The snow cover had a crunchy crust like good bread. Tree shadows lined the forest flour, following the contours of snow that rolled like the plains. An understory hemlock towered overhead and broke up the lines with prickly blobs. Further along, the beech understory still shivered in their retained leaves.
The marshy boardwalk, so open in the summer, now felt like a refuge from the ascendant power of the winter sun. Pines, hemlocks, and spruces surrounded me where the saturated soil retards the growth of deciduous trees that rule the forest elsewhere. The bird life was the same, however, and chickadees fluttered away at their work. A nuthatch in the distance was stuck on repeat as he sang his breeding season song.
Then lunch was over, and I re-entered the office, my vision hazy in the darkness.
2 comments:
Yes! Why do these beech trees hold onto their leaves?
Beautiful imagery with your words, Clara. I LOVE Ithaca winters.
I looked into it, and it seems the best explanation is because releasing the leaves in fall means the leaves have a long time to wash and blow away. If the leaves are released in the spring, the nutrients are more likely to reach the roots of the beech trees at a time when the tree needs them. Obviously there are some downsides to this practice or else everyone would do it.
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