Before the Snows
January 19, 2025
Right now we have quite a bit of snow on the ground. It rained a few nights ago, and I wondered if the rain would dissolve all the white stuff, but it didn’t. With more snow falling subsequently, we are back to the pre-rain covering. But this is a post about what I saw my Kendal at Oberlin community before the snows; snow photos are for another post.
1 This is a section of our Wildflower Hill.
2 We have a ring road around our complex and a walkway beside it. Residents call the walkway the Perimeter Path. I’m repeatedly amazed by what I can find along it. This is a small patch of a grass I haven’t seen anywhere else on our campus. This is my favorite grass.
3 This is another cool grass—in its best color. Overarching it is a corkscrew willow. The two of them skirt Heiser Pond.
4 Because of all the ponds on our campus, we are awash in cattails, some of whose leaves you see here.
5 I was heading away from Green Pond when I looked down and saw this shelf fungus.
6 I thought it might be Turkey Tail, but my friend Lynda says she thinks it is False Turkey Tail. The true Turkey Tail’s growth form is flatter, not so cupped, she says. To be really sure, I’d have had to look at the underneath part of the mushroom, but I didn’t. Turkey tail has a white underside with pores; False Turkey Tail has a yellow or tan underside with no pores. The undersides of a few of the mushrooms in this photograph look a little tan, so I’m guessing that Lynda’s guess is good.
7 Hosta leaves on the wane continue to be some of my favorite things.
8 In these last two photographs I have darkened the backgrounds so you can more easily appreciate the hosta leaves.
Romancing Reality 
Beautiful selection of photograps, Linda. i’m so glad to see them. And Hosta leaves, too!!! My Google machine said I should cut them down after the first frost. I did and now I have no Hostas to shoot (untill later this year). Nice work!
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January 19, 2025 at 9:58 PM
Thanks, Ken. I trust you will share some of your green hosta leaves this spring or summer. They’re beauts.
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January 19, 2025 at 10:08 PM
Your opening photo encapsulates the muted colors of dried-out plants in this subdued season. In #3, all the small arcs in the dry grass and the scraggly elements in the bare willow make for an attractive view. With an imaginary transfer from arboreal to maritime, changing one letter in shelf fungi leads to shell fungi. In the last two pictures, darkening the surrounding areas had the intended effect of bringing out your subject.
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January 20, 2025 at 7:32 AM
Thanks, Steve, for looking so closely.
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January 20, 2025 at 1:06 PM
These are wonderful, LInda, and I can’t wait for the sequel! :-))
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January 20, 2025 at 8:20 AM
Thanks, Marjorie. It’s coming!
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January 20, 2025 at 1:06 PM
Oh, the textures in these images. Wonderful!
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January 20, 2025 at 5:34 PM
Thanks, Mitch. I’m pretty big on texture. 🙂
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January 20, 2025 at 7:41 PM
These images are beautiful. I especially love no. 3 with the contrast of the delicate light grass against the strong ancient tree. And the hosta leaves are fantastic.
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January 21, 2025 at 8:18 AM
Thanks, Clare. Every time I think I’ve taken all the photos I possibly can of that corkscrew willow, I find another. I know I have not taken all the photographs of hosta leaves that I can. I will be obsessing over them for some time to come.
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January 21, 2025 at 11:09 AM