It's Baaacccckkkk!.........

 March 29, 2025

 We went from this on March 21...

to this, this morning.

We spent a couple of hours clearing snow, shovelling the snow-plough ridge at the end of the driveway, then got out the snowshoes to tramp around and pick up the SD chips out of the trail cameras.

The snow pictures are much darker than reality.

The deer have been filtering back out of their yards and are showing up on the trail cameras.

 

This fellow showed up on a trail camera positioned to see over a major deer trail. Obviously, he knows about it as well!

 Racoons are awake, and leaving their little five-fingered prints on the snow under the bird feeders.

Yesterday, while pruning a couple of apple trees, we heard a different bird song from a black and white someone high up in a poplar tree. Merlin said it was a Northern Shrike. Who knew that predator could sound so lovely? The Juncos are here, and a male and female Evening Grosbeak were foraging under the feeders one recent morning. Earlier in the week, we returned from an outing to find our yard inundated with robins. There had to be dozens. The snow had melted off of our clearing a lot, so guess it was a beckoning oasis surrounded by the still white bush. 

Spring has been advancing and retreating all week. Several little snow flurries have whited out the bare ground on various days, but they soon melt back to the edges of the slowly retreating winter snow pack.

 Apparently we are now to expect freezing rain and rain. March came in like a lion, and appears to be leaving as one as well!

Melting snow, polar bears, dinosaurs and mammoths....

 March 21, 2025

What a difference a few days make. The first picture was taken on March 17. The picture below it was taken today. 

 

 

 

On March 16, during the afternoon, there was a thunder storm with a couple of sessions of torrential rain, accentuating the pretty much all day rain. The snow just shrank throughout the day. This was followed with a couple of very sunny, mild, tee-shirt days. I have never seen so much snow disappear so quickly.

The rain did a number on our road up the hill. There are deep, washed out ruts up both sides, leaving a narrow, rough, drive-able section in the middle. The gravel and sand all flushed off into the deep ditches on the sides. We don't expect the township will be doing anything to rectify it until things dry up, as the dips in the road are still muddy and some are flooded.

 We had an appointment in Ottawa early on Thursday, so bought tickets to the Museum of Nature and visited it later in the day. https://nature.ca/en/

 The building itself is beautiful.

The front entrance, impressive...

and once inside, looking up and out of those three arched windows...

was this absolutely beautiful stained glass. I missed taking a picture of the third window, as it wasn't until I looked at the pictures that I realized each panel was different.

Once inside the large square central foyer, one can look up four stories, at a huge inflated balloon of Earth, hung in the centre, and revolving slowly.

In a glassed in, modern extension above it, there is another large balloon depicting the Moon. (In the picture above, taken from the fourth floor gallery, one can see an elevator door in the top right corner to give a size perspective.)

 We enjoyed our visit, particularly the rock and mineral section and all the stuffed birds and mammals. 

Flash pictures are prohibited, so some of the colours are off.
There were a couple of school groups visiting that we periodically crossed paths with as we explored the displays. The volume and exuberance of the kids was rather distracting, making us realize how much we appreciate the peace and quiet we enjoy at home!

There was a section hi-lighting Earth's past, with some impressive dinosaur skeletons, this one a relative of a T-rex. A not so impressive recreation of ancient forests, complete with plastic dinosaurs...

and outside, a life-size Mammoth family. This one the biggest and most intact, as the others had broken tusks....

 

There is still snow in the bush and on north-facing, shaded areas, but the snowshoes have been put away for the summer.

Our wonderful snowy winter is over. 

Hello spring!! 😊

 

 

 

 

 

Bear nests, moose beds and wolf talk....

 March 16, 2025

This week, with its crisp, frosty mornings, has been just perfect for wondering over hill and vale on snowshoes. There is enough snow to cover obstacles, and the nice firm surface makes the going easy, so we have spent several mornings exploring the properties in our vicinity. Over the last two nights, the temperature has not gone below freezing, snow is melting, the ice-bound driveway is now mostly bare, wet gravel, and the road is a muddy mess. Rain is in the forecast, so I suspect our snowshoe wandering may be at an end. Five Redwing Blackbirds made an appearance early yesterday morning, right on cue. They are usually one of the first spring migrants to arrive.

On our Monday morning foray, we found this chair off in the woods, in a small clearing on a knoll with good visibility, likely used by someone during hunting season. There is still a good blanket of snow in the bush, but the seat of the chair is probably visible now, the snow having settled a good bit, after five afternoons of warm temperatures.

In several places, there were obvious signs of moose presence, from tracks to beds to heavily browsed saplings.

In some massive oak trees, we found bear nests'. In the fall, the bruins climb up, make themselves comfortable, then pull in the surrounding branches, bending and breaking them, to eat the acorns. The branches, broken while still leafed, are now a tangle of dead branches with dead leaves clinging on.

This particular oak was very large, the picture not really showing the true size of the 'nest'.

With a good padding of snow, one can walk some of the old stone fences.

In other places, on high hills, one can see for miles. In this shot, an intermittent snow flurry was whiting out the distance.

This is a beautiful big hemlock tree we found on our rambles.

On very crispy Wednesday morning, we did some wondering on adjacent crown land, slipping and sliding our way down to this hidden beaver pond, the sun just peeking through the trees, casting a pinkish light over the snow. The hill is steeper than it looks, and my snowshoes were skidding across the crusty surface, so I tried to choose a route with lots of trees to grab onto!

 Yesterday morning early, we were able to walk around on our frozen snowshoe trails without snowshoes on. We heard a few long soaring wolf howls off to the south, to which Hubby responded, and was, thrillingly, responded to!

 I'm sure the kitchen has missed me, but I did process the last of my pumpkins, just starting to show tiny bad spots,

and this second to last butternut squash, still pristine.

Pepper seeds have germinated, and the tiny green sprouts have just been placed under lights. One can vaguely see the outline of my garden beds under the snow. Its time do do some serious garden planning.

 

The many facets of snow

 March 7, 2025

We have sure run the weather gauntlet this week, from cold and sunny, to grey and rainy, and now back to cold and sunny. The snow on the ground has settled a lot, and snow on the steeper roofs has all whooshed off. As the temperature warmed, the snow started to creep, glacier-like, off of the metal roof on the Battery House, slowly curling around until it's suspended weight was too much, and it broke off and dropped.

The driveway is now an ice rink, refreezing after the mild weather and rain. Hubby spread clean wood shavings on the places we walk, while it was mild, and this morning they are frozen in, making access to the buildings safer. It was snowing and blowing last night, so all the ice elsewhere is covered with a layer of snow now, a very slippery situation. 

Last weekend was absolutely beautiful for snowshoeing, as we'd had a warmish day or two, the snow settled, then refroze with a skiff of new snow on top. No need to wade, the surface was firm, and one could walk anywhere on the soft, slightly snow covered surface. Off I went across the un-tracked expanse, to check out a neighbour's property. 

These are some amazing, big, gnarly old oak trees on their hill, 

framing lovely, far-reaching views.

Back on the home front, the fox pair has been showing up on camera. Here, early morning, and one of them is passing the camera mounted on a solar panel pole, checking the spot where we often leave out treats for them.

This one is making tracks in the fresh snow at another camera.

We had a Snow Bunting show up under the bird feeders this week, all alone, but a sign that the season is advancing.
On Wednesday, Hubby tapped a few maple trees.

Yesterday, we walked around on our snowshoes, the snow wet and crystalline, to see if there was any sap in the bottom of the buckets. There was! Overnight, the temperature dropped to a low of -8C (18F), but it is rapidly rising toward the freezing mark today, perfect conditions to get the sap running. 

The rising sun is so much further north along our horizon, than it was the last time we had a clear, sunny dawn. The sunlight shining across the fresh skim of snow from last night is making a zillion sparkling prisms, as if someone has thrown crystals across the surface. 

This morning, we can walk on the packed and frozen snowshoe trails, without snowshoes but,

don't step off them.....

or you will be up to your knee in crusty snow...

Snowing and blowing....Oh, March!!!

March 1, 2025

March is trying to come in like a lion. After a thaw, which settled the snow a bit, and melted out bare patches on the driveway, but iced the rest, the temperature has dropped back down to substantially below the freezing mark. Snow started falling last night and this morning it is going by the windows somewhat horizontally, from the north. We have accumulated a few inches, although the exact amount is hard to tell, as the wind has been gusting.

Seed orders are all sent, and now I'll be watching the mailbox. Yesterday I filled some cell packs with starting mix, ready for planting, and did plant a small container with lavender seeds, as they take forever to germinate. 

I've shovelled the snow off of the lids of the hot frames, preparatory to doing some winter sowing of onion seeds, once my seeds arrive.

The days are longer, the sun is stronger, there is that "Je ne sais quoi" in the air that lightens the spirits and heralds the start of a new season, especially on a sunny, blue sky day, when one can imagine one smells the scent of sap rising in the maple trees. Soon, but not quite yet!

Solar radiation is being absorbed by leaves and tree detritus, and they are melting into the surface of the snow, Mother Nature's collage.

Inspired by The Furry Gnome,  seasonsinthevalley.blogspot.com/   who is posting pictures from the past, I am posting some writing I did last summer, in the 'more or less' journal I keep for future reference. 

When one is surrounded by a white world, one kind of forgets how things were, and will be again, as the seasons change. 

Back in May of 2024:

Woke up a little early this morning and couldn't get back to sleep, so was downstairs between 4 and 4:30. Got the fire started. Although the temperature was comfy in here, it had rained off and on most of yesterday, so just felt it would be nice, and the outside temperature was 5C (41F). Shortly after setting a match to the makings, a Whip-poor-will started up, right outside, to the west. I carefully opened a window and listened, then got a flashlight and crept out onto the verandah. There were two birds, right on the driveway beside the lilac bush. I put the flashlight beam on them and it didn't phase them at all. Two eyes glowed in the light, one a foot or two away from the other. They must have been sitting sideways to me. One of the eyes slowly shut and reopened a couple of times. There was a flurry of wings, moving dark shadows...then silence. Shortly after, they started up again, this time echoing off of the Battery House like they were right beside it. I went out the back door to try and see them, but no luck. Meanwhile, the sky was rapidly lightening, the Robins, Wood Thrushes and White Throats were tuning up.

Then, early in July...still Whip-poor-wills. 

The Whip-poor-will has us programmed to awake between 4 and 4:30. This morning he was right beside the lilac bush on the driveway again, and as hard as I tried to peer into the dimness, I could not see him. One can hear the 'chuck' he starts each section of his song with. I watched and watched at a break in his repertoire, knowing he would fly. Darned if I saw anything, then he started up again, further to the front of the yard.  

Later with morning coffee:  

We are sitting out on the verandah and listening to my birds. The Wood Thrush is first awake, then the Hermit Thrush. Veery is close behind, and then a Swainson's Thrush, which we don't hear too often. Robin is next, then Chestnut sided warbler, then the other regulars start up in no particular order. Chipping Sparrow, (who is very vocal this AM), Red-eyed vireo, American Redstart, Song sparrow etc. etc. Hummy is humming around in the flowers that are blooming in the BBH bed out front. 

Yep....spring is on the way, if March slides along as fast as February has, the 20th will be here lickety-split! Monarchs will already be starting their journey north.....

 

The aftermath, shedding new light and averting disaster....

February 26, 2025

 Lots of blowing, ploughing and shovelling ensued after the second dump of snow on the weekend of the 16th. Then came the slogging to get our trails walkable. I might have overdone that a bit, as the old knees complained bitterly for a few days. Hubby did most of the trail breaking after that! 

Some pictures of the beautiful white stuff.

The garden picnic table after the first dump of snow...

Then after the second dump over the weekend, wind included...

The bare outline of our previously packed snowshoe trail.

Despite the lightness of the snow, it was still fairly heavy going, as one's snowshoes sank a lot. Along one of our trails, Hubby breaking trail in the lead, a sudden flurry and beating of wings, as a grouse exploded from right beneath his advancing snowshoe.

Anyone who has experienced this will know what an adrenaline rush ensues. The grouse was comfortably ensconced in its comfy little  snow cave when we came along. Must be startling for it as well! (I had to darken the picture to see the hole, and if you look closely, you might see it's wing prints on the snow.) That very same day, we actually laid eyes on a Snowshoe Hare in the same area. It took off, running easily on top of the snow, stopping beside the trunk of a big pine briefly, where we got a good look. It's white is just slightly off-white, and when it moves, easier to spot.

There are a couple of deer still up here on the hill, although the snow is a bit deep for them now. This is the furrow their belly ploughs through the snow as they move about. 

Family Day weekend, the weekend of the second snowstorm, our son made it up and gave me pictures he'd taken a few weekends previously. We have a female Pileated woodpecker visiting our bird feeders. She loves the hanging suet cake, and clings to it, pecking out chunks, then drops down to the snow beneath and eats them. This is her beneath the suet feeder, another bird visible flying on the right side. Those are all bird foot prints in the snow.

Family Day, and family pizza...No delivery available up here!

 One of the pot lights in the kitchen started misbehaving, so Hubby has installed new LED lights that are making a huge difference to the lighting out there. Yeah! Happy dance. I'm sure the previous lights were as energy efficient as any that were available at the time of their installation, but Wow..these new ones are wonderful.

As far as the disaster...my computer started making strange cracking noises when attempting to shut the lid. Leaving it sitting with the lid up was not an option. Mr. Fix Anything had a look and found the case was cracked and spreading apart, even though the screws were still there. A judicious application of crazy glue and some clamps. Much better, but I fear that we'll soon be shopping for a new beast.