Whose Woods These Are.... Winter Nature Study #1

"Whose woods these are I think I know.

His house is in the village though;

He will not see me stopping here

To watch his woods fill up with snow."

Robert Frost

Few lines from Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening, 1923.

Our Winter Wednesday color walk and cattail observations were combined into one snowy hike....snowshoes firmly attached. It started off with 18 degree weather but by the time we finished it was around 40 degrees, sun shining brightly. There was lots of snow in our favorite woods.....it brought to mind the Robert Frost poem that we have been reading in our poetry study the past few weeks.

We started off with not much aim other than looking for colors and finding the cattail pond. I decided that it is nice to have something in mind as we head out in the really cold air....otherwise you keep your eyes down and forget to look up and out.

The color palette of this snowy world is actually quite beautiful. The blue sky, the evergreen pines, the red-yellow-orange of the shrubs, the colorful lichens, and the blue of the lake really stand out against all the snow.


Our cattails this year are quite secluded and we aren't even sure if we will be able to get out here since we think this is marshy in the spring and summer. It will be interesting to see how the terrain changes by the season.


Look at the mountain covered with snow! The colors really pop when you have all this whiteness going on...blue sky, reddish-oranges of the willow and dogwood, green evergreens.


It seems unlikely that we would get lost but we did wander around following someone else's path. It is a really good idea to have in mind a route when you are out in the woods like this. We knew our general direction but you get tired trudging through large amounts of snow even with snowshoes on. (I also got hot...too many layers.) Our problem was that there are two large creeks that run through the snowy meadows and if you don't plan it right you are stuck on one side with the water running between you and the rest of the path. I could see where animals had just jumped across the gap but with snowshoes on, you don't jump very well. We had to find a way to go around.


Another factor is that with all this snow, our familiar landmarks are erased. The bushes are flat with snow and there is far more water than we are used to.All those lumps are bushes weighed down with a couple feet of snow. You can't really hike over the top. Going around again.


In the end, we made it back to the car by following the creek and finding the bridge. It was a wonderful romp through the woods, successful in refreshing our hearts with some wonderful awesome vistas that you would never see if you didn't break out the snowshoes or cross-country skis.

I am going to add this to the first week's Winter Series Mr. Linky and I encourage you to do your own color walk and find a patch of cattails to study.

Barb-Harmony Art Mom