Tea for two

 With soft snow falling and warmish temps, we headed into the woods again...

 We had spent most of the morning bringing in wood and breaktime was upon us.

 So we took my dad's Thermos, filled it with milky tea, grabbed a couple of cups and headed back into the woods to our picnic table.

Chairs are stored under the table, so they were nice and dry. We sat back and enjoyed the silence.

A bridge...not so far

 Okay, so the stream my parents' sarcastically called "The Mighty Mogelon" is not very wide but balancing over two 2x4s was starting to drive me crazy. And I have terrible balance. I asked Richard to build me a bridge. He came up with the simple solution of throwing a piece of plywood over the 2x4s. Yay for ingenuity!

Meanwhile, the frozen and slushy stream is a busy highway for a few raccoons, awoken from their slumber because it's been a warmish week.

The only thing caught on the webcam for the past few weeks was this snap of a very large raccoon.

A day in the woods

 Since I burn wood to heat the house, Richard and I spend much of the winter cutting and gathering. Here's Richard crossing the frozen Mighty Mogelon pulling his chainsaw and gas with his toboggan.

 When the creek freezes I'm in mind of the lyrics to a Joni Mitchell song that goes, "I wish I had a river, that I could skate away on..."

 This is another creek that rarely, almost never freezes. I always threaten to do a polar bear dip in it, but never actually have taken the challenge.

This was an odd sight. Walking by a tree, my eye caught a glimpse of something reddish. At first I thought it was a dead pine clump. But upon further examination, it is some sort of bird's feather. Wonder what the back story is there...?

Sugaring off time

Yesterday we headed down the road a piece to Sand Road Sugar Camp to see them making maple syrup.

 One of my favourite things of all time is when they boil up the syrup to make taffy and pour it on the snow so that it can be rolled up on a wooden stick.

 It tastes like warm maple-flavoured caramel!

 Meanwhile, indoors we sampled the all-you-can eat breakfast including pancakes, eggs, ham, beans and all the maple syrup you can pour. The bacon was called "oreilles de crisse," apparently "green bacon" which is very thick and very crisp and unlike anything I've ever tasted.

 There were horse wagon rides through the sugar bush...

...instead we walked one of the many trails that runs through the property. About 8C, warmish, and all the snow is melting fast so it seemed like our last chance to be out in it. A perfect day.

Picnic will have to wait

Walking in the woods on the weekend and thinking that it's almost winter picnic time...

...and then came upon the picnic table and plastic chairs. Uh...think we'll have to wait a bit, eh?

Snow Daze

 Fun in the cold weather? Richard got all dressed up and spent two days cutting dead trees...and loving it!

 Meanwhile, other critters wanted in! Feed me now this squirrel was yelling.

 So...I put some seeds out for him on my board. It snowed a bit but this clever fellow knew exactly where to dig.

Cold and sunny days bring out my two starlings, that I've named Heckle and Jeckle. The real Heckle and Jeckle were magpies...but these two hang around together and could likely get themselves into some trouble if they tried!

Winterizing your nest

While snowshoeing this weekend I came across this vacant nest. Funny how the snow piled up on it. It was only about 6" round, but somehow the well woven sticks and lichen nest managed to hold a great big pile of snow.

Snacktime inside and out

 Last weekend was perfect for snowshoeing. I noticed tons of bunny prints under the spruce trees. Last week we had an ice rain for a few days and it knocked lots of spruce tips off the trees. The snowshoe rabbits had a nice buffet waiting for them.

Meanwhile, inside it was time to try out the new glass teapot I got over the holidays. Time to inaugurate it with the lotus tea blossom I bought in Japantown, while we were in San Francisco a few years back. So much fun watching it bloom. Lovely and nice tea too!

Winter Still Hanging On

 Okay, it's starting to look like spring, sort of. The trees are thinking spring and breaking out in bud.

 Richard attempted to cross the Mighty Mogelon but actually fell in
when that ledge he's standing on gave way.

 After a change of clothing, we headed back out in 0C degrees and very sunny skies. Toward the back of the property, we came across a feeding frenzy under the apple tree and tons of bunny prints.

 You can see where we were is a little dip of land. Just behind Richard the property dips back up. Bunnies seem to like it here...in the dip.

 We also cam across a very healthy butternut tree with no black ooze so hopefully disease free. This one was large enough that I couldn't get my arms around it in a full bear hug.

 On our way back through the small wooded area that Dad planted in 1978. The pines and spruce are huge here and with no undergrowth, very easy to walk amongst.

Selfie!

Woodsy Weekend

 The weather was perfect this weekend and so we spent most of it outside in the woods.

 We wore our snowshoes and so did this rabbit!

 I found some dead trees for Richard to cut and he got at it. This one he dropped right beside the newly installed picnic table...

 ...but, as Richard pointed out, he neglected to account for one 

big branch that knocked it over.

With the next tree, he dropped it dead centre onto a pair of stacked, plastic chairs that were supposed to be our picnic chairs. Oh well, I'm now in the market 

for a few butt-sized stumps!

Out With the Old...

 My late father's picnic table finally gave up the ghost. It's been out in the bush for about 20 years and the site of our annual winter picnic for the past five or so years...

The new and improved version is part of a double cedar wall behind the house, that was discovered this past year when my gas range was installed. I figured it would be a perfect, rustic tabletop for a new picnic table. Richard cut down two dead trees as the supports and voila! Chairs will be old plastic outdoor garden chairs that my late mother bought eons ago.
I'll post pix when it warms up a tad and we can have a picnic out in the woods.

Deer beds

 Walking in the woods we can upon a series of deer beds under the cedars.
You could see the outline of the deer's body where the snow melted around him.

 I decided to get into it and see what the view was like.

And when I looked down I saw a bit of deer fur that froze into the snow.
Sleep well my furry friends.

Winter Solstice 2013

Our friends down the road hosted a winter solstice party to welcome back the sun. It had been rescheduled from Dec. 21 because we got a big snowstorm. Luckily for us, we didn't get very much freezing rain, like they did west and north of us, but instead over 2 days we got 40 cm of snow. Lucky? I guess...

 One of the traditions at Winter Solstice is to have a bonfire and, if you like, you can burn something you want to get rid of in your life. 

On our way to the fire there was a snow dog.

 I didn't really have anything to burn this year but it was fun to have a glass of wine in the great outdoors and keep warm by the fire. 

It was fairly "balmy" out with a temperature of -8C.

Looking back at the house, I love the way the light reflected on the trees in the backyard. Here's wishing all my bloggy friends and readers a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year and hoping you don't have anything to burn at winter solstice 2014!

The End of the Snow...Finally

Last weekend was probably the last time we'll be able to play in the snow. And drag out wood on the toboggan.

 It's also the best time to spot the baby spruce I planted last spring.

 Planted when we suffered a major drought and high heat, I feared not many of the two dozen seedlings I planted would actually make it through the year.

But they did! Most were buried all winter in our tons of snow and only in the last week or so did they appear.

As soon as the snow is gone, and I expect by this weekend for it to be history, they'll be harder to spot. Lucky I marked them all with bright orange tape!