Warm Winter

We haven't seen any, I repeat any, snowmobiles on our lake at all this winter. There was a short period where it seemed as if the lake might have iced over, at the very end of January, but it didn't remain cold long enough and the ice wasn't very thick. We have water running through our cove again, and can see open water out on the main part of the lake already. Mergansers have been spotted.

The stump in the foreground usually floats in our cove, but with the failure of the dam flashboards in December, much of our water drained away, leaving this beautiful piece of art high and dry! The repairs to the dam flashboards began the week of Feb 13, so maybe we'll be able to regain (and retain) some water during spring rains.

I took this photo on Jan 11, when the dam failure caused the surface ice to collapse

Herbivore Herd

Three four-leg'ged deer
Traverse the melting shoreline. 
Then gone, like phantoms.

(Three four-leg'ged deer

And not four, three-leg'ged deer -

Still twelve legs, total!)

A few days later

Not three, but eight more bodies -

Limb count forty four.

THRILLING!

Navajo Proverb

When I came across this Navajo proverb I was moved, so thought I'd share:

"You can't see the future with tears in your eyes"

Shoe Drama

I keep a handy little shoehorn in the drawer under my mudroom bench for quick and easy access while I'm sitting to put my shoes on. Today was no exception, and I was delighted, as always, with how well this very basic, simple device works. After putting on my right shoe, I reached down to the floor (same color as the shoehorn) to pick up the little plastic spoon for the next shoe, but it wasn't there. I bent over and reached around under the bench, wondering how it might have got that far away from me without being able to locomote on its own, but it wasn't there.

Dallas using the mudroom bench to see who's at the door

Ah, I thought, I must have automatically put it back into the drawer without thinking, so searched through it, also without success. I stood up and walked away from the bench, checking the floor all around. It was nowhere to be seen. That was a little disturbing - I felt as if I were losing my mind, searching the same old places again and again, but ... I eventually found it ... in the last place I looked (obviously!)

It was sitting snugly and comfortably in the back of my right shoe, making itself completely un-feel-able! What a silly ding-bat I am! I probably left it there on purpose so I didn't stand on it and crack it.

This also happened, but not to me - what are the chances?

P.S. No  one was injured in the documenting of these incidents.