Winter’s Rainbow: Finding Vivid Color, Surprising Patterns, and Extraordinary Texture in the Colder Months

A deer hides in the woods, camouflaged well by the muddy leaves that carpet the forest floor, while dormant trees of all sizes disguise her spindly legs. Given her size you wouldn’t expect the doe to disappear so completely into the surrounding environment. Perhaps you imagined seeing her – perhaps she was never there at all.

Muted grey skies and the uniform pallet of the winter months keep many hikers at home.

Yet it’s not all neutral colors, in dull arrangements, with gloomy skies that encourage an equally muted mood. There are splashes of orange that explode like fireworks in the winter fields. Thick green moss covers fallen branches and snowy white fungi work their way up the side of a fallen tree. A rusted awning, now used for target practice, draws the park goer’s attention from the path, to explore.

Winter is very much alive in the metaphorical sense, while quietly resting, and in the more literal sense at Rocky Fork Metro Park.

Snow does have the ability to blanket the landscape in white, but it takes a lot of inches and cold temperatures, to keep the snow from melting upon impact with the soft ground, to cover the city in accumulating drifts. Otherwise the colors peek through, like they want to be seen! Even an excessively snowy landscape can be tinted yellow and orange by a peeking sun or awash in blues, grays, and purples on a cloudy day. Look slowly, carefully and you’ll see it.

Texture, whether it is smooth or like sandpaper, jagged or velvety, adds interest when you are out on a hike! Don’t be afraid to reach out and touch it! Take it in your hands and experience it, but leave it in the parks… and leave no trace behind.

As a nature enthusiast I have to say that I don’t believe – not for a minute – that the winter landscape in Ohio is void of vibrant color. It peeks, it creeps, it startles you, and it entices you to explore! The lake effect of Chicago, Milwaukee, or Cleveland might make winter exploration more challenging, but temperatures are typically pretty mild in Central Ohio. Get out there and find the color!!

Nature’s yearly cycle in the Midwest, from fall to winter, from a period of gradual death and an inevitable slowing down to complete hibernation, invites diversity of color. Fall leaves hang on into late December and into the new year! Mosses may slow their creep across a fallen tree, but they remain a vibrant green. Plants gone to seed don’t drop all at once in the fall – some hang on and drop onto soft, wet earth in the spring. Pods, starbursts, nuts, and thorns decorate the scene. White mushrooms keep their hold on the structures, or the earth, they cling to.

When I’m still I hear rustling in the blanket of fallen leaves, but I never see the source of the noise — the squirrels, or birds, or mice are well camouflaged. Pausing at the edge of the pond I hear a “plunk” as a frog jumps from a rock back into the water. It’s December, but warm enough that this fella has come out of his hibernation.

On Christmas Eve day I had the pleasure of wandering around the woods of Terradise Nature Center, on a short solo wander into nature. It was calming to stand quietly and take in the ravine and woods behind the house that has been converted into an AirBNB and an educational space. The pond was half covered in green algae, standing still for the season. I broke the silence when I chuckled at the name of the place — “Terra” for earth, a play on “Paradise.”

I could almost smell the wintery mix of colors and textures – all green and mossy, auburn and leafy, brown and earthy, gray and damp. A bright red splash of color caught my eye — berries that the birds would enjoy all season long, that would grow and spread if unattended. The birds wouldn’t mind!
Terradise includes a small greenhouse attached to the house. It was packed up for the winter but would spring to life in the spring, with the energy of children and nature lovers descending to take classes, work on projects, and build their knowledge of the local flora and fauna.

The nature center is about an hour north of Columbus, OH, discovered by our-of-town family visiting for the holiday. It was a special retreat, a getaway that was unexpected, convenient, and a novelty. I welcomed all of this, as we inched our way toward the new year.

There is a lot of history, which I’ll explore on their website on a colder, more blustery day, which will no doubt come in due time! Ray Romine, who founded the place, wrote more than 3,000 poems. I have some reading to do!

I can’t think of a better place than the woods, secluded but with loved ones nearby, to settle in and read a poem or two! I’ll breathe deep the scents of winter. I’ll notice the rainbow of colors all around me. I’ll invite you to do the same!