Day 32: Winter Still Life

 Backyard Nature, Native Plants, Piney Woods Church Road 365 Project, Sense of Place  No Responses »
Feb 012014
 

I set out mid-morning today under cloudy skies, the temperature already over the freezing line and headed into the 50s.  I was in search of what vestiges of snow I might find, knowing that this could be the last day in 2014 when a snowy photograph would be possible.  I made a few discoveries, including a previously unknown patch of lichens (Cladonia leporina) which will almost certainly appear in this blog within the next few days.  Meanwhile, I offer one parting photograph with snow, a roadside still life with a still-green water oak leaf and dried grasses.  Tomorrow this same spot will turn into a fairly nondescript patch of winter weeds, but while the snow lingers, I find the image beautiful.

Winter Still Life

The Snowstorm of January 28th, 2014: Images

 Backyard Nature, Natural History, Sense of Place  No Responses »
Jan 302014
 

Snow is quite unusual in this part of Georgia, so it seems worthwhile to devote a post to documenting this past Tuesday’s snowstorm, from the perspective of my daily journey down Piney Woods Church Road.  When I walked the road late Tuesday afternoon, the snow was still falling, and there were no tracks — vehicular or otherwise — on the roadway.  From Rico Road to Hutcheson Ferry Road, it was covered over with a pure white veil.

Day 28: Wild Onions in the Snow

 Backyard Nature, Piney Woods Church Road 365 Project, Sense of Place  No Responses »
Jan 282014
 

Snow is a great transformer of landscape.  Pick the most mundane scene imaginable, add a layer of freshly-fallen snow, and the result can border on magical.  I set out this afternoon into a steady snowfall, looking for images of trees and animals enduring the elements — pines catching snow on their needles, cows hunkered down in the pasture.  Ultimately, though, my favorite photograph of the lot is probably this one:  wild onion grass (the kind that occupies much of my front yard every spring) in the snow.  The photograph was an afterthought, really — practically the last one I took, just before rounding the corner onto Rico Road and heading home.

Wild Onions in the Snow