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.