Luscious grass

There are a few spots by the Summit Transfer Station where the grass is lush and green and verdant… in February. Everywhere else, the flora is brown and dry and dead.

I don’t know if there’s some weird underground heating pipe, or if this is some mutant grass that thrives on cold weather, or if we just haven’t had weather cold enough to kill grass, or what.

It’s also worth noting that the grass is deceptively concealing a swamp. If you actually try to walk on this grass, your shoe will sink and be completely submerged in watery mud. (Surprise!)

Snowdrops 2!

If it’s mid-February, it must be Snowdrop Time!

I was initially going to chalk this up to the whole “unseasonably warm” thing, but apparently it’s perfectly normal for snowdrops to be out in February. Hence, I suppose, SNOWdrops.

Briefly, there was some winter.

We got snow this morning! It pretty much entirely melted between the time I took this shot and the time I finished my walk half an hour later, though.

As context for those of you not in New Jersey, I should mention that these past few months have been unseasonably warm. I don’t even think the weather has stayed below freezing for 48 hours straight. This insignificant dusting was one of mayyybe three snowfalls we’ve had since November.

…Being the crotchety old geezer I am, I’m totally okay with this situation.

Shards

Sometimes, when you walk by a thawing puddle, the morning light catches the melting shards of ice just so, and it’s kind of cool.

Just hikin’

Just another scene from the Watchung Reservation. (It was much colder than this photo looks.)

Cold as ice!

Near the ruins of Seeley’s old mill, there’s a little dribble of water over what I’ve seen referred to as a ‘basalt escarpment.’ (An “escarpment,” according to Wikipedia, is a steep slope caused by erosion or faulting. I’m not sure how natural this escarpment is, since there’s a quarry of some sort just down the brook.)

In the freezing cold, it has all dribbled into ice formations, but tiny spurts of unfrozen water still spray all over the place.

I don’t know what the water source for this is. Must be a small runoff or something.

Oh who cares. It’s pretty!

A train story

Once upon a time, when a train was stopped in New Providence, NJ, the engineer decided there was something wrong with his train. He sent the conductor outside to investigate. The conductor discovered a loose strip of metal. He finagled it back into place, and the train went on its way, and all the passengers arrived safely at their respective stations, and everyone lived happily ever after.

THE END.

Snow station

After Sunday’s excitement, and yesterday’s rain that melted a fair amount of our snow… well, that’s not going to stop me from posting a few more days’ worth of snow photos.

This is totally snow on and around the New Providence train station.

River

Er, well, this is what the Passaic River looks like after it’s had a snow.

Snow day!

For the first time since October, we got a real snow today! The roads were a little slippery this morning, so I took the train into Summit to finish my errands. As of right now (1PM), it seems to have stopped snowing, but the sky is still threateningly overcast.

Here are some guys snowblowing and salting the Summit station platform. Nobody wants rail passengers to slip and tumble onto the tracks!