Category: winter

nature, winter

pin oaks

etikser

Limp lifeless dull rusty. Leftovers, more like tree clutter than adornment.

Nevertheless, on a February day, when the sky’s gray, and everything around you feels dreary and quiet, the wind picks up a bit, and there’s a soft rustle.

Something like a hiss.

Like frozen crystals brushing by in an icy snow, tick, tick, tick, tick.

Or maybe the scraping a towhee makes when it’s tossing sticks and leaves under brush on a summer’s hunt.

A little softer than the crunch of fancy tissue we bunch around a present for somebody’s birthday.

The pin oaks shiver with the breeze, then they whisper to the wind.

___________________________________
photograph from january 18, 2020

life, nature, winter

dormant

etikser

Winter’s not the favorite, is it? It’s a cold, austere reality.

A lot of us, though, we need the winter months. Like bulbs, or trees, we need a bit of cold. We need a dormant period. We need the winter.

I do a lot of fall photos. The changing leaves and autumn colors make a lovely picture. But honestly, I don’t like fall.

9/11.

Other sorrows.

Fall leaves a bad taste in my mouth. Like I’m trying my best to hold on to summer, and that’s not working. Like I’m not ready. I’m stubborn and refusing. Refusing to turn my head. Refusing what lies ahead, I suppose. Like a little kid who’s stubborn and refusing to take medicine. Mouth shut tight. The head jerks left, then right.

That’s how I engage with fall.

But winter to me is fresh. It’s snowed in and pulling on a heavy blanket. It’s sloppy clothes and old movies. It’s night-time, and it’s dark, and it’s sledding down a hill with nothing but worn-out bell-bottom jeans and a floppy piece of card-board between your butt and that cold frozen ground.

It’s necessary.