Week #4

It was a warm day today and most of the snow from last week had melted into a layer of grainy ice with mud and slush beneath. From my spot I could hear the stream in full flow and as I walked into the woods a squirrel yelled angrily at me. I could also hear the occasional creak of a branch and people and dogs passing by on the trails but not much else above the roar of jets above. The stream that runs down the ravine where my spot is located remains frozen over but bootprints revealed a layer of wet gray slush below the snow. The ground was cold and moist except in the hollow beneath the large white pine where I sat on the sandy soil. A few ferns and grass were revealed in pockets where the dirty snow had melted around trees. Even though they were sodden and limp they seemed to promise new growth soon. I heard a lot of people out walking their dogs on the trail across the main stream, also lured out by the warm sun. A month ago it would have been starting to get dark now but now the day seems to be stretching into the late afternoon quite that lasts longer and longer through the spring into the summer. The snow tasted like soil and acidic pine and spring.