Happy Winter Solstice

December 21, 2024

 Well, this weather is more like it! It is clear and cold at -14C (7F) this morning. The stars are twinkling in the dark velvet of the sky. Last winter was just endured with its rain and mild temperatures. This is Canada...it is supposed to be cold!! 

We have a good base of snow now, and one can see the deer migration trails, clearly grooved into it by all their hooves, in all the usual spots, as they start to migrate through to their winter yards to the south.

(Had to darken this to see the tracks cutting the snowbank and coming across the road.)
With the deer, come wolves, and we heard their long, drawn out howls one day recently.

There is a particularly verdant patch of grass by the pond here, and the deer know, and have been pawing through the snow to snack on it.

In the bush, under any large oak tree that bore fruit this year, the leaves are all scuffled up from the foraging deer eating acorns.
 The season is beginning quite a bit more normally than it did last winter. There is nothing more invigorating than donning ones woollies and heading out into the crisp air.  A new pair of mitts and a hat to celebrate!

Most of the Christmas goody baking is done, and is stored in tins in 'the other fridge'...the shelf in the unheated back porch. The Christmas pudding steamed on the wood stove for a few hours yesterday. It's a beauty, fat and sassy, full of fruit, and carrots and spuds.

The turkey will be coming out of the freezer to thaw in the fridge tomorrow. 

Earlier in the fall, a few days were warm and sunny, and hoping to avoid cooking the contents of the hot frame, I lifted the lid a smidge and propped it there, thinking to keep out the hungry deer. Well, I forgot about the hungry voles....who promptly entered through the crack, and toppled my beautiful row of carrots like little trees, all in a row...and ate the roots.... I should have lifted the lid properly and put the screen in place. Lesson learned!  I was looking forward to savouring those 'candy carrots'. Better luck next year I guess. Yesterday morning, early, when there was just enough light out to see, we watched our resident fox scouting around the garden beds and rock fences. I was cheering him on and encouraging him on the vole hunt!

Another denizen of our bush...

A fisher going by a trail camera, and how Christmassy is this? Deer in the falling snow.

Wishing everyone a safe and Happy Christmas.

Header picture was taken at Combermere one morning, with hoar frost coating the trees along the Madawaska river.

Snow!! and critters...

 December 7, 2024

Snow has come! We haven't received as much as other places to the west of us, where the lake-effect snow has pretty much buried them, but I'll take what we have! 

We took a little two hour jaunt yesterday, to visit a friend, and as we drove further south and west, the skiff of snowbanks along the highway gradually grew more pronounced. Her yard was a beautiful winter wonderland.

 Some of the snow streamers coming off of the big lakes did reach her neck of the woods, where it has been snowing off and on for about a week. It was finally a glorious sunny day, but as the afternoon wore on, clouds moved in and as we left to come home, more snow was falling. 

We travelled from Renfrew county, into the very north edge of Peterborough county. On the way down we followed two log trucks pulling pup trailers of logs. Almost every time one heads out on roads around this area, one will see a loaded log truck or two.

I came across this prickly fellow one day. He was waffling about whether to climb this tree, or not. I left him in peace.

We've been hearing coyotes in the evening of late. One night they awakened us from sleep, and sounded so close. Next day, I found these tracks on the road in a skiff of new snow.

A couple of earlier shots off of Bird Cam, a black-capped chickadee and a white-breasted nuthatch.

 
Also observed in the woods, a chaga mushroom on a white birch tree.

A fisher  in front of one of the trail cameras.

and some deer shots from the 'behind the barn' camera. 

Having a bit of a tiff...

Well insulated for winter.

On the crafting front, I just have to stitch the binding on this quilted table runner, so we can dine with a festive touch.

Socks, finished and blocked, with a Fleegle Heel, and a new to me, stretchy bind-off,
 

and a bit of hand stitching...a Biscornu pin cushion, stuffed with fine steel wool and dried lavender wrapped in poly-fil. Keeps my pins sharp and smells wonderful with every poke!