January Jewels

February 5, 2025

The ice multiverse (2025)

Winter below the snow line

For reasons my orthopedic consultants are familiar with, I regularly ride my bike for conditioning. That said, since I moved back to Washington 35 years ago I don’t remember ever traveling by bicycle on the last day of January. Spokane sits roughly at 1,800 feet above sea level. Through December and all of January, the snow line was at or above 2,000 feet. Even in late January there were patches of ground where vibrant green grass was growing, while lichens and moss were proliferating in trees, shrubs and exposed rock outcrops. Near the end of the month, the skies began to clear at night, stars and planets appeared, earthly water on the margins of creeks and river froze. So that’s the context for the images below.

When I woke up this morning, I heard the rumble of snow plows. That’s a whole different scene…

Great blue heron, bundling itself for warmth

Icy morning near the confluence of Latah Creek & Spokane River

Female Kingfisher diving to water flowing between the ice margins

Ice goblins on red twig dogwood branches

Browsing 7-point buck in thicket below the rimrock, Riverside State Park

Rough-legged hawk springing to flight from a wintering black locust tree

Today’s post is free to all viewers but please consider supporting this project by funding an annual subscription to The Daily Rhubarb at the link above—tjc

Red-breasted Nuthatch retrieving a stashed seed from locust tree bark

Female mergansers striking a pose on lower Latah Creek

Golden-eye diving ducks, lower Latah Creek

Grant Elementary School dance troupe, Martin Luther King, Jr. parade

—tjc

All photography by author, unless otherwise noted…