saucy little mink(s)

 I stretched my embroidery piece this week...

...and secured it over a wooden frame.  You can see that I didn't get every wrinkle out, but overall, I'm pretty pleased.  I'm hanging it this week!

I've been plugging away at my knitted cowl.  It looks like a comically long sleeve...32 inches so far!  I think the goal is around 50 inches.   

It's pleasant knitting every night, during those moments when Tabitha allows me some freedom of movement.

She's quite fond of this whole 'knitting' thing.  :)

I've tried to work on my 2000 piece puzzle...again, as cats permit....sigh!

It's cold outside...finally!  Cold enough for the front pond to completely freeze over.  See the mystery tracks around the muskrat house?  A predator is hunting.

Maybe this girl?

A remarkable morning last week.  I went outside in the very early hours to feed Claudia, and heard a loud splash.  A life-or-death struggle was happening there...a mink was hunting muskrats!  

She scampered around the ice rim of the water, waiting for her chance...

So close...

A narrow escape!

I had just read about muskrats in A Pilgrim on Tinker Creek by Annie Dillard:  "Minks are their special enemies.  Minks live near large muskrat populations, slinking in and out of their dens..."  She also writes, "The wonderful thing about muskrats is...that they cannot see very well, and are rather dim, to boot."  It seems to be true.  A bloodthirsty hunter was stalking, and after their water escapes, all three muskrats sat blithely on the pond's edge, bathing.

Sneak attack!!

I watched for hours, and the wily mink was thwarted every time.

So I wonder...did the mink make those tracks in the thin snow on the pond?  The pond froze, and then thawed.  The muskrats, who have been out every single day, working well into twilight, have not returned to their labors.  Have they been eaten?  

So much happens on the periphery of our awareness.  Yesterday, I went outside in the early morning to see if the muskrats had returned.  It was quite warm after several bitter days, feeling more like early spring than the heart of winter.  As I stood on the porch, a huge coyote loped by, just a few yards away.  A heron stalked around the edge of the pond, and a rabbit froze, and then fled, only his white tail visible in the dim light.  In only five minutes, so much excitement!  It makes me hopeful.  

The back pond has been frozen too, but just a very thin skim of ice.

Around the edge, the ice crystals were huge!

The stream that runs through the back of our property hadn't frozen, but the limestone slabs were covered in sheets of ice.   

Anything outside of the water had the same result.

Just warm enough for a bit of exploring!

Now it's turned chilly again.  Brrrr...stay warm this week!