I chuckled and thought of a public walk earlier that week. While watching birds, I momentarily recalled the pitch black of wet tree trunks, oaks mostly, contrasted up against new snow; further on, week-old snow was grayer next to grizzled hickories and not near as striking. Ground snow in the shadows of trees was still another hue and so was a gray vapor on smooth-barked maples. Subtle shades, but there. Faintly different, arranged on the gray spectrum from the darkest black to the whitest snow.
Though still officially fall until the winter solstice on December 22, winter-like weather is now upon us. Christmas decorating from nature with traditional greens and contrasting red is always possible. Our only native evergreen, the red cedar, if mature, bursts forth with beautiful blue fruits by late summer, a bonus for wreaths and table settings. The fruits are actually seed cones, often called juniper berries, and an important winter food for birds. Cedar boughs arranged with white and red pine branches, added to Norway spruce and the still-green fronds of Christmas fern allows a green array, beautiful in texture, color, and shape. Add sumac branches, rosehips, barberry fruits, and red holly berries and the holiday color scheme is complete.
The color red in nature seems even more vivid in winter landscapes. Is a backdrop of snow the reason? Watch the red color of a male cardinal pop at the feeder and see if it doesn’ t appear brighter in winter than his breeding plumage in summer. Same with the red-orange of a pileated’ s crest or the cape of the redbellied. These woodpecker males exhibit a very different shade of red from the male downy or hairy’ s cranial red spot. White backgrounds in proper lighting, my artist friends tell me, highlight any color.
Watching birds from the kitchen table or reading by the woodstove, these indoor sessions give me purpose to go out again. I can’ t watch or read enough to satisfy my curiosity of winter— I must indulge. It helps confirm for me what a professor once said:“ Books to nature, nature back to books.” He meant seeing something will create a need to read about it, and reading makes you want to go back and see it. A true academic, he marveled at the mechanics of science. But poetry he said, made him look for subtleties.
Like the well-prepared winter photographer, proper clothing is a must. I’ ve learned this is absolute and winter tests you. The better I am dressed for the
elements, with proper foot, hand, and headgear, the longer I stay out. The longer I’ m out, the more I see. The more I see, the more color I see. And the winter landscape is a colorful place to be!
Poet Laureate, Ted Kooser added this to his journal;
December 19— Cold and snow in the air
The cedars in the roadside ditches are nearly black against the many grays of this winter morning, but unlike most things with darkness at their centers they don’ t turn an impenetrable shell to the light. Rather, like ink on wet paper, their dark limbs bleed into the light, reaching farther and farther into the whiteness of freshly falling snow. •
Jan./ Feb. 2019 • Our Brown County 51