Winter is the quiet season

Winter is the quiet season. Activity slows. The shadows of the barren trees are cast hard and dark on the snow-covered ground. When the temperature drops below freezing, water that was once flowing in giggles and lapping its way over through an obstacle course of rock can be brought to a halt. The frigid temperatures and the flowing water join in an artistic partnership creating their own ice sculptures, glass-like and frozen in time. I grew up along a stream outside of Carlisle, Pa., a child of the water’s edge, and the son of a fly fisherman, who taught me to be an observer of nature’s details. Discovering the wonder of the frozen creations of winter can best be approached with the childhood “sense of wonder” naturalist Rachel Carson wrote about. That wonder can best be savored with slow-paced observation and on hands and knees. The effort and discomfort. A small price for the bountiful returns. These photographs were taken along Beatty Run, a small, humble stream in the shadow of mature poplars and beeches. The water snakes its way through 45-acre Houston Park, Wallingford, Delaware County, before flowing into Ridley Creek and ultimately the Delaware River. Though worthy of being preserved for their beauty, like many of winter’s offerings, these ice creations are short-lived and impermanent. The temperatures will rise and the water will be freed from its stationary state as if a spell has been lifted. Nature’s ice exhibit will be temporarily closed as it prepares for its next display of wonder.