snow whoa!

On cold winter days, Tabitha likes to lay in her kitten hammock and watch us bustle around.  Sometimes she'll look outside, but we're a lot more interesting to her (or maybe she's afraid that we're going to steal her spot). 

We left her behind in her sunny perch this weekend when we got OUR FIRST REAL SNOWFALL IN SIX YEARS and had to suit up for a hike!  I don't know if I have mentioned it here before, but I bought a pair of Nonwe snow pants this fall and they're the best thing ever - warm and fleece-y on the inside, slim-fitting, great for layering, wind- and water-resistant.  Add in wool socks, waterproof boots, and thermal underwear, and I was toasty warm the whole afternoon! 

Boy, I haven't seen this for a long time.  Thankfully a bonus to apartment living = not having to shovel.  Although when we do buy our next shovel, it's going to be the Wovel, for the name if nothing else.  Also, I want to pretend that I'm a snow shoveler in 1856, and the giant wheel helps with that illusion.

Borga HATES water, but she loves snow.  She couldn't get enough.

We've had a bit of rain lately, so it was fun to see the boggy places completely iced over.  So pretty!

More beauty with lacy weed seed heads holding snow...

...and red berries look particularly nice against the white.

I love the look of snow-laden trees.

Since we had about 5 inches and drifts were deeper, animal tracks were hard to identify...but we did see several.

Making his own tracks was my intrepid husband, who manfully caught snowflakes on his tongue upon request.

Snow, I have missed you so much!  More snow is expected this weekend and next week, too.  I understand that snow complicates road travel, and we are certainly not immune to that inconvenience.  But I have such wonderful memories from childhood...taking long walks in the woods in fresh snow, carefully clearing out the bricked-in bird feeder basin beneath our living room window and filling it with fresh seed for birds and squirrels, making snow ice cream, sledding.  And, of course, this meme I noticed a few weeks ago is certainly true:  "If you choose not to find joy in the snow, you will have less joy in your life, but still the same amount of snow."  So embrace it!

See you next week!