Wednesday, January 7, 2015

Waterlogged

Slush Bog
Where Fog & Clouds Meet
Geologic Forces at Work
Snow Dumped in Heaps from the Roof
Waterlogged Pink
Fluffy white snow compacts into winter bog in northern Idaho. It's swampy and soupy and incredibly heavy. I look into the bright southern sunlight and a field of snow blinds me momentarily. It's warm, and I'd expect the snow to melt, but it is so dense that it transforms into slush.

Fog and clouds mingle among the trees on the ridge behind Elmira Pond. Vapor visiting vapor. Even the air is saturated at 100% humidity, as if this place were a winter jungle. While the Midwest closes schools because of wind chill factors well below zero, we are shoveling slush in tee-shirts.

The snow slides off the roof in heaps so heavy it sounds like someone is slamming a door; a disconcerting sound in the middle of the night. Who's there? Then another heap sloughs off and we realize it's just the roof shedding more slush.

My big concern is the mass building up behind our chimney. Granted, the chimney is braced, but you can see how the wet snow is folding and pressing like some geological mass. My roof is practicing plate tectonics. The force that can move mountains might take my chimney.

As the sun dips west, I rejoice that it is after 4 p.m. The days are already getting longer. As if to celebrate, the setting sun illuminates the sodden sky vapors with coppery pink. Even the color looks waterlogged.

Linking up with Abracabadra for Wordless Wednesday. Photos by Charli Mills.

10 comments:

  1. I hope that your chimney is going to be okay. Sounds like you're having what we call a January thaw. Ours is supposed to come somewhere around the 25th of the month. Time will tell but we could sure use some warmer temperatures right now.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The braces seem to be holding but it looks like such a massive amount of pressure...then I want to poke or dig at it! Hub says it leave it alone! :-) Stay warm until the thaw comes!

      Delete
  2. Charlii, your clicks are awesome although I dread being around such temperatures. My joints don't do so well :(

    Stay safe and warm and continue to click mother nature at its extreme :)

    Always a pleasure to have you on board :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Joint pain in no fun! I have a special therapeutic mattress topper that I call the "marshmallow." But when it gets cold it feels so stiff and my joints groan. :-) I'm glad you enjoy my clicks and thanks for hosting!

      Delete
  3. The photos are gorgeous Charli, especially the sky. I can't imagine the snow or the cold. You mention humidity, wind chill and tee shirts in almost the same breath. Tee shirts seem out of place to me.Can you explain please. I have no idea. I hope your chimney stays steadfast. I also wondered why you couldn't get up there and chip it away.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. See! I'm not the only one who wants at that snow behind the chimney! It would be dangerous and the Hub explains that the braces will do their function. So far, so steadfast. Tee shirts...well, oddly enough, it feels warm! I think we lived in the deep freeze of Minnesota long enough to feel like 30 degrees is balmy.

      Delete
  4. Just lost my entire comment, grrrr!!!....What I was saying was how absolutely beautiful your photos are, particularly the last one, it could be a painting! You describe the beauty of winter so wonderfully but also remind us of the perils...hope your chimney holds up. We had a snowdrift once that pushed open the back door and filled our hall way with 6 foot snowdrifts! Keep warm, cosy and safe :-)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Don't you hate that? When that happens to me my mind goes blank. Or worse, I repeat it and two similar comments appear! Pink is the predominate color here. I have seen skies so ink, I can't describe it! The lighting came through well on that last one to show. Often I'll look south at sunset and the sky is a soft shell pink and the mountains are dark blue. Such great natural prompts for me to practice describing! Oh, what an awful snowdrift! Lucky we are in a narrow valley so we don't get drifting snow, but I've seen it gobble up fences and sides of houses in Montana!

      Delete
  5. I miss the snow and then I read about the glacial tsunami (is that hyperbolic metaphor oxymoronic?!!) of snow on your chimney and appreciate my good fortune. Sort of. Snow isn't drab whereas excessive rain is. Even Dog get bored by incessant mud. Still, as Sherri says the piccies are amazing. Clearly the cameraperson's skills and nothing to do with the subject matter!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Wow! That's incessant if even Dog tires of mud! Spring and fall are that way here. In fact it rains so hard, I remember our first December when I mentioned to the Hub that if it snows the way it rains...well, it does! We've had as much as three feet from one storm. It makes my snow-shoveler weep. Hearty chimney, standing firm against that glacial tsunami!

      Delete