I walked out to the large excavation on the southern edge of the woods where two giant excavators had dug a crater 20 feet deep, exposing the large municipal pipe line buried there. The crews had spread gravel more or less along the route of the old grassy road bed from the east and shoved up a new small mountain of dirt at the SE corner of the delta. Smashed a few large willows at the edge of the delta.
I walked north from there into the heart and shelter of the center of the Woods. Cold! 18 F and windy and growing colder each quarter of an hour as the front moves in.
The sensible northern species are ready.. the walnut, elm, oak, hickory, persimmon, locust, sugarberry, cottonwoods, box elder, the red bud, ash, mulberry, even the big pecan, have shed their leaves, protected their growing buds with thick scales and filled the vital meristems with sugary cryo-protectant chemicals. Ready to take the cold, and it is coming. But still green (although not looking happy) are the Ligustrum privet, Elaeagnus autumn olive, and Euonymus vine. The succulent green mistletoe seems perky and unperturbed. Its leaves were not drooping or darkening. The animals in the Woods were preparing too. Two larger herds of deer were foraging on the last bit of green before it turns white. The yearlings may not have seen snow before and I wondered if it was a sight that made them skittish, a little worried, or wanting to stay close with the others. I sang to them and the older larger does stopped and looked at me curiously for a moment before moving off. The chickadees, cardinals and other small passerines were actively flitting about.. also trying to stock up on their last good meal and find the best shelter before the cold night coming.
Snow starting to blow in a little more thickly and I recalled the lines of Robert Frost
"Whose woods these are I think I know.
His house is in the village though;
He will not see me stopping here
To watch his woods fill up with snow."
