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 