
I’m still taking vacation days from work to use them up before I retire and that’s a good thing, because the weather forecast was for dangerous wind chills of -30 F last Saturday. Flesh freezes in 15 minutes in that kind of cold, I believe the weather people said, so instead of testing their accuracy I opted for a Friday walk, when the temperature was a balmy 36 degrees F. I chose a rail trail in Swanzey that I knew would have packed snow from snowmobiles, but I was surprised to see the summer gate still up. It’s there to keep wheeled vehicles off the rail trails in warmer months but is lowered in winter for snowmobiles. Still, there it was. In any event the snow had still been well packed by snowmobiles.

I like this trail because it still has a lot of the old railroad artifacts still here, like this whistle post. The W on the post told the engineer to blow his whistle or horn to warn traffic on the road up ahead. Where I grew up it was two shorts and a long on a horn and I could hear it inside the house with all the windows and doors closed. I used to love seeing those trains, so much so that I spent years building an HO scale model train layout.

Something else left out here from the railroad days is the stiff wire stock fencing they used to keep animals off the tracks. Miles and miles of it were strung along each side of the right of way, usually on stout metal posts, but in this instance a wooden fence post was used, and it showed its age beautifully, I thought.

Slowly, it was becoming hollow. The railroad came through this area about 150 years ago, and I wondered if this post had stood here all of that time. It looked like it might have so maybe it was black locust, which is known to last 100 years or more in the ground.

I saw many wood aster seed heads here and I noticed that many had been eaten, so that made me happy. Cardinals, chickadees, goldfinches, indigo buntings, nuthatches, sparrows, towhees and other birds are said to enjoy aster seeds, so that’s a good reason to let them grow rather than treating them as weeds.

The birds had picked this flower clean except for one tiny seed, and that was perfect so I could show you what an aster seed looks like. It has a little tuft of filaments at the top which acts as a parachute. When a seed hits the ground the wind can catch in the filament parachute and blow the seed along the ground to a spot where it can grow.

This is the second time in recent months that I’ve seen a bird’s nest in a shrub overrun with Oriental bittersweet. I can see how the invasive vine’s many leaves would provide good cover, but since the berries don’t appear until late fall, I doubt it has anything to do with the nesting bird eating them. It would be nice for the mama bird if she could just sit in the nest and eat the berries that surrounded her but nature doesn’t work that way. There is plenty to eat but they have to go and find it.

What does Oriental bittersweet do when there are no trees around to strangle? It strangles itself.

As I began paying closer attention when I was in the woods and became more aware of my surroundings, I noticed things on trees in winter that didn’t seem to be there in the summer. At least that’s what I thought but no, they were there all the time. It was just that they became more visible in the winter, like the way frullania liverworts darken to a dark purple color in the winter. All of the sudden the trees were covered by these dark spots, so I began looking at them closely.

The tiny leaves of frullania liverworts are strung together like beads. Some of them are said to be very fragrant but I haven’t been able to smell them yet. There are over 800 species of this liverwort. I haven’t tried to identify them but I have noticed that the ones I see must like high humidity, because they never grow too far from water.

This drainage ditch looked to be frozen solid. The black spots on the snow are hemlock seeds and scales from the cones. Birds and squirrels had been busy.

Not all of the drainage ditches were solidly frozen, so I got to see some beautiful patterns in the ice.

Beech leaves are falling I’ve noticed, and while I’ll miss seeing them I know they’re letting go so new leaves can appear in the spring. Seeing buds breaking on a beech tree is one of the great gifts of spring in a northern forest. How very beautiful they are as they unfold from the bud like silvery angel’s wings.

I saw a pheasant feather in the snow; the first I’ve ever seen that was not on a bird. This bird had met an untimely end, judging from what I saw just out of camera range to the left. I’ve learned to be at peace with seeing death in nature. Sometimes, as in the case of some fungi and trees I’ve seen, death can even be beautiful. As John Muir said “Let children walk with Nature, let them see the beautiful blendings and communions of death and life, their joyous inseparable unity, as taught in woods and meadows, plains and mountains and streams of our blessed star, and they will learn that death is stingless indeed, and as beautiful as life.”

If you happened to be standing on top of a moving train, not knowing there was a bridge or tunnel up ahead, that probably wouldn’t have turned out well. To solve the problem the railroad came up with what they called “Tell tales.” They were lengths of soft, pencil thick wire that would hit you and “tell the tale” of a low obstruction up ahead. If you were smart you would drop to your knees immediately. These wires used to hang on either end of tunnels and trestles. I used to see them regularly when I was a boy but now this is the last one I know of.

The railroad engineers often used what they had at hand, like splitting boulders and ledges to get useable stone for building. In the case of tell tales they simply stood a section of rail on end and sank it into the ground. Then they added a rod that stood 90 degrees to the rail and hung the wires from it.

And here was the old trestle, just like the one that was near my house when I was a boy. Back then there was no solid floor like the snowmobile clubs have installed these days. Instead there were wooden ties, spaced just as far apart as they were on the railbed, and between each pair, far below, you could see the water. This was a fence when I was young, and it prevented me exploring the land of mystery to the south. I was told that little boys who weren’t careful could fall between the railroad ties and end up in the river, and for a while that possibility was an insurmountable fear. At six, seven or eight years old I was probably thin enough to actually fit between the wooden ties but I kept trying, going further and further out on the trestle, all the while hoping that a train didn’t come. Then one day at maybe twelve years old I made it across and I was free to explore the far side of the river. It was like a great space had suddenly opened around me, and I’ll never forget how happy I was about being able to see more of the river and the woods along its banks.

I looked at the Ashuelot River through a silver maple, which seems to lean just a bit more each time I come here.

There was ice along the riverbanks and since we’ve had below zero cold since I was there, I’m guessing it has grown some. It will grow from each shore and meet somewhere near the middle if it stays cold enough.

The snowmobile club had put up a warning sign on a pine tree, but I was more interested in the burl behind it.

Burl is an abnormal growth that grows faster than the surrounding tree tissues. They are thought to grow on trees that have been weakened by stress or damage. Once the tree’s defenses have been weakened insects and /or fungi can attack and cause the abnormal growth. I see them all the time on hardwoods but not usually on evergreens. Woodworkers can make some beautiful things from burls.

You know it has been cold when the sap of white pines turns blue.

I finally found a fresh blueberry stem gall and all signs pointed to the tiny wasps still living inside, because when the wasps have left the gall, the sides are shot full of small round holes. Blueberry stem gall forms when a shiny black wasp called Hemadas nubilipennis damages a bud while laying her eggs on the tip of a tender shoot. The plant responds to the damage by growing a kidney shaped gall around the eggs, and this is where the larvae will overwinter before emerging as adults in the spring.

But not so fast. There was one very large hole in the end of the gall and that told me a bird, possibly a woodpecker, had robbed the gall of all the wasp larvae. I’ve seen this happen to the round galls on goldenrod and have seen black capped chickadees pecking at those. This gall and its inhabitants appear to be done for but someday I hope to be able to show you a fresh inhabited one.

My favorite thing from this day was this stump. No bigger around than a tennis ball where it was cut but it looked as if it had been there for a thousand years. It’s a good thing I have never found a way to bring all of the beautiful wooden things that I find in the woods home with me because I wouldn’t be able to move.
I don’t mind going nowhere, as long as it’s an interesting path. ~Ronald Mabbitt
Thanks for coming by.
I’ve brought home more than a few little bits and pieces of nature over the decades. They live with me for a time, in a spot where they’ll catch my eye, and then get returned to the natural world, thus avoiding volume. The two that are hardest to resist are rocks and brilliant fall leaves, although many small pieces of wood have also followed me home. Knot holes are beautiful! Animal skulls are interesting too, my fave being a snapping turtle. It “lived” with me for years.
Love the pic of the bird nest in the bittersweet vine. And that burl is handsome! Always a wealth of beauty to be found in the woods, regardless of the time of year, huh?
Hi Ginny! You and I think a lot alike and love the same things, I see. I haven’t brought home many skulls but I would if I found them. I did find a cat skull once which I thought was pretty special.
Yes, there is always beauty in the woods no matter the time of year!
I have noticed some dark splotches on our trees. I must check to see if they are liverworts.
I think I’ve read that they grow around the world so I wouldn’t be surprised if you had one or more of the 800 species there. They get darker in winter so they’re easier to see.
THANK YOU .. most interesting (that stump) . A journey always reveals something new and fascinating. Don’t feel our homes could accommodate all the fascinating finds.
You’re welcome Krys. Yes, I loved the look of that stump. Old wood is very interesting to me and I have brought a few pieces home but nothing I ever had to dig or saw. If that starts to happen someone may have to intervene.
Such an interesting post, I like how you add some history to your posts, this time about railroads and your own history with the model trains.
That was a cute stump, very friendly looking.
Thanks.
Thanks Chris! I love both history and botany so the two often intertwine in these posts.
The model trains were fun for a few years but then my nephew got older and I gave the layout to him.
I love old wood, and that stump was old!
I enjoyed the winter walk through the woods., Allen. There are so many things to see in every season! We have black locust trees here, and the stumps do seem to last a long time. The roots also send up many shoots for years.
Bittersweet sounds like the boa constrictors of the plant world. I have not seen any here, fortunately.
Thank you Lavinia. Yes, the roots and stumps still have a lot of life in them.
Either the birds are ignoring the bittersweet berries or there aren’t any bids here anymore that like them, I’m not sure which. Bittersweet berries have always been among the first to go so I’m a bit befuddled.
You’re lucky you don’t have them growing there in any case.
Another fine walk in the woods. The locust post was beautiful. In the 1960’s we had a pasture fenced with locust posts set in concrete. They had been there since the 1890’s. We were told by an oldtimer not to worry because the posts wouldn’t need to be replaced until the concrete rotted. In 2004 I got a quick look at them and most were still standing, I bet they are still there. Don;t know about the concete though.
Thank you. I’d bet they’re still there too. That’s one of the toughest woods known!
Had to go make some hot cocoa to get through this post. Somehow, I never knew you had trains. I was surprised to see all the berries still on that oriental bittersweet. Thanks for the cool photos.
Sorry Dave. You’ll see more cold than warm posts for a while yet.
Yes, I had an 8 x 12 foot model train layout that I worked on all through junior high. I had mountains, tunnels, trestles, you name it, and then I gave it all to my nephew. My brother still has it. I also raced HO cars at Andy’s cycle.
The berries are on the bittersweet because we don’t seem to have any birds here to eat them, and that’s getting a little alarming.
I had forgotten all about Andy’s. I too had a couple of HO cars that I raced there from time to time.
I probably saw you there and didn’t even know it. I had a Willys much like the one shown here:https://www.idealclassiccars.net/vehicles/273/1941-willys-coupe
I had an XKE Jaguar like this one: https://www.worthpoint.com/worthopedia/vtg-aurora-model-motoring-thunder-jet-1860131960 I seem to remember that they sold the cars at Andy’s, along with parts like motors, tires and the copper contacts on the bottom, all the stuff that wore out. And you could rent track time by the hour or half hour.
I don’t remember where I got the Willys but it was a fast car. I’d guess the Jag was too.
Yes, they sold all the various parts for the cars but there were things you could do above and beyond the stock parts. I used to roll my tires on flypaper or tape to make the car stick to the track better, for instance.
I think all the cars were easily too fast for the track. The trick was to go as fast as possible and still keep them on the track. I should think your flypaper trick must have helped with that. That’s the geeky sort of thing I would have done if I could think of it.
I never won a race that I can remember but those who won one with me in it had to use all the skills they had to win it, and that was the fun of it
Thank you for showing us what an aster seed looks like, fascinating.
Happy to show it to you!