Category: Winter
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Ozark Winter Storm | Jan 24 2023
Progress on my painting of Kings River in winter came to a grinding halt a few days ago when we got our first Ozark winter storm of the season. We’ve had some freezes, and a little snow, but those little incidents don’t compare. In previous years, we’ve had worse storms when not only did the…
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Kings River in Winter | Ozark pigments in oil
The new year of 2023 kicked off the first oil paintings in my Kings River Four Seasons series. The one I chose to start with first is the winter scene. I’ll rotate through them to work on one while layers on others dry. Here’s Kings River in Winter as photographed and here’s the first pass.…
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2022 Yule Tidings | Solstice Review
Happy Solstice Day! It’s that time of year again, when the longest night of the year is upon us. Which in turn means that today is the shortest day of the year. After this, the days will incrementally grow a little longer until Summer Solstice rolls around. I’m so ready for the days to get…
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It’s not really raining | Sporadic Musings
As the sun rises over the ridge-top to our east the frost on our metal roof quickly responds. It sounds like rain as the melted drops fall onto the lower roof. But it’s not. The sun is shining brightly outside and there are no clouds in sight. It’s only frost melt.
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Leave the Water On
You’d think by now I’d remember to do that when the first true cold snap arrives. But no, I always forget, just like I forgot last night.
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Winter Solstice 2018, New Year, and the Color Black
Full Moon and Meteor Shower at Winter Solstice 2018 Winter solstice 2018 in Northern Hemisphere will be at 4:23 PM on Friday, December 21. This is the longest night of the year, and although I typically think of it as a dark night, it won’t be this year. With a full moon and meteor shower going…
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An End of Year Post: Things going on at Wild Ozark
It’s been a busy past few months at Wild Ozark. I haven’t posted as often as I normally do, and when the blog goes silent, it’s usually because there’s just too many other things on my plate. Just in case I don’t get a chance to make another post to commemorate the end of the…
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Day 13: Nature Journal Series
Signs of Life About this journal entry The signs of life during the coldest parts of winter always intrigue me. I love seeing the green grass shoots found under a layer of snow or peeking out from the shelter of tumbled rocks. I’m not sure why I left the chickweed uncolored in my drawing. I…
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Frozen Fog in the Distance
We’re not getting snow this winter, but we’ve gotten a few glimpses of frozen fog, or hoar frost, at least.
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Things I’ve Learned (Since Moving to the Country)
These are the things I’ve learned since moving out here to Wild Ozark. I used to think I lived in “the country”, before we moved out here. That was thirteen years ago and I quickly realized once we burnt the bridges and sold our house, that we had no clue what it meant to live…
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Black and White Cloudscape #nowordsneeded
#nowordsneeded and the title of the photo are all I put on these posts. If you’d like to participate in this Twitter and Blogging meme, use the hashtag in your title and leave a comment with a link to your post. It’s open any day of the week. I post them randomly, so no…
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The Last Snow of 2017
This morning I woke to the sparkly glitz of snow flurries. We’ve hardly had any snow at all this winter so far. Just a bare dusting a week or two ago, and that’s it. When the sun came out, the flying snow shone like diamonds in the sky. Couldn’t capture it the way it looked,…
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Using a Spring for Water – Winter Issues
Using a spring for water requires more effort than relying on tap water. Sometimes, just because you turn on the faucet, that doesn’t mean the water will come out like it’s supposed to. Yesterday, while Rob worked on changing the O2 sensors on his truck, I burned some calories. It was only twenty degree as…
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Sun Sparkles
On this day in 2015, we had snow and sun sparkles. So far this year it’s been unseasonably warm and no snow so far. That could change this weekend, though – snow is in the forecast! Since we haven’t had any this year yet, I’m rerunning the photos from a couple of years ago. Sun…
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Through Ice and Mud We Go – Bringing Hay to Horses
Through Ice and Mud Whether through ice and mud, or snow, or rain or wind, kind of like the postman’s creed to deliver mail, we must deliver hay to the horses. It’s easy to stay in touch with the wheel of time when you repeat a certain activity outdoors throughout the year. I like this facet…
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Bringing Hay to Horses in Snow
After yesterday’s post where I reveled in the fact that we’d actually had a decent snowfall, we went out in the cold to bring hay to horses. The temperature was about 15*F with a windchill factor of I don’t know what, but I’m sure ridiculously cold. Rob takes the tractor and I go ahead of…
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Can’t see the Trees for the Forest, or rather, Snowflakes for the Snow
Yesterday we only had a little bit of snow and each little snowflake was easy to see and photograph. Now it is like not being able to see the trees for the forest. Can’t see the snowflakes for the snow. Snow Makes the Cold More Bearable … for a little while But I love it.…
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Special Little Snowflakes
First Snowfall 2017 A couple of snowflakes flurried around the other day, but today is the day I’m counting as Wild Ozark’s first official snowfall of 2017.
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Rewind: Between Autumn and Winter: A Liminal Space
We’re in a holding pattern at Wild Ozark right now, which is in its own way a sort of liminal space. Rob has two hernias and we’re waiting for the surgeon’s office to call with his appointment day/time. So while he limits his movements to the barest possible, I’m staying nearby to fetch things so…
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Kings River Falls – Photos from our hike
On Sunday I went hiking with my two oldest children and their children, one of my daughter’s friends and her children, and my parents to the Kings River Falls. This trail is a little north and east of Fallsville, AR in Madison county. Here’s a link the Arkansas Natural Heritage website for the trail. Kings…
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The Sound of Winter
Some sounds are distinctly “winter”. Sometimes the sound of winter is marked by the absence of sound. Maybe it’s more correctly described as the “silence of winter”.
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Warm Egg on a Cold Day
There is something quite satisfying about finding a warm egg in the henhouse on a blustery 15*F morning. I tried something new to help me wake up a little earlier this morning. It wasn’t until 5 a.m. when the strange noises began that I’d remembered what I’d done, though. Fresh coffee brewing in the bedroom,…
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Snow is Beautiful but Hoar Frost is Magical
The entire scene was made up of tiny light-catching ice sparkles. Every tree was coated, every shrub and blade of grass. There were even sparkles floating in the air.
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Winter Solstice 2015 – A Widdershin sort of Time
Winter Solstice 2015 occurs at 10:03 p.m. CST – It’s a widdershin sort of time, an unwinding, a releasing. A loosening of the grip on things unwanted.
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Looking forward to solstice
Pulled this one from the archives. It’s from when I worked in Bentonville, leaving before dawn and getting home after dusk. I hated that and am glad to be working from home now, but I still look forward to mid-winter’s eve. Hurry Up Solstice. – 2009-12-16 13:34 It was nearly 6:45 this morning before pre-dawn…