First Snow

We woke up this morning to a white, or at least white-ish world. There wasn't quite enough snow to really give that 'winter wonderland' feeling, but there was enough to make the woods and garden look new and interesting.

Rosie and I went for a short ramble through the woods. Everything was dripping and wet. She loved it, racing back and forth up and down the trail. Me, I put my hood up and looked for things to photograph. The snow made it all look exciting again, such as these fronds of Common Polypody Fern. They stay green all winter, but of course we won't see them once the snow covers them. They really stand out against the browns and oranges of the fallen Maple and Hornbeam leaves.

The trail took us into the 'cedar hell', along the upper end of the Beaver Pond. The trees looked a bit grim...

Two rather surprising red Maple leaves cheered things up again, though; how often do two red leaves fall together like that?

After the rather chilly Cedar bush, we came out to near the road where some old logs were dumped years ago which have developed beautiful patches of lichens and mosses. One of the lichens is the one I've always call Red Soldiers. There's not a lot of it on this log, but I love the contrast with the Reindeer and other mosses.

On the way home I admired the leaves on a Glossy Buckthorn. It never loses its leaves until after all the other leaves are down. The Oaks don't either.

The Crabapples in the garden back at the house are spectacular right now. They are very small crabbies which the birds love. Usually they strip the trees pretty quickly but this year they have so far only eaten one tree's worth.  Some Robins a week or so ago swooped in, ate all the apples on one of the trees and then left. I was reminded of the old joke about the Jewish Mother who gave her son two shirts for his birthday. He was very pleased and went upstairs and came back down wearing the blue shirt. His Mother took one look at him and said, "And what's wrong with the red one?"

Something wrong with the crabapples on the other three trees?

After all that, there was only one thing to do: go in and put on dry socks and make some hot chocolate.