Last walk of 2014

Happy New Year! Here are a few early winter pics from Hardwood Hermitage, taken on walks each of the last two days.

The last photo is a young oak that found an opening in the forest. The sun the tree received today was quite deceptive -- windy and cold. Like many other young oaks, this one has benefited from brush cutting.

Almost Win-tah

We've had over two feet of snow since our mid-November post. A persistent low pressure system has kept us cloudy for nearly 10 days, dropping an inch here and an inch there. It's not even warm enough to melt or slide off a bit of snow off the solar panels. Thanks to nice sun in early December, though, we're ahead of last year's pace for the month. Here are a few pics showing what Autumn (know as Almost Win-tah up here) looks like sometimes.

This interesting picture was taken before most of our snow. A red maple was the target of a hungry beast, undoubtedly a moose based on how high the pulled bark was on the tree.