Tromping through snow
Jan. 22nd, 2005 05:10 pmIt snowed here today. Not as much as the weathermen predicted, but three or so inches. Might snow more tonight, but I'm not counting on it. So after some sledding on our less than amazing hills, with my sister and my dad, I went for a walk through the woods. And I thought, because it's hard not to think. I saw some tracks, either rabbit or deer, I'm not sure which, I'm a city boy, for all that I live in the country, and they were smudged and half buried under snow. But there's no predators larger than foxes around here, and a fox sure as heck isn't going to take down a deer. Because humans aren't gonna leave wolves or anything around near them, what with all the horses and cows (mostly horses) around here. So that's why there's zillions of deer, and the suburbs must be even worse for deer. For all that, though, I'm not gonna go hunting myself, so I'm not sure if what I'm saying means anything.
Shortly after that train of thought, my tromping led me by the trunk of a dead tree, had to have been ten feet tall. Still standing, like some long-forgotten ziggurat, full of termite tunnels and holes from woodpeckers. It looked like something out of a movie almost, snow piled in a few niches, but mostly bare. Inside though, I'm sure it was warm for the termite queen and her minions. Warmed by bacteria rotting away the wood, so it will eventually fall down and become soil for other trees, assuming it doesn't get paved over or something.
And then I walked down and by the stream, feeling my way across ice covered in a layer of slush covered in a layer of snow, silent, so I could hear any cracks. There were a few, but none that were followed by water pouring up through, so I felt safe, and made it back okay. So here I am writing this, now, after I've warmed up a little bit. My coat and gloves I got for Christmas worked well, kept me warm, and it was warmish anyway, for all that it's snowy and cold out.
Tags: Mindscribbles, Journal
Shortly after that train of thought, my tromping led me by the trunk of a dead tree, had to have been ten feet tall. Still standing, like some long-forgotten ziggurat, full of termite tunnels and holes from woodpeckers. It looked like something out of a movie almost, snow piled in a few niches, but mostly bare. Inside though, I'm sure it was warm for the termite queen and her minions. Warmed by bacteria rotting away the wood, so it will eventually fall down and become soil for other trees, assuming it doesn't get paved over or something.
And then I walked down and by the stream, feeling my way across ice covered in a layer of slush covered in a layer of snow, silent, so I could hear any cracks. There were a few, but none that were followed by water pouring up through, so I felt safe, and made it back okay. So here I am writing this, now, after I've warmed up a little bit. My coat and gloves I got for Christmas worked well, kept me warm, and it was warmish anyway, for all that it's snowy and cold out.
Tags: Mindscribbles, Journal