Tracking

The sun has been out for days, for longer than it seems we've seen it all winter in fact. The Himalayas in our front yard are starting to look more like the rolling landscape of Vermont. My Panda is increasingly disappointed by his habitat loss. The best thing about this weather, aside from the warm sun flooding our front room every evening and Jon getting home before dark, is the hiking situation; with compacted snow covering what will soon be muddy fields there are animal tracks to be found everywhere, and it's warm enough to go looking for them. There's rain lurking around the corner and with rain the opportunity will be lost, so we struck out into the fields today to look for signs of four legged neighbors.

We've been tracking before. Calvin's pretty familiar with the tracks of humans, dogs, and deer and he found lots of deer tracks today.

Deer path through the stream.

And a new treat, raccoon tracks.

And we listened for birds.

Chickadees (we heard all three calls)

And a tufted titmouse.

So now we're ready for the rain threatening the rest of the week, and maybe for a return of the rain boots.

More snow

We've had plenty of it. Calvin is fondly referring to the snow mounded up on either side of our driveway as the Himalayas. A few days ago he was meandering his way along them, and up and down them, and along them, and up and down them, and all the time he was snuffling and snorting and whispering to himself. I asked him what he was doing.

"I'm a panda. I have to find food because most of my homeland is gone."

Snow

It doesn't mean you have to stay inside.

Sledding by the pond.

Snow crater in the backyard.

December 1st

I don't start our Christmas countdown until the 12th, but these guys were so cute hanging out on our snow covered deck this morning that I thought I'd better share.

In like a...lamb?

On Sunday this past weekend I watched Jon dress the kid in his full winter regalia for a trip to the nearby sledding hills. They spent an hour out in the snow pretending to be Frog and Toad in the story "Winter", which mainly entailed Calvin falling off the sled repeatedly. When they came home and proceded to make a snwoman for an additional half hour, I knew the weather wasn't quite as "depth of winter" as it had been of late, but with March just a day away I wasn't about to get my hopes up for spring.

I still don't have any real hope for spring being "right around the corner" (that's more Frog and Toad, in case you're familiar), but when March arrived this year it brought with it sunshine and relative warmth. We have taken walks outside and enjoyed the sounds of birds playing in the yard. I guess it's time to get the summer feeders set up again so that our birds will be able to find us.