Snow, Snowdrops, and Starlings

Well, we had another inch of snow yesterday, mainly the large flaked stuff, but very wet, however, today’s blue sky and sunshine, together with a rise in temperature soon saw the continual drip, drip, of water as the snow began to melt, accompanied by the occasional woosh as a sheet of snow sliped off of the roof. Snow is but a transient thing, here and beautiful one moment, slush the next moment, and gone in a third. Even though the snow was rapidly melting there was still enough around today, to make the walls, hedges, clumps of rushes and conifer belts stand out starkly against the almost pure white background.

 

Walls and Things – 26 January 2013 (Copyright Ross Lockley)

With the snow on the way out, signs of spring have begun to appear from out of the white depths. Amongst the snow and shadows underneath the hedge, there have appeared the grey green leaves of clusters of Snowdrops, now just tall enough to be visible above the snow. Amongst the leaves, there were several white flower buds, as though to herald the first signs of spring. Even the local bird population was feeling the pull of the new season, for from the surrounding trees, a full chorus of song was erupting, shouting with joy that they were alive. Most surprising from amongst this was the sound of a warbling Curlew?!! It took me a few minutes to realise that it wasn’t a Curlew, but actually one of a small flock of Starlings that were calling and warbling from a nearby tree.

Snow Days

The Lost Naturalist would love to say that she was snowed in and having a snow day, unfortunately though we have lots of snow, and by this evening we have about six inches of the stuff, she is actually the “Crocked Naturalist” and is stuck close to home.

Anyway, the snow I was talking about in my previous blog, finally arrived, first in dribs and drabs, beginning over Friday night, not much at this stage, maybe a couple of inches, but enough to blur some of the outlines of the surrounding landscape features. Most striking was its highlighting effects on the branches of the Japanese Larches, where the rich orange red of the twigs, currently devoid of needles, was strikingly lined with a bright white band of snow.

 

Larches – 19 January 2013 (Copyright Ross Lockley)

The snow properly arrived over Sunday night and into today, so that when dawn arrived the surroundings were carpeted with a soft white blanket of snow. During the course of the day, this blanket was added to almost continuously, as snow continued to fall, some of the time as large, soft, almost tissue paper like flakes, and sometimes as small, hard, ice crystals, but fall it did. As the day progressed the snow continued to coat the surrounding vegetation, beginning as a thin dusting, like icing sugar on top of a cake, and gradually thickening to form a proper frosted decoration, which even in the dull light levels of a snow storm, shone with an inner glow of cold beauty.

 

Frosted Trees – 21 January 2013 (Copyright Ross Lockley)

Ice Needles

While waiting for the snow that is forecast for today to make up its mind as to whether its coming or not, I thought back to Wednesday morning, to a totally white world, where the thin layer of snow remaining from earlier in the week was merged with a thick blanket of mist that blanked out the surroundings. It was as though the whole world had been covered with a white sheet, and all the details blurred out. The loss of details was worth it, for as the mist rose over the course of the morning it produced some amazing effects, in the form of a hoar frost that coated the world in shining crystals.

Hoar Frost – 16 January 2013 (Copyright Ross Lockley)

Over the course of the morning the vegetation went from being wet and soggy to being covered in the most amazing architectural ice sculptures. From a distance the vegetation looked as though it had been scattered with icing sugar, which as the sky cleared sightly almost sparkled with the better light. Close up the vegetation was covered with thousands of ice crystals each grown perfectly into the shape of a needle. It was quite amazing, over the course of several hours to watch the crystals grow from nothing, through tiny needles to structures a centimetre or two in length. Large enough to do justice to being the white needles of a conifer, but so fragile and ephemeral; that when the temperature rose just a degree they would be gone.