Stop and listen to the ragged-edged beech leaves, pale specters of the winter forest. They are chattering ghosts, clattering amid the bare branches of the other hardwoods. Wan light pours through their evanescence and burnishes them to gleaming. Deep in the gray, sleeping forest, whole beech trees flare up into whispering creatures made of trembling gold.
~ Margaret Renkl
(The Comfort of Crows: A Backyard Year)
A week ago I made a quick trip to the botanical garden to take a final picture for my four seasons photo hunt, and added it the post, which had become an eight season collection. It was a chilly, gray day but I was tempted to linger and see what other kinds of pictures could be taken in the very dim light of midwinter. One beech tree was full of marcescent leaves. A single leaf was dangling from another one.
Finally, I got pictures of one of the white-throated sparrows foraging under the bird feeders, where there is a little less brush for them to hide under. There is stark beauty to be found in the winter garden, when seedheads are left naturally for the birds to eat.
It still amazes me how pansies are winter flowers down south here! Imagine – pansies outside in December! Even though the temperature was in the low 50s that day, it felt cold and raw to me, in spite of my extra sweater, winter jacket, hat and gloves. I could have used my thermal underware but I didn’t think it would feel that cold out there.
One of the many things I do miss about being a young person is what was my tolerance for the cold. I used to love winter, being a January baby, and have many more fond childhood memories of playing outside in that season than in the others. (No bugs!) My sister and I spent countless hours ice skating in the frozen swamp in the woods behind our house. It was fun gliding across the (sometimes lumpy) icy hollows between the hummocks. A challenging obstacle course. And not a pansy in sight until April!
Wonderful photos
I have such a trembling gold-tree just outside the window in my living room – I can almost touch it from the window – I n the fall, It feels like I sit inside it
Thank you, Leelah! I love it that you have beech trees, too, and having one right outside your window is a blessing! I used to have a birch outside my window — I miss that feeling of sitting inside of it.
Thank you for showing us your winter beauty! I’ve been absent from the blogs again and I’m poking around again this morning. I’ll have to go back and look at your final photo for the 8 seasons. Covid got me again for my Christmas break from school, so I unfortunately have not been out photo hunting as I had hoped. I do very much enjoy your photos however.
I share your style of memories about being a kid in New England in the winter. Even though my preference is for summer, winter was fun back then. It seems there always was snow on the ground and the ponds were more often frozen than not, unlike how things are now. Makes you wonder how anyone can deny climate changes, doesn’t it?
I hope you had a wonderful holiday, and I am wishing you the best for the new year.
I’m glad you enjoyed this post, Karma, and that you stopped by for a visit. I know how busy you must be! And getting covid on top of that — ugh. Somehow, I remain a covid virgin and am still anxious about catching it, being in several of those high-risk categories. I hope your recovery was quick and uneventful. I agree, those of us with memories of cold winters, ice skating on frozen ponds, sledding down snow-covered slopes, bundling up to spend hours building igloos and snow forts, and drying out wet mittens and socks on the radiators, we intensely feel and acknowledge the effects of climate change on our world. We did have a very nice holiday, and hope yours was wonderful as well. Wishing you a very Happy & Healthy New Year!
I absolutely love that tiny white-throated sparrow. It finally positioned itself for excellent photos, Barbara! The first beech tree leaves looked like they were dipped into gold. I like seeing the contrast of the frosted leaves and the single bare leaf. We don’t have either the white- throated sparrows or beech trees here. It’s fun to see the differences and the similarities like pansies are winter flowers of our environment.
My tolerance for being cold has changed too, Barbara. I thought it had to do with my heart condition, but maybe it has to do with aging. While many of the activities that we do as children, and our silly minds think we could still do, we just can’t. Like cartwheels and backflips. I think if you still lived in Connecticut that you would not be spending countless hours ice skating in the frozen swamp. Life will become much warmer spending countless hours with your children and grandchildren among the winter pansies.
Enjoyed your delightful post this morning! ❤️Wishing you’ll a healthy new year 🎉🥳
I’m so happy you enjoyed this post, Teri! That white-throated sparrow was a darling and he was so active that I just kept clicking the camera and hoping that at least one shot would come out. Phew! These were the only two that worked, somehow I caught him, so it can’t really be said that he cooperated and positioned himself — lol. It’s times like that when I do miss my gulls who loved to pose for me. It is fun noticing all the differences in flora and fauna in different parts of the country, not to mention different parts of the world. What an amazing planet we live on!
It does seem that aging has a lot to do with a decrease in heat and cold tolerance. But adjusting to temperature differences does make the heart work harder. After Tim’s heart attack his cardiologist warned us to not let him get chilled or overheated. But, interestingly, Tim has always been intolerant of heat, and even as he ages he is still more comfortable in a much cooler temperature, defying the norm.
I hope you and Yorkie and your little hummingbird had a lovely Christmas. Wishing you all a very Happy & Healthy New Year! ♡ ♡ ♡
Lovely pix and winter memories, Barbara.
On breezy days, I often pause to listen to the music of beech leaves, the only rustling leaves this time of year. In summer, it is a different sound, but equally soothing.
I certainly use my down coat more than I used to. These days, if I get chilled, it takes hours to thaw out!
Thank you, Eliza! The music of beech leaves is very comforting and magical and I’m grateful we have as many down here as we used to have in Connecticut. They really stand out in the winter landscape. I’ve noticed that, too, it takes forever to warm up after getting chilled to the bone, and it feels colder at much higher temps than it did in years gone by!
What a diverse collection of photos here Barbara – from the stark beauty of spent flowers and that one beautiful leaf just hanging by a thread, to the perky pansies and aster that lingers, its petals intact – the photos span the seasons. Your squirrel is so cute, that fluffy tail and extra girth as he gives you a glance and the white-throated sparrow would blend into the leaves it is foraging in, except for the golden stripes. The shiny bulbs add a little whimsy to this post. I also like the passage from Margaret Renkl – I hope to get that book read soon as I believe it’s been here a year now.
The contrast between the happy pansies and the spent flowers struck me, too. It just doesn’t feel like pansy season to me!!! But there they are. 🙂 I think you’ll enjoy The Comfort of Crows once you get around to reading it — lol! I was trying to take a picture of something else when I noticed that squirrel in a flower pot right close to me. I think we were both startled. When I turned a little to aim the camera at him — it would have been a fantastic close-up — he jumped up to the railing and scurried away. When he stopped, he turned around just a little to look back and eyed me in this picture, as if to say, “good grief, are you still watching me?”
You and I have always thought that spent flowers, dried reeds and brittle leaves could look nice, especially when a few fresh blooms are nearby. I have taken photos of brown teasels against the snow and thought they looked pretty. When I thought my backyard metamorphosis would take place in 2024, I imagined reading the Renkl book outside and looking up to see butterflies or bees, maybe hummingbirds flitting about or even a few birds. Then, when the landscape job in the Spring didn’t happen, I put the book away until next year, when hopefully it will happen. I’m thinking of contacting the landscape company before they go on hiatus the end of the year so they can put me on the list for next Spring (instead of forgetting me).
Those squirrels are quick and for every shot I get, I also miss a lot of shots or come home with squirrels missing snouts or all I got was the tail. I remember you said the squirrels used to dig up your porch pots to hide their peanuts … since I’ve used artificial flowers in my side and front garden since 2012, they were “planted” in Spanish moss and I had forgotten about the squirrels doing that as it was a big problem for me too. Well, since the mulch was put down in the side and front yards in October, the squirrels have had a field day hiding their peanuts – there are holes everywhere right now, where I guess they buried peanuts, then wanted them back.
I don’t feed the neighborhood squirrels now as we have a neighborhood hawk – I lost all my squirrels once to hawks, then started back a few years ago and one was killed crossing the street after leaving my house, so I said “no more”. So I suspect the squirrels are going to make a mess digging up my flower beds. Sigh.
We do have that in common, loving those dry plants in winter. I bought a little booklet from the botanical garden when we moved down here, Winter Weed Finder, but it’s been frustrating using it, trying to distinguish one plant from another. They’re so similar and I guess I’m not discerning enough to perceive the differences. So I just enjoy them and photograph them for their stark beauty. I could post dozens more pictures but I don’t think my readers would appreciate that!
I do hope your dream of reading Renkl’s book outside in your new lovely garden comes true this spring. Nothing more soothing for one’s spirit than having birds and butterflies flying and fluttering about. Even squirrels hiding their nuts is fun to watch, if you can ignore the inevitable mess they make in the process.
During a storm a couple of days ago a very long, 6-inch diameter branch broke off a tree, from very high up, behind our condo. It broke into several huge chunks and one of them hit the HVAC unit. Thank goodness it didn’t damage it or hit our house. Tim took all kinds of pictures and sent them to the landlady who will get the condo association to look at the tree. I hope they take it down as it doesn’t seem to be healthy, with fungus all over that branch.
I’ve been using Google Images and shared that with you and we were both pleased with it for the birds we can’t find in our books. I was putting together my early January post of favorite photos and remembered I mis-identified two frogs as “Spring Peepers” so I did a Google image search and it no longer displays our photo next to the options. The original image flies off the screen and you see options, so it’s difficult to compare. So maybe it is a toad – not sure?
I look forward to reading that book and documenting the garden from start to finish – I know it may not be perfect the first year as those perennials take until August or so to bloom, but I am hopeful. Next door to me, Marge’s son, fed the squirrels all through the Spring and Summer then decided they were hiding their peanuts by digging around the flowers, so he cut them off – no peanuts. I don’t want to start with them due to the hawk, but I have to look the other way when they stand there looking at me when I come out of the door or return home from walking.
That’s a shame Barbara – hopefully the condo association takes it to heart that there might have another incident which will damage more than the HVAC unit. Was that the storm in both he Carolinas? I heard about the storm that might hit on the early news but then the news was filled with sports, then former President Carter’s death and so no mention of a storm.
This morning the weather people are calling for a “wintry mix” on Monday. I haven’t seen that term used since I left Connecticut! Can’t wait to see what that will be like, and of course, that day Tim is scheduled for an echocardiogram in the morning and an appointment with the cardiologist in the afternoon. I don’t know how big that storm last Sunday was. We weren’t watching TV and didn’t know it was coming until we got the weather alert on our cell phones. Sometimes Google Images is great, other times it gives a confusing array of possible ids.
Our big storm for Monday may be fizzling out and heading more South. That’s good news for me as I have allergy shots, but unlike Tim’s appointment, mine is easily cancelled. Yesterday I got caught in the sleet and today it was graupel and snow flurries combined. Not fun and I went to the Park in fairly high winds, but not slippery, so out I went, but I was the only one there and when I say the ONLY one there, even the squirrels and birds were smart enough to stay in their nests. I’m not sure why they changed the Google Images … the new way is not as easy to ID now.