishes, and the circle of life is a vital part of this balance.