Winter in South Carolina

All of my memories as a kid at Christmas were of me getting wonderful “outside toys” and if I wanted to play with them anytime within the next three months, then I had do it in a cool misty rain. So my childhood memories are filled with lots of really muddy toys.

I didn’t expect anything less this morning, but against my better judgment, I decided to take a short walk at Lake Conestee Nature Park and check out the newer trail designations. When I got out of the truck, it was a damp 40 degrees and I immediately stepped into a muddy tire wallow. I was then thinking to myself that a fire at home this morning would be awfully delightful and that maybe I should put my muddy foot back in the truck but, I didn’t. I have always been partial to the road less traveled with fewer folks about and fewer awkward trail greetings. If at least this was not a road less traveled, then it was at least a day less traveled and I got out.

I did get to see the gratuitous winter sights: Mostly stark naked trees shivering in the damp cold with their clothes strewn all about them like so many brown and tattered fig leaves. The sumac and the forbidding locust looked particularly naked with their fruit exposed to the cold. The exceptions of course were eastern red cedar (which we always used as Christmas trees in my youth), the light brown clothed beeches, bright red (invasive) nandina, and dark green American Holly filled with bright red berries. There were also the usual green patches in the brown litter: Christmas fern, woolly mullein, wild and alien lichens, wintergreen, rattlesnake plantain, maiden hair fern, wild strawberry, arrow leaf, common running pine, grape fern, cross vine and the invasive Japanese honeysuckle and privet. The only hint of insect life that I saw was a praying mantis egg sack. There were also Mallard ducks (which always for some reason make me think of December 1978), Canada geese, the pair of Cardinals tearing into tree seeds like a late Christmas card, woodpeckers and crows and those ubiquitous little brown birds which are colored with the same damp greyish-brown color of winter in SC.

The first thing that I saw which surprised and delighted me was a ground squirrel foraging about. He looked a lot thinner than the ones that I had seen during October, but he was fast enough to outrun the focus of my camera. I, feeling a bit of mammalian camaraderie and against all of my training, left a fig newton (for safe keeping of course) where I first saw him, telling myself that I would withdraw it on my return. With a little more spring in my step, I continued my walk and I quickly came upon a celebration in full ecstasy. With all of the moisture of a cold January rain, the mosses were throwing a party. I, having a particular interest in mosses (but no skill), was completely delighted. The red sporophytes rivaled the nandina’s glorious red, and the greens were almost lit from within and so bright that they looked out of place in this winter setting. Some of the mosses had violet grey tufts which reminded me of a meadow filled with wild flowers. The textures were soft and various that I had to touch every single one of them (lightly). I took a great deal of photos to see if I can improve my identification and “back story” skills but I left their actual selves in situ, desiring to take them all away with me, but I knew that I should not.

I eventually decided that I had taken away all that I could within the memory card of my camera, and headed back to the truck. On my way, I saw a blooming blue violet and to my utter surprise, I met a pleasant little king snake sunning on some leaves. He/She/They had the most interesting eyes which mesmerized me to see their coloration. I checked my phone though remembering the chill. The air temperature was still a cool 43 degrees. I captured a photo of him eyeing me with those strange eyes and I moved on to finish my walk. Just as I got near the place where I had seen the skinny ground squirrel, I noticed that the fig cake was gone.

Location courtesy of Lake Conestee Nature Park in Greenville County South Carolina.