February column as published in the Woburn Advocate
Well, winter is finally here! On February 5th I took a walk around the Pond on bare ground in spring-like temperatures. I found lots of bright emerald green moss and lots of half eaten acorns. The rain and the warm weather brought out the bright green that you usually only see in the spring. Didn’t last long!!! The next day we had 6+ inches of heavy, wet, sticky snow. I stayed in all day and I almost didn’t even get dressed. As the snow stopped around 4:30pm I headed to my second floor windows to see what I could shoot from the inside. I took a look towards the west just before heading back downstairs and I saw the clouds just starting to lift and a thin line of yellow at the horizon. Within a minute or two the sky lit up and my daughter and I were racing down to the Pond with our cameras! Even my husband came down to see the sunset, which is unusual for him, not being a photographer! My family, along with many of my neighbors and lots of other people spent the next 20 or so minutes being overwhelmed with the show of color! The snow covered trees on the Arlington Rd. side of the Pond, shown with a glowing golden light that my husband claims to have never seen in his 60+ years of living on Horn Pond. We watched and oohed and awed, (and I clicked away) as the light went from gold to pink to orange to lavender to a beautiful twilight blue! What a sunset! And my daughter and I stayed till almost dark, not just shooting, but enjoying the beautiful twilight color.
Because I stayed up so late that night, working with all my gorgeous photos, the next morning I didn’t get up quite as early as I would have liked. But I did get out well before the snow started to melt! It was definitely an adventure walking around the Lagoon that morning! One of the trees we have in abundance at Horn Pond is Gray Birch. This tree is a graceful, VERY flexible tree that bends over almost to the ground in places when it is laden with snow. I did a lot of ducking! And got a lot of snow down the neck! LOL It was a beautiful sunny morning and I went over to my favorite spot, the re-claimed sandpit. The pine grove there always offers great photos after a snow and this morning it did not disappoint. And of course the ‘red’ bridge always makes a great shot! There’s nothing like the pop of bright red in the snow! Out on the Causeway the light skim of ice looked clear and reflected the blue sky and the snow covered trees as a flock of Canada Geese flew over.
By the time I got back to my house (almost two and a half hours later) the snow was slipping off of the trees and by late afternoon it was almost gone. Of course it has snowed a few more times since then, but dry fluffy snow that didn’t stick to the trees at all! Not great for photographs. But considering the treasure of photos I got from that one storm, I am a happy camper!
And speaking of snow, look for February’s full moon, the ‘Full Snow Moon’ on February 22nd, Washington’s Birthday. If it is clear and we still have snow on the ground, it will be very bright at Horn Pond that evening!
Because I stayed up so late that night, working with all my gorgeous photos, the next morning I didn’t get up quite as early as I would have liked. But I did get out well before the snow started to melt! It was definitely an adventure walking around the Lagoon that morning! One of the trees we have in abundance at Horn Pond is Gray Birch. This tree is a graceful, VERY flexible tree that bends over almost to the ground in places when it is laden with snow. I did a lot of ducking! And got a lot of snow down the neck! LOL It was a beautiful sunny morning and I went over to my favorite spot, the re-claimed sandpit. The pine grove there always offers great photos after a snow and this morning it did not disappoint. And of course the ‘red’ bridge always makes a great shot! There’s nothing like the pop of bright red in the snow! Out on the Causeway the light skim of ice looked clear and reflected the blue sky and the snow covered trees as a flock of Canada Geese flew over.
By the time I got back to my house (almost two and a half hours later) the snow was slipping off of the trees and by late afternoon it was almost gone. Of course it has snowed a few more times since then, but dry fluffy snow that didn’t stick to the trees at all! Not great for photographs. But considering the treasure of photos I got from that one storm, I am a happy camper!
And speaking of snow, look for February’s full moon, the ‘Full Snow Moon’ on February 22nd, Washington’s Birthday. If it is clear and we still have snow on the ground, it will be very bright at Horn Pond that evening!