Snow. Can Spring be far behind?

The air is positively mild, almost up to 50 degrees Fahrenheit after a couple of weeks of freezing temperatures. It smells of Spring even as the snow drifts melt rapidly away and the land runs with water. The sound of rushing streams and plunging waterfalls is muffled amid the tall coniferous trees and upthrust moss covered rocky bluffs. The remaining snow makes lacy patterns and interesting blobs in the shady places. I have been documenting this series of snowfalls, from the early delicately picked out outlines of maples against the dark forest giants to the later white drifts that blanketed the rocky slopes, to the blue shadows and white streaks of light as the snow began to melt in the winter sunshine.

Photographs of snow are so kitch somehow, that I began by photographing only reluctantly, and then threw away my qualms and began to see the possibilities here. Besides, I got to walk around my property every day to see the many animal tracks, the rabbit hops, the raccoon, deer and bird footprints, and one set that had me puzzled on the slushy surface of the pond until I saw the merganser duck skulking in the reedy open water at one end. She had obviously attempted to land on the soft surface and then flapped her way towards open water. Here was a record written on the landscape for me to put meaning to even as I was using my camera to do the same with own my familiar landscape.