Winter Comes to Tudek Park

Clearly, it is full-on winter now. My husband and I ran into town between storms to purchase a few provisions, drop off our final library book (he just finished a biography of one of his heroes, Bruce Lee) and some recyclables, and grab a pair of cheesesteaks at C.C. Pepper's. When we were done shopping at Weis, we took a half-hour to walk over to Tudek Park.

I love to visit the big old white oak tree that stands beside the barn and silo, next to the community gardens. The snow was mostly unbroken. I'm surprised more people hadn't been out and about. But it's been quite cold. The restrooms are closed now for the winter season. We picked up two decent books at the Little Free Library nearby.

I know there are people who stay indoors when it gets frigid, but I could never be one of them. I love the winter and I was BORN in winter time. When the cold wind blows, sometimes I open my coat up to feel it better; the winter wind makes me want to ROAR! It reminds me that I am alive!

We are expecting more snow starting sometime in the overnight hours. They were saying 1 to 3 inches, but now more like 2 to 4. The last couple of 1-to-3's turned into more like 5-to-6's. So excuse me if I'm wary when they tell us how much will be coming down!

My own experience with winter, and with snowstorms, is that a few things help determine your happiness: whether the power stays on, whether you have to GO anywhere, who you are snowed in with, how well provisioned you are, and what your entertainment plans might be for your "snowed-in" days. When all of those boxes are checked, I say . . . LET IT SNOW!!!!  :-)

My favorite part of Tudek Park is the big old white oak tree that you see in this shot. I love it in any time of year, but when I see the shape of its bones in winter, I think it is especially beautiful, and truthful, and revealing of its own identity. There's just something wistful and honest about bare winter trees.

A quick note on the photography itself: I wanted this monochrome photo to look blocky, like an old-fashioned woodcut, so I increased the darkness and the brilliance and the definition. Look at the textures on the barn, the silo, the beautiful tree.

My soundtrack song is the Staves, with Winter Trees. One link shows the ladies singing; the other is an animated version.