Happy New Year - Happy First Day Back

Happy New Year – Happy First Day Back

January 2, 2015

  

Finally!

The second day of a fresh new year, and finally I was able to physically venture down to Cottonwood Pond instead of only observing from an uphill, edge-of-woods distance.

Down the slope I ventured, very carefully moving among slippery leaf cover and tree roots, down to the wetland part of our woods, where the creek flows. Silas Cat followed.

Early January, and we still had not experienced a healthy snowfall. It did not seem like “real” winter to me yet. It was cold, though, and a bit icy. I did find one little Harbinger-of-Spring plant on the slope, not yet blooming.

And there I was – physically close to Cottonwood Pond. Finally, I would be able to see the details of the picture I had viewed from afar for months.

  Cottonwood Pond as seen from the northwest

The pond edges were crusted with thin ice. A slushy film covered all but the deepest part, which extended under the Root Ball. I could clearly see where water was entering The Inlet at the far, south end.

I walked around to view the pond from the south end. The Inlet was very clear, perhaps larger than the last time I had seen it, over three months ago.

I loved the way the pond was framed in this view by the Barkless Log below, the Bent Blue Beech above, and the Root Ball. It was also an interesting perspective on the growing Mud Pile.

Closer to water, I could see layers of color and texture in the pond: dead, silty leaf piles sloping down to the deepest part where they disappeared, the yellow-green color of the deep part, the dimpled, slushy ice film, and the broad band of brown where more fine dirt had been falling from The Root Ball.

Green plants were growing from mud and water, just to the pond side of the Inlet. Those will be interesting to watch through the year.

The Seep was very distinctive. Obviously, there had been a healthy influx of water into the pond, causing it to leak into The Seep. I could see an overflow of “little pond” reaching around the Root Ball toward The Isthmus.

I walked around for a look at “little pond.”

 It had definitely overflowed. It was deep, and had been flowing beyond its banks to the northeast and under the Cottonwood Trunk, then a bit over The Isthmus.

It also went under the base of the tree Trunk, next to the Root Ball. On the other side of the Trunk was where it would be connecting with water from the main pond, flowing through the new opening under the Root Ball.

What shall I name that new place? The Cove. It reminds me of dark little coves where water flows darkly and narrowly between rocks or forested hills.

Like the main pond, the absence of dead leaves belied the deepest part of “little pond.”

It seemed so much more mud had sloughed off the north end of the Root Ball. More rootlets were exposed.

  Mud Pile at north end of Root Ball and below the Root Ball Bottom, at the main pond

More mud had piled up below the southeast edge of the Root Ball, below the Barkless Log.

Standing behind Cottonwood Pond, I looked up to the far slope, to the top edge of the woods. It was from that place, up there, I had viewed Cottonwood Pond for three months, seeing only the “big picture.”

How nice to be near the pond again, reflecting on the last few months and wondering what changes would happen in the future.