Wintertime Observations
Starting in June of 2013, I spent a year making weekly visits to the same little spot in the forest on the side of the ridge where I live in the Shenandoah Valley. Â During each visit I jotted my observations in a little book. Â It was a fascinating experience to notice the changes in one small patch of forest over the cycle of four seasons.
Here, at THE EARTH CONNECTION, I have been, from time to time, sharing some of those observations.  Below are some of my jottings from the months of January and February of last year:
- The ground is covered in snow. Â And with the leaning tree trunk that always marked the spot now fallen, I have to do some searching to find my ‘spot.’ Â I notice quite a few footprints. Â Clearly, animals have been making their way across my spot.
- Crows call in the distance. Â I hear the wind blowing in the treetops, high overhead, but all is quiet on the ground, where I sit on a log.
- Subdued winter beauty in all directions. Â The snow-covered ground is punctuated with brown twigs poking through the whiteness, angling every which way. Â To see some green, I must raise my head and look high into the tops of the giant White Pines.
- The air is still, except for a woodpecker, hard at work in the distance.
- The forest is mainly brown now, except for a stripe of snow here and there, hidden from the sun in the curve of a log or the lee of a stump.
- The wind picks up. Â Downed, dead leaves whisper among themselves as they whirl about, disturbed by the wind. Â IÂ hear from down the hill a tree creaking under the wind’s push.
- Now, toward the end of February, bits of color are starting to emerge.  The tiny, outermost twigs growing from the thin, woody plants in my spot are red!  Just a few of them!  They are even tipped with tiny red buds.  Spring can’t be far off!–April Moore   Â
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February 7th, 2015 at 12:25 pm
I like your observations. I too make some observations in winter, though about by March or April (winter is long here), I’m making observations with curse words mingled in.
February 8th, 2015 at 3:45 pm
I just love how you write, April! It’s so poetic. Did you know Thoreau in a previous lifetime?