Out & About

• What Surrounds Us: Winter Wanderings -- Beaver Meadows, Bristol Notch

• The Weather

• Links to Out & About On-Line: Touring Vermont {continuing}

What Surrounds Us:  Winter Wanderings

We were talking with a friend the other day and she asked us how many sunny days we thought there'd been since the 1st of November.  "Not days where the sun poked out for a few minutes," she said.  "Actual days of full sun!?".  We were stumped.  ... 

"Five," she supplied.  "Five days."

We didn't bother to check on her accuracy.  Besides, that wasn't her point exactly.  Both November and December tend to be the cloudiest months of the year around here.  But January usually brings, along with the colder weather, some gloriously bright and sunny days.  Though we had to wait until the 10th for these photos, taken on a trek up here in the Bristol Notch, south, to the Beaver Meadows.  ...  We hope you enjoy them.

The temp was down in the single numbers, but the sun was full & strong.  ... This young hemlock glistened among the hardwoods.

Just like all year 'round, the woods up here in winter reveal an intricate network of deer runs.  ... In winter, though, they're easier to see.  ...

Of course, while the deer runs are easier to spot, there are other animals traversing the snow.  ... Here, a mouse left tracks when it made its way above the snow pack temporarily ... then seemingly disappeared without a burrow.  ...

The Notch is a mix of hardwood -- maples, beech, black cherry & birches -- and evergreens, mostly hemlock with more spruce as you climb.  ... Here, with little wind since New Year's Eve, the snow still clings to hemlock boughs many days later.  ...

Vegetation takes on a different life during the long winter months.  ... Here, a solitary fern rises above the snow pack.  ....

After making it through the dense second-growth hardwoods and an old stand of hemlock, the back of Elephant Mountain stood high against the early afternoon sky.  ...

click here for more photos ...

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