Week of February 20, 2022 – February 26, 2022
by Morgan Ingraham, Environmental Educator
While the human-made decorations are coming down after the holiday season ends, nature still has plenty of colors, lights, and beauty to decorate the landscape. This morning I took a walk at The Woods where I first observed the sun glinting off the snow, a dazzling display of crystalized sparkles. A bright red male northern cardinal sang from a bare-limbed red maple. Dogwood berries offered a tantalizing treat to birds as they drooped from their branches like holly from a doorway. Lichens growing on trees, rocks, and logs painted the forest in splashes of chartreuse, sage green, and orange-red. Mosses grew in cozy skirts at the bottom of elderly trees as if they were bright green leg-warmers to keep the trees warm. Even the silhouettes of the deciduous trees themselves decorated the horizon, contrasted against the early morning sky.
This walk reminded me that we don’t necessarily need electricity to keep the holiday cheer alive. Look outside your window, hike at our preserve, or take a stroll around your neighborhood. What natural decorations do you observe?