Tuesday - 319th

Well, we got a great big dollop of snow again! Beautiful stuff -- downy and light, drifting just a little, creating a fresh new look to our now familiar winter farmette landscape.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Everyone stays inside. Chickens never leave the coop, the cats stay in the sheep shed (all but Dance who sometimes acts like she is a dog, staying near me, watching where I go), Ed stays in bed.

("are we going to the shed for breakfast soon?")

("it would be good if you cleared the path of snow.")

("it's too deep for comfort...")

("Phew! Almost there! I see the other cats have blazed the trail for me...")

Ed and I had compared post vaccine symptoms and came to the unremarkable conclusion that they were exactly the same (sore arm), but I think he seized on this excuse of the theoretical possibility of lethargy to rest up a little. Still, he does lumber down for breakfast!

We talk about the snow. About how pretty it is. (It's snowing once again...)

 

 

 

And I recount this story from today: I had texted my daughter, asking how Snowdrop was liking her new teacher and classmates. She is starting new everything next week -- a first entrance into her new school building, with a new teacher and mostly new classmates, though some are being transferred, along with her, from her Zoom class. Today they were all going to have a Zoom meeting: new kids, new teacher, Snowdrop.

My daughter responded -- school was cancelled. (We're talking about the Zoom online meetup today.)

Why? -  I asked, surprised.

They're taking a snow day.

So in case you are wondering if snow days are a thing of the past, now that we have online instruction so niftily in place, the answer is no, they are not.

Ed and I, of course, go nowhere and see no one. And on a day like this, who could mind a cozy snuggle on the couch with whatever it is that you want to do -- torture yourself with politics, learn a new language, write a book perhaps. Just some possibilities...

Toward evening the snow tapers off and indeed, we even see a few breaks in the clouds. Time to head out with skis!

And it is gorgeous out there in our county park. It's windy as anything and perhaps for this reason, we see no one on the trails, just the grooming truck that magically transforms the path into skiable terrain.

We felt rich, really rich. A quiet, almost secluded ski path, groomed for us as we moved along. A biting wind turning our cheeks brightly red. Even swans! As if we were on an estate, with tended grounds and swans on lakes and maybe a peacock... Well, no peacock, but yes to swans! (They are either the trumperter or the tundra swan. Both pass through Madison each year.)

Beautiful skiing moment on a winter wonderland kind of a day. We've been getting a lot of them this winter. And that's such a gift in this super challenging season.