Month: December 2024

It was unusually quiet when the dog and I walked this morning.  Scarcely any vehicles on the roads.  No snow on the ground or reliable ice on the pond, so no kids building snowmen or sledding or skating or even just generally whooping it up.  The lack of snow underfoot meant no creaks or squeaks… Continue reading Still, Still, Still

The snow on the sidewalks this morning is excellent snow for footprints, rendering them in perfect detail.  As snow is still falling, the tracks will soon be covered up, but for now each set of prints is easy to follow.  What we have out there is research snow.  Thus, after an hour’s field work, I… Continue reading Hypotheses and Hats

     One cold and exceedingly snowy winter when I was in my early twenties, I channeled Michael Strogoff.  Strogoff is the hero of Jules Verne’s 1876 book; he was a courier to the tsar.  No cold was too cold for Michael Strogoff.  No snow was too deep.  Michael Strogoff helped me walked to work and… Continue reading Strogoff and Tubas

When geese lit on Thurston Pond last week, the stripes that formed in the water in the wake of their landing took longer than usual to dissipate.  The colder temperatures were changing the viscosity of the water.  It was getting closer to becoming ice.      The pond is entirely iced over now.  Temperatures plummeted, and… Continue reading Elves