The Cove

The Cove

February 11, 2015

After a couple of snowfalls, temperatures rose again. Since neither snowfall had been heavy, the thin white cover in the woods did not take long to melt.

There were no more snow tracks, but Raccoons had left their marks in the mud of the Seep.

Snow had melted from the slopes, sending melt water down to the Temporary Creek. Water had made its way toward Cottonwood Pond, collecting in as swampy mess below the Cottonwood Trunk.

Water had also been flowing through the ever-deepening Inlets below the Barkless Log, into the main pond.

Just to the pond side of the Inlets, on a spit of mud, there was a cluster of green.

What were these plants that resisted flood and freeze? That still clung tenaciously to mud, even through sudden influxes of swiftly-flowing water? That remained green in any season?

 

The melting of ice, slush and snow on the pond surface revealed murky, yellow-green water.

Layers of fallen leaves had been decaying below the surface.

I knew that water from the main pond had been either seeping or flowing through a new opening under the Root Ball, meeting up with flood water at the topside, then, eventually, with “little pond.”  How much had been flowing through?

The deepest part of the pond was rimmed with an increasingly higher mound of mud that had fallen from the Root Ball as well as pushed through the Inlets.

 But the same yellow-green of the deep water was showing up beyond the mud ridge, directly under the Root Ball.

And, I could see a spot of light under there …

It was the Cove, and it was larger than I thought it would be. The light was sunlight reflecting off water on the other side.

Water had flowed hard and often enough through there to erode plenty of mud from the Cove ceiling and sides of the Root Ball.

One could easily imagine small boats of fairies paddling their way around “logs” and hanging rootlets on an exploratory expedition to find out what was on the other side.

In fact, many more rootlets had been exposed as the Root Ball Bottom had become thinner, losing its dirt to the Mud Piles below.

While I stood at the edge observing, I heard periodic plops and the sound of sprays of dirt sprinkling onto mud below.

 

Sloughing of mud from the northwest end of the Root Ball, and the increasing Mud Pile.

 Roots from plants on the Root Ball Top cascade over the Root Ball Bottom.

The many exposed rootlets displayed various designs.

 A "monstrous" root system.

One root seemed to be clutching a ball of mud, as if ready to wind up for the pitch.

Now and then, something new forms at Cottonwood Pond, changing the dynamics of the whole area. What's next?

 Seen from the east, looking down the Cottonwood Trunk:

On left: Swampy Spot where waters of the Temporary Creek gather before dividing, one flow going under the Cottonwood Trunk, the other going through the Inlets to the main pond

Above:  wet line of the Creek flowing under the Barkless Log, past Cottonwood Pond, and continuing to the right/northwest.

Bonus Photos:

  Swirly pattern of Barkless Log wood, near its root end.

 “Writing” on the cambium layer of Barkless Log, probably caused by Bark Beetle larvae that lived between this layer and the bark.