The Dead Months

Go to the winter woods: listen there; look, watch, and ‘the dead months’ will give you a subtler secret than any you have yet found in the forest. ~ Fiona Macleod

True, not much blooms in December in northern New England (witch hazel is an exception), but there is still a lot to notice in the winter woods — and in the winter fields, streams, lakes, marshes, hillsides, town landscapes.

Some photos taken in the garden, on a walk in Concord NH, and at the nearby lake, from 1-10 December:

In the garden …

Pieris japonica by day and night (5 December) —

Animals on the motion camera —

Fox (2nd, 4th, and 6th Dec)

Deer (1st, 3rd, and 7th Dec)

Birds (mourning doves, blue jays, cardinals) and Squirrels (2nd, 5th, 6th, 7th Dec)

Other garden photos —

6:30 a.m. 1 December - rain puddle on motion camera
6:30 a.m. 1 December – rain puddle on motion camera
5 Dec - bark of dogwood shrub
5 Dec – bark of dogwood shrub
6 Dec - veggie garden
6 Dec – veggie garden

*

On the Winant Trails, Concord NH … 3rd December

large oak tree
large oak tree
moody field
moody field
water reflection in oak leaves
water reflection in oak leaves
beech leaves
beech leaves
club moss strobili
club moss strobili
very white birch tree
very white birch tree

*

At the lake …

Stump cairn (1st and 10th Dec) —

Water inflow (1st and 10th Dec) —

Other lake photos —

lichen on tree, 1 Dec
lichen on tree, 1 Dec
view of picnic area, 6 Dec
view of picnic area, 6 Dec
snowy road, 6 Dec
snowy road, 6 Dec
lake with ice, 10 Dec
lake with ice, 10 Dec

 

*

It was beginning winter.
An in-between time.
The landscape still partly brown:
The bones of weeds kept swinging in the wind,
Above the blue snow.

*

It was beginning winter.
The light moved slowly over the frozen field,
Over the dry seed-crowns,
The beautiful surviving bones
Swinging in the wind.

*

Light traveled over the wide field;
Stayed.
The weeds stopped swinging.
The wind moved, not alone,
Through the clear air, in the silence.

*

— “It Was Beginning Winter” by Theodore Roethke

2 comments

  1. There is slumber, deep and long and quiet. Yes, there is death. There is death in all seasons, at all times. Yet, even in winter, death gives life.

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