More ice

The top of the table has a little snow on it. That's nothing special, is it?
There is snow on everything.
But if you look underneath the table....

There is a little wonderland of miniature icicles.

Each little hole in the tabletop has a little icicle dripping down from it.
How fancy and lacy it looks!

Stalactites

I don't have to go down in a cave to see stalactites.

I am sitting in the house watching icicles drip. A drop of water swells on the tip - then SPLAT! it drops on the snow below.

Just like water dripping through the rock of a cave and running down a stalactite.
The icicles are not getting shorter.

They are getting longer and fatter.

Just like a stalactite grows a little with every drip.

When the drips hit something on the way down, new icicles are forming.

At the bottom bits of ice are growing up like stalagmites.

(The 'mites go up and the 'tites go down)

In a rock cave it takes ages and ages for a stalactite or a stalgmite to grow.

The ice ones grow very quickly...drip...drip...drip.

February pool

Ready to jump in?Remember how warm it was?

Let's dream about summer, because....

today the pool is only a dream.

You're being watched

Yes, someone is in the woods watching me. Can you spot her?
Look right there.
She's waiting very quietly for me to feed the birds.

Then she's going to come eat the bird seed.

Groundhog's Day

Good bye, January! Hello, February!Today was overcast and gray,

Which is good fortune on the day

When we see how long winter will last

By the shadows groundhogs cast.

Seeing none, we anticipate:

we won't have very long to wait:

soon birds will sing their springtime song

and sun will make the green days long.

A hole in the ice

There is something new in the pond. Check it out! Looks like a big blue button.

It's really a heater. Even when the ice is thick (it is about 3 inches in this picture) the heater will keep a hole open.

The hole will let the pond breathe.

You didn't know the pond needed to breathe?

Yes, the decaying plants on the bottom of the pond give out gases that need to be exchanged with oxygen from the air so that the water is sweet and good for living things.

Is anything living in the pond in the winter?
Yes. Under all that ice and snow our tadpoles and frogs and turtles and snakes and dragonfly babies are sleeping, waiting for Spring.

So we have to take care of the water under the ice all winter.

Winter snacks

Who likes to eat suet on a snowy afternoon? "I do!" says Red-bellied Woodpecker.

"Me too!" say Carolina Wren and Downy Woodpecker.

Some prefer corn and seed.

Like Cardinal and Sparrow.

And what about Crow?

Crow wants more left-over macaroni and cheese!