The trees remained white today from the frost although sometimes they were “snowing” when the wind picked up. Swamp milkweed, green scenery and seeing a monarch butterfly floating by instead of frost will not reappear for another six months.
Monarch on Milkweed
It was even a grayer (or whiter) out this morning and stayed that way all day with the extra layer of frost covering most everything. To me, the frosty trees stand out more if there is blue skies and sunshine but the sun failed to appear today to shine on the hoarfrost. It looked like someone got carried away in flocking trees for Christmas.
Flocked Trees
The male goldfinches have lost their summertime bright yellow coloring so now it is harder to tell the males from the females and immature goldfinches. But whatever they might be, they all seem rather hungry and today with the sun finally out, they were eating seeds from the black-eyed susans, which has also lost all of its summer yellow petals.
Eating Seed Heads
The forecast was wrong again so instead of sunny skies, the morning brought a cloudy sky and frosty trees. Sometimes the frost look like spikes and from a distance, the frost might have appeared as needles but up close they looked more like snowflakes or flattened pine tree.
Flaky Frost
While the snowflakes were falling this morning, I watched a little red squirrel race up and down several trees like something was chasing him although I didn’t see any other squirrels nearby. I hadn’t notice the red squirrel most of the summer but at least he hasn’t found his way to my bird feeder yet.
Speedy Squirrel
In the summer, cooking on a wood stove in a small room might provide more heat than comfortable but in the winter, the extra heat from the stove would feel nice on a night where the temperature is dropping to below zero.
Old Cook Stove
Listening to the forecast this evening and hearing about the temperatures falling again made me feel cold even before it drops to zero. The drops I like to see are decreasing gas prices so I can visit more northern Wisconsin waterfalls to watch the rivers drop in elevation as they make their way down to the lake. Superior Falls, last 65 foot drop of the Montreal River, is just a few hundred yards from Lake Superior on the Wisconsin and Michigan border.
Dropping Water
The month of November and the start of December have been extremely cloudy months this year and the plants I rescued from the cold outside are fading away due the lack of sun. At least cloudy days in October have a hint of color compared to white landscape now.
Cloudy Color
In the pioneer days, people in parts of country would have needed their winter supplies purchased or harvested before the heavy snows came and cut off access to towns or neighbors. A very early snow storm could catch people unprepared and hopefully those early snows would melt quickly.
Getting Supplies
After watching the snow flying quickly past the window as winter made its return felt, the hard work of spring plowing might feel like a better option than shoveling and plowing snow in the cold.
Spring Plowing
