I didn’t get out to take pictures till Sunday, after the storm up at Hubbard Park, so it doesn’t seem like spring is coming in my pictures, but throughout the rest of the week I could observe that it was, which was really exciting. One of the wonderful things about living in one place my whole life is that, even when I don’t realize it, I’m really in tune with the phenological processes.
I live very close to the Winooski River, I can look down the hill to see it right from my backyard in Montpelier, across the river from Bar Hill. Over the course of the week, I was able to watch the ice melt and breakup. I saw large patches of the river that were completely clear, patches that were completely iced, and sections where there were ice dams forming. It was awesome to be able to see such a range of how the ice melts without even leaving my home.
One of my favorite phenological events every year is when the buds start to pop up. Just before the snow came, I was able to see this starting to happen, especially next to buildings. I also have been able to hear (and see!) so many more birds in the morning than the last time I came home.
One of the sweetest parts about the springtime is the sap that starts to run. I saw a bunch of tubing and buckets all around, pretty much everywhere I went. I also tried to go to sugar on snow, but the Bragg farm website lied. I still got to have a donut frosted with maple butter which was wonderful. A less wonderful things about spring is that all of the back dirt roads were utterly terrible, especially when we visited a friend in Worcester. Another human centered phenology thing that I noticed was that more and more people were out and about in town, walking and chatting in the beautiful weather.
Also, as we are starting to warm up it facilitates a lot of melting, and the precipitation sometimes shifts to rain, which means that I also saw a lot of vernal pools starting to form.
The snow always feels like a regression back into winter a little bit, but I feel like having a last huge snowstorm is probably a phenological event in and of itself. It happens pretty much every single year, and it’s another way we mark the passing of time. On that note, please enjoy some beautiful pictures from my walk up to the Hubbard Park tower with my mom after the storm:
