Woke up to a little bit of snow on the ground this morning – first of the season. Not enough to worry about except for where it melted, refroze and caused traffic accidents on area roads. Ice is ice and causes more problems in the Ozarks than snow normally does.

When I attended college in the Arkansas River Valley just south of the Ozark hills, it taught me how one’s view of weather is so relative. Russellville, Arkansas has a much milder winter than we do here in the north Arkansas Ozarks. Before attending college, I had just moved back from Schwaebisch Gmuend, Germany so the mild winters seemed even milder still. But one day while crossing the Arkansas Tech University campus in the spitting snow, I heard a Texan say, “When I moved to ATU, I didn’t know I was moving to the Arctic.” I had an uncle from Mississippi that said north Arkansas was the coldest place on earth. And so it goes. Retirees from Omaha, Nebraska laugh at our snowfalls, while denizens of Sault Ste Marie winter in Nebraska for the pleasant weather. Sault Ste Marie can receive 17 feet of snow in a single winter.

Today while stretching my legs, I ended up at this bluff down the hollow. Like the other bluffs that edge the hollow, there is a small spring at the base of it, the very water that carved out the rocks.

Below is an aerial photograph of the hollow. It will give you an idea of where this small bluff is located in relation to our house and barn. Also note how this bluff is almost invisible when seen from above.

The dogs found this little skull. I think it is a possum as it has the canine and the four molars on the lower jaw. Not sure what else it could be. The size is about right. Possums (or Didelphis virginiana for all you Latin speakers) are interesting creatures.

I once walked into a muffler shop and heard a man say, “I’ve eaten groundhog, but I’ve never tasted possum.” That statement doesn’t seem so out of place in the rural Ozarks, but might be surprising to hear in some places. Do people talk about such things in muffler shops in Boston? I don’t know for sure.

Up in a Siberian Elm in the hollow there is a large mushroom growing. The cap is about a foot wide. The Siberian Elm (Granny called it a Chinese Elm) is a native tree of Siberia and China that is not near as handsome a tree as the American Elm, but is resistant to Dutch Elm Disease. Photographs are courtesy of Mary J Weems.

 The view from the ridge above the hollow looking eastward. Photograph courtesy of Mary J Weems.