Fresh Snow

Fresh Snow

January 16, 2014

The great snow had melted, the rains and flood had softened everything, and the first layer of ground had started to thaw – and then it froze.

One day, the pickup truck left deep ruts and was almost stuck.  The next day, the ruts were frozen.

Then, a new, fresh snow was falling.  It was a dusting, just enough to accentuate patterns of bark, leaves, water and terrain.

Even at this distance, the broken pattern of bark on the fallen Cottonwood was very clear and pronounced, as was the swirly pattern of the bark-less wood on the fallen tree to the southeast side of the pond.

The smooth, glass-like meandering line of the creek interrupted the mass of pointed leaves, sticks and dead plants.

The snow also made more obvious the newly-formed pool that was created by the fierce rush of water during the flood.

I think this pool will also be interesting to investigate throughout this new year.

 

 

 

Snow clearly defined the edges of holes and burrows, making animal hiding places easier to find.

 

This day, the creek had only occasional layers of thin ice that created ceilings over parts of the creek bed.  I remembered when the creek was covered on top with brightly colored leaves last fall.  Now. The silted-over leaves on the bottom were all muddy brown, rotting, and breaking down.

The pond was solid white, except for where dirt had fallen close to the root ball, and where mud had piled up along the north side.

The pond had sharp, frozen edges, and rows of frozen ripples near the “shore”.  These ripples were different from the ones I had seen the last time the pond was frozen.  This time, the wind must have pushed the water from the north.  Then, snow had settled in between the rows of ripples.

Here is where mud had been piling up on the north side.  Some of this pile-up was caused by the flood, but its easy to see that the pile-up further in was from dirt falling off of the root ball.  In fact, the drier, light colored section of root ball looks like it will soon drop dirt toward the middle of the pond.

A dark band of brown on the snow, just below the bottom rootlets, was finer dirt that the root ball had shaken down.  This sheltered area was where frogs gathered last summer.

 

The recent action of flood water in the seep was more visible after the snowfall.

“Little pond” below the top of the root ball.  An old Stinging Nettle plant had bowed down to the water.

 

The snow had started shortly before I went into the woods, and was still lightly falling.  There had not been enough time for animals to leave tracks.

Before heading back uphill, I looked for more patterns made by this fresh snow.

  Sycamore

 Blue Beech/American Hornbeam/Muscle Tree