Winter Wonderland

This has been a fickle winter – cold and snowy, then warm and the snow melts, then back again. But on the whole it’s been, because of the changing warming climate, a winter of record-setting warmth.

A couple of days ago we awoke to find that it had snowed during the night, snow was continuing to fall – and the temperature was 34° F – so the snow was wet and stuck to all the trees and shrubs. A walk through the winter wonderland of the Big Woods was in order; here’s a sample of the delights to be seen –

As I walked, clumps of wet snow fell from the trees, clumps that had an uncanny ability to land on the back of the neck and slither downward. They were occasionally joined by dead branches and limbs, some the size of my entire arm. After the second large one landed less than ten feet from yours truly, the thought of wearing a hardhat became quite appealing.

What was even more disconcerting were the several grand crashes that resounded through the forest as the weight of the wet snow caused entire dead trees to snap and fall –

By late the next day the trees were bare once more and most of the snow on the forest floor had melted.