We still haven’t seen much snow and the temperature would average out at about 35 degrees, I’d guess, so winter has been easy so far and that means easy hikes as well. Last Saturday I decided to go and see if the Ashuelot River had any ice on it out in the woods where nobody can see it, and to get there I had to use this rail trail.
White cushion moss (Leucobryum glaucum) lived up to its name with its perfect pin cushion shape. This moss gets its common name from the way its color lightens when it dries out. It often is a good example of how dry winter can be.
I saw a mushroom that looked like it had been painted by van Gogh. It was a beautiful thing; a painting and a poem, and was more beautiful in death than it would have been in life.
A tree decided to eat the small sign that had been tacked to it. As it grows the tree will grow out around it and finally engulf it so it can’t be seen. Many things are found in trees when they are cut down, including screws and nails, signs, pipes, fencing, cannonballs, bullets, beer bottles, hammers, handsaws, horse shoes, chains, ropes, stones, and one arborist even found a Chevy Corvette rim. Trees will grow around just about anything, and this doesn’t bode well for the wood cutter.
This sign was for the Yale Forest, which borders this trail. How it got into the tree in this way is a mystery, but I saw two or three of them doing the same thing.
Hard little oak marble galls had grown on a small oak. These are formed when a gall wasp called Andricus kollari lays its eggs inside a leaf bud. The plant reacts by forming these small spherical galls.
The wasp larvae live and grow in the gall by eating the plant tissue, but in this case they didn’t have a chance. A bird pecked its way into each gall and ate the insects.
The hard little wood-like seed pods of Indian pipes stood here and there along the way. Interesting in this grouping was how some of the seed heads pointed towards the ground. The stems usually become erect and point the flowers toward the sky once they have been pollinated.
This is how an Indian pipe seed head usually looks at this time of year. They look like little carved wooden flowers and when their seams begin to split open it is a signal that the seeds have ripened. The pods split open to reveal 5 separate chambers full of dust like seeds which will be taken by the wind. Each individual seed is just about microscopic at only 10 cells thick.
Blowdowns throughout our forests tell of the strong winds we had last summer. We lost many trees, and many houses, cars, and outbuilding as well when the trees fell on them.
Wood pulp where its heartwood would have been showed in one white pine that had been twisted off its stump by the wind. It was a huge old tree that was all but hollow. Carpenter ants had turned its insides to dust. It’s amazing how many trees there are just like this one, still standing and waiting for a strong wind to knock them down.
What looked like white animal hair was tangled on a bramble and quivered in the slight breeze. It might have been from a skunk or a dog. Lots of people walk their dogs here but skunks should be hibernating by now.
I think the bramble was a rose, possibly the invasive multiflora rose, but if so it was a young example. I can’t account for the two tiny black beads of liquid at the base of the bud.
An animal sampled this birch polypore (Fomitopsis betulina) and apparently didn’t find it very tasty. They’re said to smell like green apples and I wonder if they taste the same. This common fungus is also called razor strop fungus because of its ability to sharpen knives when it dries out. It has also been used medicinally for thousands of years due to its antiseptic, antibacterial, and anti-inflammatory properties. It also contains betulinic acid, which has shown promise in cancer research.
I love these old trestles out here in the middle of nowhere. I’ve been playing on them since I was a young boy so they come with many great memories.
This is the last trestle I know of with its tell tales still in place. These are pencil size pieces of soft wire that hang down low enough to hit the head of anyone standing on top of a freight car. They would warn the person, or “tell the tale” of an upcoming trestle. I walked from the trestle to this one in under a minute, so whoever was on top of the train wouldn’t have had much time to duck before they’d hit the trestle, and that would have been too bad. Tell tales used to hang on each end of every trestle in the area, but this is the last one I know of.
I saw a few small bits of ice along the trail in shaded spots but there wasn’t any on the river. This is an unusual scene for January but it speaks of the mild temperatures we’ve seen so far. As I write this on New Year ’s Day at 11:00 am the sun is shining and it is already 37 degrees F, with an expected high today of 47. I might have to stop writing and get outside.
The high water mark on the river’s flanks showed the water had dropped what looked to be 5-6 feet. You can see the fine white silt the river deposited near the high water mark.
Pine bark beetles had penned abstract calligraphy on a fallen limb. Shallow channels like these are made by the female beetles and the males make much deeper channels. It’s all about having chambers to deposit eggs in and when the eggs hatch even more chambers are made.
The sun had lowered by the time I had turned around and it cast a golden light on the trail ahead.
The sun was also caught in the little bluestem grass across the way. It made the grass even more beautiful than it usually is. It, combined with all of the other interesting things I saw, made this walk very enjoyable.
In the winter, the world gets sharp. Beautiful things happen. Peter Fiore
Thanks for stopping in.
My favorite parts of this post are the oak marble galls opened by birds to eat the insects inside, and the indian pipe seed heads. I did thoroughly enjoy accompanying you on your hike though, and seeing your world through your camera lens.
Thanks Jerry! I hope you’re able to get outside and enjoy as well!
That white cushion moss is so cool! Would look great in a shade garden.
You’d probably need several though because they’re about baseball size.
Good point.
How intriguing, from the pin cushion to the trestle tell-tale wires. Well done.
Thanks!
I enjoyed the walk and the pics of the Indian pipes as they are not something I would be looking for this time of year.
Thanks! Indian pipe seed pods are easy to see in winter when there is snow because they’re so dark.
I enjoyed seeing everything you discovered. Looks like your winter is as mild as ours at the moment.
Thanks Montucky! Yes, we’ve gotten off easy so far this year but our turn will come, I’m sure.
Same here. We had freezing rain last night but only a small amount of snow in the forecast today.
We had another dusting last night but it’s gone now. It’s a strange winter.
How good to have such a well maintained trail to follow. I hope your weather stays good as we often get your weather after a while.
Thank you yes, that’s an easy trail to hike.
They say we might see some snow on Tuesday / Wednesday but it’s not supposed to be a blockbuster storm.
So when you were a boy living near the tracks, did you ever jump on a passing train?
Your weather looks like ours, we do have a bit of snow left here and there. Thanks for the walk.
Thanks Chris! No, my grandmother made sure I knew what happened to little boys who tried jumping on trains so I never did. But it wasn’t because I didn’t want to; I just wanted to keep my legs under me.
We’ve had very little snow since Novermber and that’s okay!
More wonderful photos! Greatly improved my mood after battling through half an hour of Microsort’s swamp of unhelpful lies. Thank you. 🙂
Thank you Ben. I’m sorry that any of us has to go through that but it seems to have become a common occurence.
Some minutes later, and having read http://buddhainthemud.com/2019/01/05/the-pointing-out-instruction-on-the-nature-of-mind/ I can see it was in fact a precious opportunity. 😀 😀 😀
There are things worth finding out there if you have the patience to look, and I agree that this is one of them. Thank you.
🙂 Peace.
I thoroughly enjoyed your walk down the rail trail, Allen! Thank you!
You’re welcome, and thank you Lavinia!
It seems I’m always learning something new from your posts. So interesting, as well as beautiful.
Thank you Lee, I’m glad you liked it!
Great post, as usual. Question: how do ice needles form?
Thanks, Grace
Sent from my iPad
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Back in 2012 I did a post on ice needles and you can find it here: https://nhgardensolutions.wordpress.com/2012/02/18/ice-needles/
I don’t comment often but really enjoy your posts. Your close up of the Indian pipe fruit has a round hole at the top of the seam: I wonder if something ate it.
I think your bramble is a black raspberry. It’s stem at the lower part of the close up is just a little bit fluted, there is definitely a glaucous coating on the stem. The thorns are too round and much too fine to be multiflora, even a young one, but that conical base with straight thin thorn is very typical of black raspberry. And I think the bud looks just like the ones in Go Botany’s page on them ( https://gobotany.newenglandwild.org/species/rubus/occidentalis/ ) but I have no explanation for the black liquid.
Thank you Sara. I often find Indian Pipe seed pods with holes in them so something must feed on the seeds.
You could be right about the black raspberry. They grow all along our rail trails and I ate many handfulls of the fruit when I was a boy.
That quotation hits the nail right on the head. In the winter, the world does get sharp, and that is one of the things I love about winter. That sharpness, that clarity.
Thank you Laurie, I agree even though it isn’t very sharp today. We’re getting freezing rain.
Yuck. Has it started yet? Your weather seems to head up here.
Yes, I think it was going most of the night. We’ve warmed up to about 34 now though, so it’s probably just rain now. I’m still going to have to chisel the car off though, by the looks.
It didn’t do much of anything in Maine, and for that I am grateful. I do not like rain in the winter.
It seems like that’s all we’ve had here but luckily it has been too warm for freezing rain.
😦
A very interesting post, with a question. Do the metal signs, beer bottles, and other objects you mention that disappear into the tree weaken it or cause it harm? The ‘calligraphy’ of the beetles was cool; I always ‘see’ scenes or objects when you post such things. Also loved the white fur on the branch. Perhaps it was a faery?? And the part of the trestle capable of beheading an unsuspecting rider. Yikes!!!
Thank you. No, things that trees grow around don’t seem to bother them at all. Objects have been found in trees that grew to be very old.
I don’t think I would have been riding on the top of too many frieght cars!
Loved the ‘Van Gogh’ mushroom, well spotted. I always enjoy views of the river too, thanks for including it.
You’re welcome Susan, and thank you.