27th February 2023
A different look.
“Snow? I laugh at snow!” The trees are undaunted!
Hawks in trees.
Early light with snow on the ground, very pleasing.
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On the way, yet again, to Clifton Park.
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The geese were waking up with cold bottoms.
Grant tells me that wildfowl get themselves frozen in.
Seems a bit disorganised!
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Last week, we saw these other splendid birds.
Wild turkeys.
Always a joy to see. In my Long Island days, I occasionally saw pheasants and each time, some worrying problem or other resolved. So I came to regard pheasants as a sign of good luck. Thus superstitions are founded.
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No turkeys today. Instead a White-tailed deer.
She turned her head to watch us, then trotted off.
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The sad significance of this picture is that the open field was woodland until the end of last summer.
We came by one day when the trees were being savagely felled.
Their jagged stumps remained like a gaping wound for weeks until they were finally bulldozed away.
We imagined we could feel their agony.
A little further on, a forlorn tree remains serving as the stand for a post box. It’s not my tree and certainly not my business, but I would put a stake up, if it was my post box.
Perhaps the tree was only saved for this purpose?
There is a children’s story in there somewhere, I think.
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There are so many fabulous trees along the way. They are marvelous in any of their annual stages.
There are many Willows here.
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Sycamores as well.
Plenty that I can’t identify, but I appreciate them all.
Isn’t there something about trees standing out on a horizon?
Especially beneath a moody sky.
Or in a snowfield.
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The item hanging from the tree below is half of a moose’s rack.
There aren’t any here now (as far as I know!) but they are impressive creatures!
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Contrasting landscapes.
Winter is my personal favourite, for many reasons.
But as each new season or “micro season” kicks in, I find something special to enjoy, fresh spring flowers, the return of hibernating creatures and the joy of their new born babies, the summer birds.
Monarch butterflies that arrive from so far away, after untold trials and dangers. Just to consider the lives of these fragile beings is to realise how little I know about anything that matters.
It must be a bit embarrassing when you wake up with your butt frozen to the ground!
As trees are called the lungs of the earth, to cut them is a deed of utmost stupidity!
Thank you, Carolyn, for your beautiful pictures of trees and your musing about them. Brilliant!
Joanna
Among other things you are making a record of a changing landscape. And not just from day to day.
Wow, how different the world looks with (and without) snow. I’ve never seen wild turkeys – it’s actually a pretty bird. And I like the tree post box, so happy it’s still standing! Here in SA, Autumn is my favourite season … but I think, if I lived where you are, it would definitely be Winter!
Turkeys are very beautiful. Autumn yes…gorgeous as well!
Trees are the elephants of the plant world. They stand strong, live long, and do no harm.
Best wishes, Pete.
The saddest sight of all – the space where a tree used to be…