A Wintergreen Adventure

My daughter and I ventured out in search of the plant that I think is wintergreen that I saw growing out in the woodlands on one of our previous adventures.

It was cold, but not overly, and only a scant bit of snow covered the ground. Wintry colors met us as we made our way into the woods (clicking on any of the pictures will enlarge it, then click the back arrow to return):


Our dog likes to lead the way:

We came across interesting things like these fractal-like growths on an old, dead tree:

And these berries with a leaf which had fallen onto a snowy, frozen stream-bed:

This flat expanse tells of a frozen pond underneath:

A mossy peninsula jutted out into the frozen pond:

We came across a little, thatched fairy village:

Or maybe they were just cold tribbles:

My daughter has the patience to find and take the artistic shots, like this leaf caught on the rusty nails of an old hunting stand:

And this one of our dog framed by a circular vine. A very low hunting stand is behind him - don't know why they bothered to place it so low to the ground:

My daughter always finds bones. Here is a vertebra and what I think is a tibia (both deer):

The leaf detritus was very thick, but we did manage to find a few plants peeking through both the snow and the leaves:

I thought I had found some wintergreen nestled between the roots of a tree - but it wasn't wintergreen:

We did find a spotty tree:

And one that looked like it had eyes:

My daughter scolded me for not noticing this and almost stepping on it:

The squirrels have missed this little feast:

Oh, look! Is that a bit of green? Maybe spring is around the corner:

Good thing, it looks like the reserves are running low:

On our way out of the woods, we spotted this inviting trail which we've never taken before. We'll save that for another adventure on another day:

The best pictures from our wintergreen adventure today were taken by my daughter:

We both tried to snap a photo of this lovely cluster of three red rose hips, which were so colorful in the bleak winter landscape. All of our shots came out blurry, except for this one my daughter took:

Against the fallow farmer's field we found this crab apple tree full of shriveled fruits. The lower branches were empty, but these are too high for the deer to reach:

We didn't find any wintergreen, but we'll try again another day, another season, because we like to go on adventures.