Mission: Connecting people to Nature
Kingston, Arkansas. Where I paint with Ozark pigments … and talk to rocks, creeks, and trees.
Madison Woods for art, Roxann Riedel for real estate (soon!) Two names, same person. Just call me “Mad Rox”.

Contact info: madison@wildozark.com or text/call (479) 409-3429

Category: Winter

  • Ozark Winter Storm | Jan 24 2023

    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…

  • Kings River in Winter | Ozark pigments in oil

    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.…

  • 2022 Yule Tidings | Solstice Review

    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…

  • It’s not really raining | Sporadic Musings

    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.

  • Leave the Water On

    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.

  • Winter Solstice 2018, New Year, and the Color Black

    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…

  • 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…

  • 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…

  • Frozen Fog in the Distance

    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.

  • Things I’ve Learned (Since Moving to the Country)

    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…

  • 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…

  • 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,…

  • 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…

  • Sun Sparkles

    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…

  • 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…

  • 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…

  • 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.…

  • 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.

  • 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…

  • Kings River Falls – Photos from our hike

    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…

  • 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”.

  • 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,…

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • 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…