making tracks

 With temperature fluctuations like this...

...and frequent rain...

...we're seeing a lot of really pretty fog.

Even with the regular frosts, there's more GREEN.

putty root orchids

haircap moss

Pepita approves.

In just three weeks, she'll be a year old.  Time flies!

Remember this tiny puppy?  Maybe 7 or 8 lbs.?

Now she spends her evenings passed out on the couch, all 25 pounds pressed up against my back, snoring like a freight train.

Is she potty trained?  Nope, she still has enough accidents (maybe one a month) that I haven't put any of the house rugs back down.  She still struggles with impulse control with the cats...but she's getting better.

The cats have plenty of places to escape to, anyway.

The Barnacle in my puzzle box.

Frances on his heated pad atop my puzzle shelf.

Calliope on my heated keyboard pad.

My work photography station, with one well-intentioned but somewhat in-the-way cat looking for attention

So many personalities keep things interesting around here!

Hard to believe that we'll be seeing snow again in a few days.  I'd like to get out and inspect the back pond when it happens.  As you can see from this trail cam still, we get a lot of animal tracks back there.

We'll see how it goes!

"I'm not dead yet!!"

Looking around at the bare trees, colorless grass, and grey sky could lead one to think that we're in the "dead zone" now and for the next few months, but that's not completely true.  There are startling flashes of green and evidence of life all around!

I ignore moss most of the year, but it's easy to appreciate it in the winter.

Putty root orchid leaves start poking out when everything else looks dead.

Green ferns abound.

There's even a bit of red, like this very tiny maple tree that continues to brave the cold.

We've had some unusually warm (near 60 degrees!) weather here lately, and it's had an amazing effect.  We...have...flowers.  In December.

Snapdragons are starting to bud out again!

Roses!

Creeping Charlie!

My parsley is still going strong.

Real, actual flowers...this veronica persica is actually blooming.  

Dandelions too!

Other "proofs of life" are more commonplace.  At the lake down the street from our house, the beavers have been busy.

A big pile of sticks and freshly-disturbed mud shows us where some of them are living.

Beavers don't hibernate, so I'll be watching to see more signs of activity!  

Animals that do hibernate in the winter...these cats.

On some of these darker days, it looks pretty appealing!

Have a great week!