These salt crystals on the road look like rough gemstones.
We had a night of mixed snow and rain. In the bright sun of the next morning, slushy snow fell from the trees with lots of little plops, some of which made patterns like barnacles.
The stones of our front walk must have been warmer than the surrounding ground. I like the way the spaces between the stones filled with snow.
At some point last school year, I started going on morning walks with a neighbor whose kids get on the school bus with Phoebe. We have a couple of standard routes, depending on how much time we have to walk. What with busy schedules and sometimes uncooperative weather, we haven’t gotten too many walks in this winter. We did this morning, and without any planning, we headed a bit off our typical routes. We walked down a couple of neighboring streets, and when we got to the signs marking the town conservation lands, we were inspired to wander up the trail. Our morning walk turned into a bit of a hike, and an exploration. At some point, the trail ended, and we kept going, heading through the woods in the general direction of our road. With no snow on the ground, and with the undergrowth in its rather sparse wintery state, the going was pretty easy. I We did end up crossing a few creeks a few times, using stones and, in one case, a fallen tree.
A little pond, frozen over and dusted with snow.
One of the streams. We didn’t cross on this fallen tree.
Close-up of the ice in the stream.
I was quite taken with these mushrooms.
Here are those same mushrooms, looking straight on.
See how fuzzy they are? (This is a zoomed in crop of the mushrooms. A ‘shroom zoom, as it were.)
I think this tree was flashing us.
You can see here how this stream was pretty easy to cross, via that little dam of rocks.
More ice.
I like ice.
A fallen tree, whose roots have been worn away, leaving a bit of a star shape.
Stump fungi. You can see here that there is a bit of fresh snow here. The big, fluffy flakes were just wafting down lazily, adding to the ambiance.
The ruffles of this fungus remind me of a flamenco dancer’s dress.
It’s so funny to realize that this place has been around the corner the whole time I’ve lived in this town, yet this was the first time I’d ventured in these past 13 years. I hope to head back in, and bring my real camera. (Not shown are the varied shots where I didn’t quite get the focus.) I was glad I had my phone with me, though, as it not only let me take the photos, but helped us decide our path a couple of times. (It felt a bit like cheating to use my phone’s GPS, but this was supposed to be a quick morning walk before starting work, not an all-day exploration.)
There was a brief stretch last week when the temperatures were strangely balmy for a January in New England, and we awoke to a thick fog on Wednesday morning. This is a photo I took from the top of our driveway, looking down our street while waiting with Phoebe for her school bus.
Photo taken with my iPhone, with the Instagram filter Sutro applied.
Below are 3 crops of the same photo, taken a couple of weeks ago on a bright sunny morning after a bit of overnight freezing rain.
Full size.
Zooming in a bit.
Zooming in a bit more.
We had a bit of a snowfall Tuesday night, and while there wasn’t much in the way of accumulation, the wet snow stuck to every leaf and twig such that almost everything was outlined in white. Occasional water drops had also frozen, adding some sparkle to the scene. I took a few photos around the yard before the school bus came, and then a few more later in the morning during a short walk with a neighbor.
Here are a handful of my favorites from the morning.
A tree in our front yard that hasn’t quite given up all its leaves.
Along our house’s front path.
A neighbor’s rail fence.
This stone wall is at the dairy farm that is a half mile from my house.
Snow and ice on the shrubbery.
White snow, red berries.
Ice drops on pine needles.
(Those last two were ones I posted on Instagram, with filters. I posted a version of the stone wall there, too, but without filters.)
Once again, my trusty iPhone did some nice work. I’m sure my camera would have done a good job, but I am less likely to throw it in my coat pocket. Especially given that it doesn’t fit in my coat pocket. Maybe I just need bigger coat pockets.
