OH HELLS YES
So, I woke up this morning and looked out the window of the dorm room to see a pale, white, heavily overcast sky. "Oh, great," I thought to myself, "not only is it going to be cold today, but it's not even going to be sunny!" But then, I got up out of bed, and lo and behold when I actually paid any attention to the scene outside I saw this:
Yes, the Jötunn, the frost giants, saw it fit to send down from Jötunheimr a white storm, with nor'westerly winds driving soft, powdery snow down to the city of Bangor to decorate our slumbering trees and streets, and to remind us arrogant humans of the vast powers of even this small globe that are yet beyond our control. So, of course, I went down to the University Preserve, with its glowing, healthful pines and hemlocks, to take some photos, which I now share with you.
For see here how the ruddy bark of the hemlocks and white pines, and their dark, bluing needles, contrast so wonderfully with the harsh white of the snow.
And here, a dense stand of seedling hemlocks have their flexible boughs weighed down by the snow which will insulate them and keep them warm through the winter. This is one of the secrets of the northern conifers; they do not attempt to slough off the weight of snow, like the famous steep-roofed churches of Scandinavia; no, they allow it to cover them, and insulate their hardy needles against the worst of the winter's freezes.
And I believe this photo of the still densely green middle-canopy speaks for itself.
Here is the forest floor, denuded of greenery compared to the mighty evergreens above, but now decorated by the light dusting of which renders the more obvious its complicated topography of exposed roots and downed branches. Note, too, how directional the wind is, with only the left (northern) side of the trunks covered in snow.
And lastly, we have this simply adorable gray squirrel hunched up on a low branch of a rugged hemlock, keeping itself warm and gnawing on some seed or nut recovered from storage. Is so cute.
Gnawing on some seed or nut recovered from storage since 1986,
--mark