A couple of days ago, I decided to take a walk around the pond at Mount Holyoke College in nearby South Hadley, MA. It's usually one of my favorite walks, but sadly -- due to recent heavy snow, then warming, followed by freezing -- the path around the pond had turned into a rough-edged nightmare of uneven and very slippery ice where previous walkers had left their multitudinous boot prints in slushy snow which had then frozen solid and slick. I realized after struggling on this surface for a hundred feet or so that (a) it was not going to get any more pleasant and (b) I was very likely going to fall on my ass, so I decided to walk elsewhere.
And that was fine, as it gave me a chance to take some photographs of ice formations I found interesting at various spots on the river which runs from the aforementioned pond through the middle of the campus.
As I walked past the college's greenhouse, my eye was drawn through a slightly frosted window to a group of curious flowers, with bulbous, almost pumpkin-shaped blooms. I walked on, but a few minutes later, curiosity won me over. I returned and went into the greenhouse. I'd never been inside before, but the sign on the door said "Public Welcome", so I spent about twenty minutes exploring the various rooms and the beautiful plant life contained therein.
I took a number of photographs, though I neglected to get any shots of the labels for each of the plants. Still, I think the shapes and colors speak for themselves… and they say "What a nice, warm place to be on such a cold and icy day!" -- PL
