Sunday, January 11, 2009

A Snowy Winter Adventure

Those of the family not busy with other things trekked out into the cold, snowy forest for a winter adventure. The bare trees gave up their secrets, such as this hornet's nest:


Here's a view from below. If you look real hard you can see the cells inside:

We came across an eensy mailbox in the middle of nowhere:


They're hard to make out, but there are squirrel tracks in the snow to the right of the mailbox. I guess the mailbox belongs to Mr. Squirrel. Maybe he mail-orders exotic nuts from tropical locals. We checked, but the box was empty. After all, it's Sunday.


We came across some feathers in the snow looking as if some poor bird had been snatched out of the air by an owl or a hawk, mid-flight, and these feathers drifted down, leaving the only evidence of the poor bird's plight.

Such a silent, fluffy, snowy, sad thing (unless you're the hawk or the owl, then it's a triumphant, yummy thing).


My dog waited patiently, finding a place lie down while we snapped pictures:


On the way back home, my daughter spotted a coyote way out in the fallow farmer's field:

She got close enough to snap a few pictures:

He (or she) was hunting a mouse or a vole out in the field:


My daughter finally got too close and the coyote ran off into the woods.

Closer to home, the more tame trees are trying to uphold their burdens of snow:


Now I'm going to go have a nice hot mug of tea or coffee or hot cocoa. Just so long as it's hot.

6 comments:

aromatic said...

Magnificent pictures... love the lone postbox...
Also the coyote pictures are great.. many thanks to your daughter for sharing them with us!
Strider looks very pleased with himself!!
Basil is very envious and would love to be able to romp in that amount of snow...... ahhhhh well dogs can dream... Basils legs are running in his sleep at the moment and I reckon he is dreaming of running around with Strider in that lovely delicious white stuff....
With Love, Jane and a sleepy Basil xxxx

Compostwoman said...

Fab pictures and I LOVE the Hornets nest!

ICQB said...

Hi Jane!

Strider would love to have Basil come over and romp through the snow with him. I can see them bounding through the snow together! But Strider does get a little limpy afterward - it's hard work going through all that snow with a bad hip. I'm sure Basil can relate.

We hear coyotes and see their tracks from time to time, but this is the first time we've seen one in the 7 years we've lived here. It was exciting to watch it trying to get at whatever was under the snow.

Take care, and a rub behind the ears to Basil!

ICQB (Linda)

ICQB said...

Hi Compostwoman!

I usually only see nests like that after they've fallen out of a tree. It was fun to see one hanging in its tree.

Willow said...

I love your photos of the snow - and the hornets nest is fascinating, I've never seen one before. The lone post box got me thinking ... I wonder who lives nearby?! Strider is very handsome, by the way!
Willow xx

ICQB said...

Hi Willow!

We laughed to find the little mailbox out in the middle of the woods where, actually, no one lives nearby. Maybe there are wee folk out there? With a post system?...

And I have to agree that Strider is handsome. Although he looks a little bored in the photo. He'd rather be on the move than have to wait while we snap our pictures.