pam and i both started a long walk up and over town hill with our jackets on. they were tied around the waist soon enough, but at around 40 degrees and somewhat 'moist' out, it was the long up hill that made them too warm. surprisingly, there was still ice in the big puddle on the right of way and some large frozen ice spots just past that. the hemlocks shade that area hard so it was not at all crazy to see even with the big thaw we have had.
up in this area the frost is releasing the ground more slowly. head size rocks, pushed up by frozen water below them, sink back an inch or more as you step on them. some have even fallen back on their own leaving a crater like hole where they had pressed the earth up. now and again you step on some leaves that look frozen but crack and sink with your weight.
the trees are still sleeping and hopefully they will stay that way for some time. maple sap ran so early this year, but the couple tappers i have talked to report it is not a big year. hannah's dad, bill, made two gallons compared to last years twenty two. things can still freeze back up, but we went past meteorological winter last wednesday.
it is an interesting time to be out in the woods--wicked and weird as buck 65 puts it!
i found this today jumping around on the internet: Iktsurapok an inuit word more useful to us citizens of the digital universe than umpteen expressions for varieties of snow. here's how the blogsite mental floss characterizes the expression:
"you know that feeling of anticipation when you're waiting for someone to show up at your house and you keep going outside to see if they're there yet? this is the word for it."
it occurs to me that iktsuarpok might enrich modern english, where it could just as easily refer to the obsessive checking of email and facebook to see wheter anyone's contacted you in the past 30 seconds. even the tradition inuit did it, eh? social networking and our obsessive-compulsive dipping for dopamine rools. colin piprell.
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