A Yates Mill Pond first for me: ice on the pond and minor patches of it on the trail

When I stopped at Yates Mill Pond Park yesterday for my daily walk, I had no intention of taking pictures because I’d done plenty of picture-making on other recent visits. But ... when you see something you hadn’t seen before, which happened Friday, it was hard not to pull out the iPhone camera and start snapping away.

The primary thing I hadn’t seen at the park before was ice on the pond, and there’s a bit of it in the lead-off photo. That murky, sheened section close to the shore was the only ice in this photo, which is the much larger section of pond on one side (south) of the main pedestrian bridge. 

I selected this photo to lead things off because of what I considered to be much more compelling compositional elements — silhouettes, reflections and cloud patterns — than the ice.

Ice on water was more prevalent elsewhere in the park, as shown in the series of photos immediately below this point. The first seven images below were taken on the smaller (north) side of the pond near the primary wooden pedestrian bridge. The remaining ice-on-water pictures were streams found on the early portion of the walking trail between the first and second pedestrian bridges.   

There were minor patches of snow (some mixed with ice) on the 2-mile trail itself. This was stuff that wasn’t able to melt from the recent warmer temperatures because of how tree branches sufficiently blocked the sun from the ground. 

But there wasn’t enough of the snow/ice to thwart walkers. I covered the full trail yesterday, and there was always a portion of path free of ice or snow that a pedestrian could land on to avoid the patches. I present a view images of that spotty white cover below. 

I returned to the park Saturday to walk, and many of the patches had disappeared or shrunk. But boy, the trade-off was a very gusty wind, dropping wind-chill temps to 20ish, making Saturday’s stroll the coldest-ever for me there. 

Fortunately, I’d checked the weather beforehand and added a layer of clothing, which turned out to be exactly what I needed. 

Much of the ice on the smaller (north) section of pond and on the streams near the second pedestrian bridge remained Saturday; almost all of it on the larger (south) section was gone. A curiosity Saturday: As I began my walk, there were scores of geese on the larger section of pond and a much smaller number — maybe a half-dozen — on the smaller section. They were all gone by the time I crossed the bridge on the return trip.

To see a larger, sharper version of a photo in this post, simply click on the image. To view a full gallery of images from the Friday shoot, follow the link in this sentence.

Neighorborhood shoot after snow storm

Raleigh hadn’t seen snow to any degree for three years until 2025. And since the new year, we’ve seen it three times although the first two weren’t anything significant — an inch or so — and was gone in 24 hours.

Then on Wednesday, we saw snow and ice with an accumulation of a little more than 2 inches in a storm that swept through most of the state. The extreme northeast corner of the state, along the Atlantic Ocean, was hit with the heaviest snowfall — 14 inches in some place. Other places got just snow, a mix of snow and sleet or just sleet and ice.

I realize the word “storm” is relative. To people living in northern states, what we saw come through here Wednesday night and Thursday would probably be referred to as a dusting. But to folks who live in the South, this was a storm. (There was extensive day-after coverage of the havoc it wreaked on at least two local television channels, if that gives you any indication. And by extensive, I mean sufficient to pre-empt regular programming at least until the afternoon.) 

Afterward, temperatures stayed low enough to keep the snow around in Raleigh for several days. A bit of it remains, although not much, as I type this on Saturday evening. But with the sleet still caked to the neighborhood streets on Thursday, I decided it was a good time then to take a slow photography stroll. The ice on the street was mostly thin or covered with enough snow spots that walking was not treacherous, but I nevertheless walked slowly, making sure every step landed on some snow to avoid hitting black ice and wiping out. 

The shot leading off the post is an abstract/op art composition on the paver path in my backyard. I made this from the remnants of the snow and sundry small, odd shaped portions where some of the snow had melted to form these shapes. I used this as inspiration for other patterns I noticed elsewhere on the walk-around in the neighborhood.

A bench in the backyard (above), where a limestone angel sits. A closeup of the angel appears in the first photo below. She usually serves as a sentinel for what we call our puppy garden, which is off to the right and out of the above picture. After the snowfall, only the head of the yorgi figurine made it above the surface (second photo below).  

A combo photo (above) of a home water well connected by a watering hose. Below, a perspective shot and closeup of an interesting cluster in the tree. It kind of looks like a hornet's or wasp’s nest.

Above and below: Perspective and closeup shots of what struck me as an interesting lengthy, snow-covered pair of tree limbs. 

Above: I liked the juxtaposition of the home with the very tall trees.

The street shown above normally is very busy at this time of day on a weekday. It was not that busy on Thursday. Below, an imprint of one of the boots I was wearing. 

Above and below: Animal tracks in the snow. 

One neighbor (above) wasn't taking any chances and worked to remove the ice on her driveway. I've captured the statue below in previous neighborhood shoots, but I wasn't sure I'd gotten it with patches of snow adorning it like this before.

I stopped to capture the shot above because I was surprised to see that anyone had walked on the streets before me, but someone did. Below, another neighbor had a radically reduction made on their crepe myrtle tree. You can see the same stump in the perspective shot in the second photo below. 

The winter welcoming flag adorned with cardinals (above) was on display at this neighbor’s house. The composition below was the result of a radical crop to an image I took of the backside of a car parked in the driveway of yet another neighbor.

Above: I was hoping to get a good image from this shot of fallen branches in the front yard of a neighbor.

Above and below: This neighbor, whose home sits on a cul-de-sac on Perrimor Court, and until very recently, featured a driveway lined on both sides by Bradford Pear trees. But on Thursday, all the trees were gone. I noticed the pile of lumber (below) in the homeowner’s side yard (right of the garages shown in the above photo) and had to wonder if any or all of these were from those Bradford Pears. 

Another welcoming flag (above) with a Valentine’s theme, and another abstract/op art composition (below) made from formations I saw on the street. 

Above: The three nicely trimmed bushes adorned with snow is what caught my eye here. 

Above: I took this shot because of how the message on the sign on this neighbor’s house hit the mark on this day after the storm passed through our community.

Above and below: Street scenes, including (below) a patch of juniper sprinkled with snow. 

Yet another welcoming flag (above) and another abstract/op art (below) composed from how the snow left this section of driveway. 

A 'storm' not for the ages, thankfully

It had been 2022 when the Triangle (the shorthand term locals use to refer to the metro area of Raleigh, Durham and Chapel Hill) last saw any snow or ice to speak of.

So there was a bit of suspense, curiosity and even a hint of excitement when local meteorologists late last week amped up forecasts of the storm system that was heading this way after dumping snow and ice on the country’s midsection earlier in the week.

I’m sure local folks made the traditional stampede to grocery stores to stock up on the usual pre-storm essentials. We did not do that; we’d made our usual periodic grocery shopping several days beforehand. We were grateful the next day when the first of the ominous forecasts started hitting the airwaves, as it’s crazy being in a grocery store when frenzied folk go staple-stockpile shopping. 

And as it turned out, the Triangle did not get any serious bad weather. Snowfall and sleet accumulation was minimal (less than an inch, I’d say, which is a mere cough compared to what I remember getting in Wisconsin during “a storm” in my childhood/adolescent years). And there were minimal power outages, none of which affected us. 

We live south of Raleigh proper, so we probably got even less than those who live north of us received. 

As a precaution, I did park the car I usually drive in the detached garage overnight Friday so there wouldn’t be ice to scrape off windshields the next day if I had to use the vehicle. And even that, technically, proved to be unnecessary, as next-day post-storm temperatures reached the 40s, so any snow or ice that stuck to asphalt or concrete Friday night and was not in the vicinity of tree shade the following morning was melted by the time I went outside for my daily walk around 11:30 a.m. 

Shade was a safety concern on our property, though. It is heavily treed and is situated next door to a 93-acre woods, so while the snow/sleet did melt everything on our driveways by the time I began my walk, all had not melted from other areas of my circular house walk route (about one-tenth of a mile in one loop). So, I elected to do my entire walk on the neighborhood streets, almost all of which were sun-cleared and dried by the time I started the sojourn.

When I finished, I used my iPhone 13 Pro to take the photos of our property that you see in this post. There wasn’t a whole lot of snow and/or ice, but there was some still sticking to grass, concrete and pavers because those areas were blocked from sunlight by trees and branches, as you'll note viewing the images. 

You can see the dusting of snow and sleet on the stairs to the back deck (above) and on the patio at left as well as on the ground in front of the stairs. This area in front of the stairs is part of my walking path when weather is not an issue and I elect to use some or all of the circular house path for my walk. You can see the path better in the first two photos below. While portions of the pavers were cleared, they were not fully cleared, and any step that didn't hit squarely in the fully cleared portions would risk striking snow/ice, so that's why I did not use this path for even a portion of my walk. The pavers in the second photo below are a part of the path also seen in the right foreground of the photo leading off the post. That's the driveway to the detached garage in the background of the first photo below, which also illustrates how the sundry tree blockage splayed sunlight hitting the ground. 

Above and below: Shots of the north side yard, the area of our property that is least open to sunlight during the day in winter. 

Above: One treed area in the front of the property alongside the driveway (and apron) to the attached garage. This view looks southeast. 

Above: Stairs to the sundeck along the south side of the house. We rarely use this access, so it was not an issue for us after the storm. But the concrete walk in front of the stairs is part of my house walk route.  

Above: A chair off to the side of the detached garage driveway. 

Above: I used the iPhone's portrait feature for this closeup of the leaf with icicle. The portrait feature adjusts the camera's aperature setting to allow for enhanced background bokeh (blur).