Early Winter Walk

I know. The calendar says it's still autumn, but this far north, winter is underway. Still, I shouldn't complain. The storms that have been raging throughout much of the western half and upper plains of the United States, have swung around us. We were hit with 8 inches a few days back, but it melted quickly, leaving the extra moisture to spread green though out the grasses and moss species of the region. I decided to take advantage of things and got out there with my camera. 
Why don't you come along?

It may have been a nice day, but winter was certainly licking at the edges of forest.

But it wasn't hard to find patches of brilliant green moss, resilient in the face of the bitter cold.

I can always count on the forest fungi to add a splash of color. I like to think of the middle photo as a nasty set of green teeth, and this one as snow dripping from delicate cups of fungus.

I call this photo Fuzzy Rock. It's coated with a soft fringe of algae at the edge of the river. It waved and dipped with the current, and I had a difficulty looking away. 

Seed heads are some of my favorite photo opportunities in the winter woods. 

Of course, I wasn't alone. Never. Never Alone in the Forest.

At the end of my journey, I wished this oak a silent slumber. Winter is a time of rebirth as those seeds fall to the ground and begin their migration deep into the soil with the the cycles of freeze and thaw. Even in slumber, the forest never rests.