Moss & Stone

Cold, drizzly, wintery, gray day at Joe Wheeler State Park. New macro lens. Playin' around.

I confess to loving winter. This fact may stem from Fleetwood Mac's "Bare Trees" album long ago. Fleetwood Mac wasn't one of my favorite groups at the time but a good friend of mine had all their albums. (Vinyl!) Flipping through them one day the title of this particular album intrigued me. More importantly, it made me consider winter trees for the first time. An album by a reputable group was named after them so they must be special. I'd never given winter trees any thought at all before that day.

And they are special. I discovered at that young age the beauty of naked limbs reaching for the heavens, or twisting themselves into an artistic knot, all silhouette against whatever color of sky was delivered on any particular day. Upon closer inspection the textures and colors of bare, winter trees became even more interesting. Shaggy barks, mottled barks, red barks and the usual brown and gray barks adorned with nature's minutia of lichens and mosses began to fascinate. Even later came the discovery that birds live in dead snags and can be seen during winter much easier than in summer, and thus began a journey into birding.

Isn't it fascinating how one small thing in the mind of a child or teenager can create a hunger, a passion that follows into adulthood? Anyway, looking back at last year's photos of the mosses of Joe Wheeler State Park taken on a gray day while seeking bare trees I just got to thinkin' back.