Cold Wet New Things in the Woods

You see the most unusual things in the Woods when you go at the most unusual times.
Friday afternoon as all of Norman huddled beside heaters or cups of hot tea, with a steady drizzle of almost freezing rain outside, I put on knee boots and my best winter raincoat and went to the Southwest Gate of the Woods. The first thing I noticed was how open or bare the Woods suddenly seemed. The rain of the past few days brought down almost all the autumn leaves, leaving the Woods looking suddenly wintry. The next thing I noticed was how rich the colors were everywhere. The rain saturated everything and brought colors to their fullest. The big brown Auricularia jelly fungus growing on the dead elm and the two white agaric mushrooms (Coprinus?) growing at the base of the tree. Flood water from campus had backed up just short of the fifty meter post. The ground all through the SW third of the Woods will be getting a good deep long drink, saturated all the way down to the ground water table.
I walked north and east into the heart of the Woods away from the sound of the traffic on Chautauqua, taking care not to overtop my boots in some hidden depression.
The maze of leaves floating in the shallow water, rounded clubs of bur oak, light on the underside, richer red-brown on the top, the brighter yellow-green mottling of elm leaves.
Some things that are normally hidden in the Woods were revealed. Passing by the second largest cottonwood, as I have a hundred times before, I was surprised to find a four meter tall Euonymus americanus(?) hearts a busting bush in the shade of the dominant, second-largest cottonwood. Its leaves were still a bright green.  It is the only one I have seen in the Woods, although its cousin, the Euonymus vine is a moderately common evergreen in the winter there. North to the East Pond, I caught the pond smell, not the same as the watery acres I had just walked through. This was a familiar smell of permanent or older water.. perhaps with fish..or some other forms of animal life.
On the north side of the Pond there were the bright red leaves of a black oak. It had been crushed two(?) years ago in a significant blow down; but it looked like it had come back, and was going to do well.  I haven't seen red that rich and bright in the leaves of any other oak in the Woods.
East along the Northern Loop to Island crossing. The water there was flowing at a good volume, not quite covering the island. Southward along the levee the Chasmanthium fish-on-a-line grass was a bright yellow. At the small cluster of big cottonwoods, I disturbed the owl that perches on the east side of the Wash. It hooted and flew west a hundred feet to a new perch. I had not noticed before, that one of the three large cottonwoods had broken where the flow comes in from the smaller eastern culvert.  At Tall Stump, and here and there through the Woods, the prettiest fall colors were on the Viburnum shrub trees with their orange brown leaves. Each Viburnum stood out like a surprising flame in the distance. The Northwest Pond was brim full and filling areas west and south, flowing into the cattails. The distinct  almost fishy, smell of older water was there again.
After completing my looping wander through the Woods I packed up and headed out and stopped to say hello to Kim B leaving the NW Gate with her Dad and three colleagues after collecting insects in the rain from the forensic site.