A walk in the woods two days before the solar equinox

A well worm path

Life under the snow

 Two days before the solar equinox, I went out for an afternoon walk around a pond and some preserved woods on the edge of town.  The air was cool, but not cold.  However, the wind was blowing making it feel colder than the actual temperature.  In these woods, the trees are overgrown and they creaked and groaned. It was the cry of a widow-maker as they branches and trunks rubbed together high above my head.  In some depressions, there is still snow, but even underneath the white blanket, life is returning. In the marsh below the pond, there is a healthy crop of skunk cabbage, a plant that’s the first to announce that spring is not far away, often popping up through the snow.  These plants have the capability to create their own heat, melting pockets of snow so that they can have room to unfurl and reach out above the marshy ground.  Spring is slow to come in these north woods.  There’s still a fair amount of ice on the pond; it’s only melting in the shallow areas. There’s still time for another snow or two.  But in a month, the may apples will pop up and the trilliums will bloom.  Then, slowly, the maples and oaks, the cherries and beech will unfurl their canopy, providing shade from the warm sun.  It could almost be paradise, but by then they'll be mosquitoes... 

snow in the depression

skunk cabbage

Ice on the pond