Happy holidays! I’m with family this week, and I’m writing to you sitting by the fire with a Yule-sized log sending a spark or two up the chimney.
In the unexpected sun this week, we have been walking in the winter woods. Three generations of us have been exploring pathways and old wood roads. Yesterday in the sun we walked along the north shore of a pond near here, through the young birch stumps left in points around an an old beaver lodge.
My mom and I have learned the names of violet toothed polypores, white arcs of tree fungus. Turkey feather mushrooms show up amber, and wintergreen and winterberry are bright with fruit.
And on Christmas morning, my dad found newly shed antlers from a 10-point buck — a he must be a vast fellow, out wandering on the ridges with any luck. And we hear the weather may turn colder next week. So we’re sending new year wishes for snow …
Sunny winter days in Hopkins Forest and Field Farm in Williamstown, and up on the ridge at Tamerack Hollow in Windsor …
Hemlocks hold snow in their branches in Hopkins forest on a winter day.
