Winter’s Waning?
February 28, 2021
Our neighborhood is looking different this week compared to last week. Blankets of snow are more attractive to my eye, but I’m happy to see signs of thaw for their signal of coming spring.
1 This is the same Rock Pond plant that I photographed in January.
2 Its neighbor shows the same melting around the base of the plant.
3 On Wildflower Hill the snow melts around broken stems.
4 Parts of Heiser Pond show rust-colored patches. Are they submerged dried cattails?
5 A drain tile emptying into Heiser Pond makes a pattern in the thawing ice that resemble a tree’s shadow.
6 Snow snuggles into a depression in autumn’s grass on the edge of Heiser Pond.
7 On the other side of Wildflower Hill a large swath of leftover snow shows wave patterns created by wind on snow that rain had wet down.
Romancing Reality 
The plant in the first picture didn’t change, but the ice beneath it looks so different. The would-be tree shadow in #5 is neat; its colors, along with those in #4, are welcome in winter. #6 offers a good contrast between the linear texture of the grass and the granular texture of the snow. And what appealing scalloping in the rained-upon, windblown snow in your closing picture.
LikeLike
February 28, 2021 at 12:33 PM
Thanks, Steve, for your observations. I like when people—in this case, you—point out things I hadn’t thought of with words: textures, scalloping.
LikeLike
February 28, 2021 at 12:37 PM
Fine set, Linda! The last one is a silent beauty with the shadows over the sand-pattern.
LikeLike
March 1, 2021 at 1:43 AM
Thanks, Harrie. You’re right: the pattern in #7 does look like what we see on sand, too. I hadn’t thought of that.
LikeLike
March 1, 2021 at 9:25 AM
Hopeful signs! I’m glad you’ve been getting out, no matter what the weather. The opening in the ice in the first photo is almost heart-shaped and the plant, though it’s dead, seems to be rejoicing. There’s something poignant about the broken piece in the second photo. The third photo is odd but even a stub of a dead stem can melt snow – thermodynamics in action? 😉 I have no idea about the rust-colored snow but it’s awfully nice in the 5th photo, with that tree-shaped crack in the ice. That’s my favorite. I like #6, it could be far north somewhere. The last photo is very surprising – to me anyway. But wind and water – they do amazing things, right? Altogether the photos show the malleability of form. 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
March 2, 2021 at 9:37 PM
About getting out: I think it’s time for me to get out further away from home. Maybe this weekend. I think I’m not seeing much around here—my fault, not the neighborhood’s fault. “The malleability of form”: yes, I think you’re right. Good observation, as usual. Thanks, Lynn.
LikeLiked by 1 person
March 3, 2021 at 7:57 AM
Great pictures.
LikeLike
March 4, 2021 at 4:06 AM
Thanks, Jessica. I think I’m ready for some new scenery, though. Either it will become real spring around here, or I will search further afield—probably both.
LikeLiked by 1 person
March 4, 2021 at 12:17 PM