Shades of Gray

Everything is in shades of gray, browns and white. In the winter you can focus on objects, on shapes in a way you cannot do in other seasons. I am attracted by bark. The deep almost black of the trunk of cherry, the peeling underside of the skin of birch, the white spotted gray of ash.

Today – after snow shoeing up the hill through the soft inch of just fallen snow, I descended down into the wetlands…now nearly frozen over, except for the subterranean rush of running water. On one bush I found the hard red cases of what looked like cocoons. Maybe these will be caterpillars, then moths, come spring. Now that it’s the end of January, I am dreaming spring.

Crunch

This past week the snow diminished several inches and a hard silver glaze made walking possible across the top of the snow, but only with snow shoes. I never tire of the crunch, crunch sound my shoes make as I skim the top of the snow cover. As I child I used to delight in finding hollow pockets of ice, formed by puddles frozen over – and the sound of the thin ice breaking under my boots. No harm done, there was no water to fall into beneath, just dry cold road.

Wasp's Nest

A new year...and now a thaw. The snow sticks to the bottoms of my snow shoes in clumps right beneath my shoes' claws. The snow shoes are like a second pair of feet and have come to feel less awkward with time.
Out gathering kindling for the day, I spot an old wasp's nest attached to the delicate branches of a young tree.
Gathering kindling has become a favorite winter activity for me, giving me the time to pause, look and find new bits of tree, new hiding places for creatures, new ways the sun slants through the tree trunks.

Sizzle, chisel and slip

Sizzle, chisel and slip
Sizzle, chisel and slip
The sounds of a
Snowstorm
As my skis disappear
Beneath a broad stroke of snow
A woodpecker
Pounds at
A distance tree
In search of a midstorm
Meal –
The snow trickles through
Cinnamon brown beech leaves,
Shifts fine over rock,
Snag and
Green.
Rounds out edges
settles in soft humps, inviting
The dent of a footstep.
Displays unprinted for a
time.