freezing rain

Tuesday December 17, 2019

Dave Bonta December 17, 2019

Freezing rain. A squirrel sits motionless on an icy branch as if deep in thought. From up on the ridge, a crack followed by a crash.

Dave Bonta December 1, 2019

After hours of rain, woods and meadow are shrink-wrapped in ice. The black birch twigs creak as chickadees land to liberate a few seeds.

Dave Bonta November 24, 2018

The trees are turning silver and beginning to droop with the weight of freezing rain. A few juncos, undaunted, are bathing in the stream.

Dave Bonta December 6, 2014 1

The rain that drummed on the roof all night continues, but no longer turns everything it touches to ice like a cheap King Midas.

Dave Bonta December 3, 2014 2

A faint shimmer of precipitation, and everything encased in a layer of ice as if the world’s been shrink-wrapped for overnight delivery.

Dave Bonta February 5, 2014

Freezing rain on a bed of sleet: like listening to thousands of pins dropping. A nuthatch ascends a tree head-first like a brown creeper.

Dave Bonta February 22, 2013 1

A rattle of sleet gives way to the hush of snow, then the tapping of freezing rain, then back to snow. A squirrel never stops its scolding.

Dave Bonta December 7, 2012

By 11:00, the freezing rain has stopped and the rain of melting ice is underway—the woods are a-rattle with it. A crow won’t stop yelling.

Dave Bonta February 2, 2011 8

The rain has stopped; the forest cracks and crashes. Fallen branches ring the dead cherry, each bearing a row of broken teeth.

Dave Bonta February 1, 2011 2

The sleet whose ticking woke me at 6:00 has stopped. Five degrees below freezing. I stick out my arm and hear raindrops hitting my sleeve.