Quests for Inspiration Episode 4: The Silence of Winter (or) Life Finds a Way

Welcome back my wonderful readers, to the Writing My World blog! It’s time for another Quest For Inspiration, and I couldn’t be more excited! Today we are venturing down our property to the huge rock formations normally flowing with fresh creek water, that now have formed nature’s own art museum in this wintry weather. So without further ado, let’s quest for inspiration together.

My original plan was to get this done last week when there was still snow on the ground, but forgive me for chickening out of the 6 degree (F) temperatures. We definitely aren’t used to that kind of weather here and I wasn’t looking forward to the hike. But in a way I’m glad I waited, because I was able to get a lot more photos of the abundance of life that manages to thrive here even in the winter. In this photo you can see some leftover snow, the partially frozen creek that runs through our property, and one of the many ice caves around our house.

My goal with this series has been to witness the raw beauty of nature, and try to capture even a small portion of it through my love of photography. But that is only one of my goals. As a writer, I like to study things in nature and try to see them as more than they are and harness that creativity and imagination in my work. I always laugh when people say they wished magic existed, because I see magic in all of the beauty and power and strength and change in nature. And I truly don’t know how they could behold such marvels and still think magic doesn’t exist.

Of course I know what they mean. They wish they could brandish a wand and have fire explode out of the tip of it, or clap their hands together and wield the power of lightning. But I find that magic, true magic is in the mundane everyday things most people don’t even stop to see, and the fact that people don’t stop to see them makes them all the more magical to witness. Learn to appreciate the plush moss crawling across that rock. The hollowed out log perfect for a fairy house. See intricate patterns in the rough-hewn bark of a tree. And you will learn that magic is all around you.

One of the smaller of our cliffs, this is our soft open for the great icicles we’ll see as we work our way down. Let’s get a closer look…

But first, check out these rocks absolutely covered with moss! I love how shaggy it is! Even in winter our woods are dappled with green.

Icicles are so fascinating up close. Knowing that the water just continually dripped and froze and built on itself is so cool. They feel so smooth and cool in your hand and your body heat just sort of slowly melts them over time. I rarely got to see them before because they’d only form up high on the edges of roofs, so being able to just walk up to them and see them is a treat.

I also love the little moss fixture these two seem to be growing out of. It’s like a strange alien lantern.

I found this tiny little hole with a carpet of moss in a tree trunk and I had to take a picture of it. If you’re new here, it’s time to witness my obsession with things in nature that look like a place for a fairy to sleep or a tiny animal to hide. We also have this adorable tree trunk cave that I’d definitely hide in if I could fit. If I could shrink myself down to any size, I would definitely be testing all of these out.

Upon first glance you might think the cliff face below was flowing water, but the icicles give it away. This entire cliff face was completely smooth and cold to the touch, encased in ice. It’s so incredibly beautiful!

This tree branch caused the icicles to form a really interesting shape as the water ran down the tree branch and froze in a sheet.

This frozen waterfall was so cool! But I see more icicles down that way, so let’s go!

Look at the frozen leaves on this outcropping. It literally looks like part of a painting. The icicles are getting a lot bigger now as we get closer to the creek.

We have to cross the little rock bridge to get a better view of the big icicles.

One of my favorite things about writing, photography, any creative endeavor really, is you always have the opportunity to learn new things randomly throughout the day. I found this section of yellow ice fascinating and wanted to learn more. Through my extensive (and by extensive I mean like a couple minutes) research, I’ve discovered that the coloring of the ice is due to the leaching of minerals, lichen, etc. into the water and eventually the ice when it freezes. These icicles managed to reach all the way down into the creek water and you can even see where they’ve poked holes in the ice of the creek. Lethal weapons indeed!

Lots more moss covered rocks and trees! But I see some more icicles over to the right.

We’ve finally made it to the giga-icicle! This is actually the icicle my husband pointed out yesterday that I wanted to photograph specifically. But you can’t really tell just how big it is in the photo…

So I used myself for scale. It’s well over 6 feet and a good 4 feet wide! Also check out the gorgeous patterns in the ice below it.

I made my way past more icicles to a spot where I could slip behind them and take a picture. I don’t exactly know why, but this photo feels cozy to me. Perhaps it’s the large overhanging rock that makes it feel like I’m in a cave. Also the way the sun is glinting off the ice is really neat and the tree in the background looks completely white.

There was a nice collection of moss next to all of these large icicles.

All of the spiderwebs are crazy. It hasn’t been spider weather since around September and they are still hanging on. I am truly in awe of the strength of spider webs. It makes me consider that if there were giant spiders in our world, we would probably regularly fall victim to them. Spider webs can be stubborn to break when the creatures that weave them are the size of our pinky fingers. What could a spider the size of a person capture?

I am obsessed with this particular mossy patch, so I got several angles of it. I love how it has its own mini icicles hanging off of it, like it’s some sort of island. And seeing the giant icicles in the background is really awesome!

From here I got an idea to try out a makeshift igloo, so I took some more pictures while I headed down to a wide sheet of icicles all forming one mass.

Had to clear some icicles above my entrance. Safety first!

They say if you want to take good photos, you have to be willing to do whatever it takes to get the shot. And so I crawled inside of an ice cave to get some pretty pictures for my blog.

I was able to crawl forward on my belly and basically was laying inside of an “ice prison.” The broken off pieces of ice in the cave looked more manmade than something that would naturally occur.

And, as I assumed would be the case, it was a bit warmer inside of the ice cave than it was outside of it. The concept of an igloo in the wild hills of Kentucky!

I wanted this shot because it looked like I was stuck in a prison and looking out of the bars. It’s also a good example of all the different kinds of icicles I got to photograph today! Thin see through ones, thick cloudy ones, straight ones, curvy ones, they’re all different and interesting in their own ways.

After leaving my ice cave, the cliff face gets a lot lower and closer to the water which means the ice layers get much thicker, and the icicles get shorter.

I made my way to the fence of our property and spotted yet another tree trunk cave, so of course I had to photograph it.

This was a very interesting log with snow, lots of cave holes, moss, and a strange texture covering the root end of it.

I had no idea that ferns would thrive this much in such cold weather before I came here. We had three single digit days in a row and the ferns are still having the time of their lives.

I also found a cool sparkly rock that I first thought was a frozen mushroom. Unfortunately, the camera did not pick up the aforementioned sparkle.

Some more of the big rocks around our property in the creek…

There was also this strange tree branch that must have fallen from a tree and stuck in the ground, that is such a vibrant shade of green it almost looks fake.

Unfortunately I couldn’t reach this gorgeous root cave to photograph it properly, but you can kind of see the general shape of it in the pictures I got.

I think this might be holly! It was the only thing besides moss and ferns that seemed to be surviving the cold without much issue.

And finally, another log with a cute cave in it and a picture of our frozen creek.

This was a long one, so if you made it to the end, thank you so much! I absolutely love taking pictures as an alternative creative outlet, and having a place to post them where others might be able to enjoy them has been a huge bonus!

If you liked this post and want to see more Quests for Inspiration, I have 3 other episodes on the blog for you to enjoy! They can be found here, here, and here respectively.

I’m off to work on my novel now, but I will be chipping away at more posts in the coming days including my recent experience with cozy, slice of life media and a 2024 year-end review of my writing. Thank you again for reading and I hope to see you next time!

Happy reading!