Yesterday it was almost 60*F, and inspired a little walkabout in the Ozark winter to see how the pond and creeks looked, and our little driveway glacier.

For the past few days, the temperatures have been mild, above freezing. But last week and the week before we had snow and cold. When it’s cold for at least a week or two, our ice and snow lingers. And it’s not only that.

We have a little microclimate here in our area. The cold air pools in the valleys and hollers, making the temperatures colder than the surrounding, more open areas. So, while it was 55*F on hour thermometer at the house, and it felt silly to bundle up so much, I was glad for the coat, scarf, hat, and gloves once out and about.

Ozark Winter Walkabout

First, we went down to see our little driveway glacier. It was still a sheet of ice. But with the warmer air, there was a thin film of water on the surface of it, making everything VERY slick and slippery.

I made a post about it the other day, with an updated video from yesterday:

The waterfall is right past the glacier, and I found some pretty patterns in the ice and icicles.

The Creek

Still lots of ice on the creek. The water levels have dropped some, and the water flowing under the ice made interesting shadows. To me, it looked like fish flowing past. Here’s a very short video I made to show you how it looked:

The Pond

It’s not very often that our pond freezes hard enough to walk on it, but if it did that every year, I’d want a pair of ice skates!

Rob walked out a little ways on it. But there’s a lot of thawed spots in it now, so it’s not safe to go far.

There was a bird, a large one of some sort, walking around too. It looks like it might have slipped and fell a few times, or else maybe some turkeys were taking snow baths on the ice… I’m not sure, but the swipe marks were either intentional or accidental wipeouts on the slippery ice. My curiosity burns to know what happened.

Anyway, that’s about it for this little Ozark winter walkabout. Share links to your blog in the comments if you have some pics to share of your winter scenes!