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Snow, Ice Water
January 2001
"The over-all picture is winter / icy mountains…" wrote the poet William Carlos Williams when describing a painting by Peter Breughel. That's what one sees in the Catskills as the coldest time of the year arrives. Winter creates its own patterns. The streams are still there - when they are not frozen - but framed in white, they have a different personality. Somehow the water seems more precious. The bare branches of trees are freezing but stalwart. They will stand fast against the wind, hibernating during the season when growth is suspended. The pines are covered with a blanket of snow that changes their forms - they almost disappear under the heavy weight.
When the sky is clear, the sun creates a blinding white on the snow-covered fields. Clouds hover above as echoes of the scene below. Amazing icicles form on bushes. The sounds of nature are gone. The poet, Robert Service calls it "the Great White Silence, not a snow-gemmed twig aquiver".
It's a great time for photographers -- new and fresh and different each year.
– David Finn
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