Speared Leaf

Notice how this leaf is speared onto this broken branch? When I was out walking in the woods on Sunday, I was trying to find something that wasn't brown to take a photo of. With no snow cover around, the winter forest is simply not as visually interesting as I'm used to. The woods are a near monochromatic shade of brown, surrounded by brown mud and browner leaves.

So I'm walking on a path and I notice this paler color on a tree perhaps 50 yards off the trail. I can't figure out what it is. At first I think it's a sign on the tree, but I can't figure out why a tree well off the trail would have a sign on it. And then I think it must be a fungus, which might be an interesting thing to photograph. But I'm too far away to see what it is, so naturally I have no choice but to head off the trail and into the muddy woods to try and figure out what it is.

I'm traipsing through thorns and brambles pulling at my pants and piercing the cloth (and my skin). I'm getting mud on my boots, slipping on wet rocks hidden by fallen leaves and trying not to fall and/or drop the camera.

And then I'm finally close enough to see what this paler object is, and it turns out to be a leaf speared in its falling by a broken tree branch. The resulting find was a bit anti-climatic, to say the least. However, perhaps there's a parallel here; I ended up speared with thorns myself on my way to find nothing more exciting than a leaf speared by a branch.

I think this shows nothing more but how desperate I am to see something that's not brown. Compared to all this brown, something gray looks interesting and was enough to entice me into a semi-treacherous mini-expedition just to see it. It's amazing the trouble that boredom can create, isn't it?