Patterns in the Snow

A few days after photographing the snow activity around the patio, it was a little warmer (in the teens) and the sun was out. I ventured out at mid-morning to look around the yard and neighborhood. I noticed tracks in the snow. Squirrel?

My real objective was to walk patterns on the untracked snow of the tennis courts. It was my first attempt…and a learning experience.

  • I had chosen 2 simple patterns from my Zentangle experiences. The free form curves worked better than the “straight” lines.

  • The contrast between shadows and bright sunlight played havoc with my line of sight. The poles at the ends of the net worked well but the other corners were more nebulous.

  • Even though I tried to retrace each line at least twice, additional retracing would have made the lines more solid. Maybe wearing snowshoes would make that easier although I am not quite ready to make the purchase (yet).

The tennis courts are an optimal surface to walk patterns in the snow – flat and with ‘posts’ for orientation.

  • The snow was a good depth…2-3 inches.

  • It was cold enough (teens) that there had been no melting.

After I finished on the tennis courts I walked along the path a bit – made arches away from tracks made by others. Some had melted through to the asphalt. On the bridge over the channel into the ponds, there had been more traffic and the snow had fallen between the planks.

My winter gear kept me warm enough (down filled coat with hood, tube scarf over my head under the hood, mask, snow pants, hiking boots with wool socks, battery powered heat in my gloves). But I was ready to head indoors!

Winter Tracks

We are getting another round of very cold weather now and I’m remembering some tracks I saw from my front door during the cold just at the year began. I took pictures through the narrow windows from either side of the door – it was too cold to open the door. The tracks stayed for days until the snow sublimated rather than melted! The ones on the front sidewalk include deer…not sure what the rounds ones were.

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The ones on the front porch were smaller but came right up to the front door! Maybe a squirrel? I thought of a chipmunk at first but haven’t seen any recently. We have lots of squirrels.

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We are well supplied with food and have no appointments for the next few days…so we are staying warm inside and recovering from colds until it warms up. Our forecasted high for today is 30 degrees and cloudy. A good indoor day!

Mt. Pleasant – December 2017

I took a short walk around Howard County Conservancy’s Mt Pleasant Farm yesterday morning after delivering the reports of the conservation easement monitoring. This was probably the last trek there until January, so I took the opportunity to look around at the signs of winter. There were still some patches of snow in shady places and I realized this was the first time I’d been at Mt. Pleasant when there was snow on the ground.

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Montjoy Barn has its doors closed. The ramp retained some snow.

The path to the meadow was soggy and icy at the same time.

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I walked a little ways down toward the stream until I decided the wind was making it feel very cold. I did a quick zoom series on a round of hay in the field on the other side of the trees that mark where the stream divides the meadow from what’s beyond.

There was a large clump of grass with curly seed heads moving in the wind. I headed back toward the parking lot.

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The high point of the walk about was tracks in the little bit of snow. There would have been more and better ones if I’d gotten there earlier.

Just as I turned to leave I noticed a fluffed cardinal in a tangle of branches. He was on his way to the bird feeders in the Honors Garden.

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