Winter's Back!

 

Unfrozen water:

Sepia coloration

Bleeds into the snow.

(Our water level has risen with new repairs to the dam!).

Winter's Provisions

If it weren't for the snow cover, we wouldn't notice just how many twigs and needles get added to the leaf litter on the forest floor during winter storms.

It probably provides fresh, juicy nutrition to ground creatures in lean times, and is easily found on top of the snow, so no burrowing or excavating required! 

I imagine these green boughs provide new warm material to re-stock and reline nests in long winters. 

Plus, the green boughs provide localized 'warmth' foci around which snow can melt.

Not What You Think!

I know that some of you think (know?) I have some fixations ... so I'm teasing you with this explicit picture. 

It looks pretty disgusting, but in fact is not - it is the rhizome of the yellow pond lily, or spatterdock (Nuphar variegata). A rhizome is just an underground stem in a horizontal orientation, and it can survive some exposure to air; the plant regenerates both from this structure and from seeds. There are no leaves that overwinter.

The plant produces gorgeous yellow blooms with large floating leaves - a real beauty and the beast!

Springiness

Squirrels leap and chase, 

Wind tickles the lake's surface.

Relentless, crows caw.