Dry, Drier, Dried

In the midst of winter, the world seems full of dry things: leaves, branches, grasses, flower heads, interior air…sometimes, even my motivation to move beyond the couch and the computer chair into the larger, colder world outside is pretty dried up.

On a recent hiking trip, despite melting snow and ice and moisture drizzling and dripping everywhere, plenty of dry objects could be found. There were the expected dried pine needles hanging like brown hair tufts from a dried branch, sad-looking chunks of dried grass along a mountain trail, old pine cones so dry that they could easily be used as kindling, a jumble of brittle, dry branches hanging at odd angles from trees, and last autumn’s brown leaves scattered across the forest floor between patches of melting snow. However, I also found some rather unexpected sights that I wanted to share with you.

This accumulation of wooden sticks reminded me of an oversized insect (well, maybe it’s missing a leg or two).

Driftwood insect

The dogs must have dragged this desiccated frog from the pond uphill to the house where I found it:

And despite having landed in a rock puddle of water, this leaf and seed pod may still qualify as dried objects:

My favorite find was this rock rose lichen which adds a bit of subtle beauty to the sometimes sullen winter world:

This post was created in response to Ailsa’s Travel Theme: Dry.