Making It Up As I Go Along #695

Times are busy and tiring.  Working alone for a few blocks and catching up on sleep during my days off.  Two of my last four days off, I was in bed for between 11 and 12 hours.  Not asleep for the entire time.  But likely sleeping 7-9 hours and surfing the ipad for the rest of the time.

Second snowshoe of the season is under my belt.  It was better than the first from a fitness point of view.  Was out for an hour rather than forty minutes and able to go harder at it.  Likely went twice the distance in that extra twenty minutes of time.  The type of snow helped too.  First time out was soft and fluffy and, despite having snowshoes on, I sank halfway up my shins.  Today, the snow was harder.  For most of the time, I sank no further than ankle deep.

The nice thing about nature in the winter.  You are more able to get hints of the animals than in summer.  Wasp and bird’s nests appear from their leafy hiding.  Mouse and vole tracks can be seen in their little territories of shrubs and ground.  Coyote and fox patrol routes come into view.  You’re left with a real hint of their lives… even when they are out of sight.

For the first time, I was able to view a beaver from my front window.  Looked out one day this week and saw the beaver on the edge of the nearest pond.  Even got an ok shot of him with the camera zoom lens.  He climbs up the bank at night and grabs a small tree from the edge of the forest.  Then slides back down to the hole he’s made in the ice and pulls the sapling down under with him.  Good ol’ Beaver.


What Will They Think?
What will they think in vole town?
To pop out of their crisp grass burrows
And see their interrupted pathways.

The soft network of voley footprints
Barely disturbing the softly fallen fluff.
Now invaded by the crunch of snowshoes.

My giant stomps cratering the virgin white
As a four lane highway
Blasting across their peaceful country path.

I turn back to examine their tracks.
Seeing how they lead this way and that.
But always returning to that small gap in the brown field grass.

Like a cowardly parking lot dinger of doors,
I decide to scurry away before they come out.
Hoping they won’t notice the paradise damage
Until I’m miles away.

Making It Up As I Go Along #694

Another long layoff from the blog.  Lots of goings on that distracted from the writing habit… or left me too tired to want to try.

The first Christmas ever with the seven closest family members.  The last time Edena and family were included in Christmas, Claire (about to turn 19) was not yet born.

It was a nice time but frigid cold during the sister’s visit.  Not a great deal going on outside with temperatures pretty well staying at or below -20.  Many days had a windchill below -30.

Mom and dad’s condo is finally under control and feels like a home.  It’s nice having them nearby.  There’s quite a difference between visits and meals with family when you live in the same place as compared to week or two long visits.  The visits are never leaving room for ordinary life.  Everything is a scheduled event fit in to the timeline of the visit.  This is more casual and natural.  Perhaps Edena and Duff will have to retire east one of these days.

I’m not sure where to put the snow.  December was both cold and snowy and my driveway is already bursting at the seems with snow clearing.  My lawn is already a four foot mound of snow and we still haven’t gotten half way through January.  With 30 to 40 cm of snow due this weekend, I’m actually wondering if I’ll have to leave the car out of the garage and no longer worry about clearing the snow from in front of there.  I’ve never had to consider this kind of thing in the six years I’ve been living here.  I guess we’ll see.

You know you’re getting tired of the constant fight and insults of social media when your two favourite twitter feeds are one that shows images of the covers of space Lego sets from the 1970s to 1990s… and, a bear.  That’s right, I follow a bear on twitter.  And the space Lego memories often bring a smile to my face.

Mom and dad have a great view of nature from their condo.  A large cedar bush wall sits outside their windows.  Juncos, chickadees, a pair of cardinals and three rabbits all call the area home.  They’ve got a 55 inch 4K TV in the living room, and I’m often back on to it hoping to get a good look at a cardinal… or watching the goings on of the rabbit clan.

With that, it’s time to catch up on the other thing I’ve done much less of lately… going out for a walk in the woods.  Perhaps this will be the first time with the snowshoes this year.  Time to explore wildlife tracks in the snow.  Rabbits, coyotes, birds, squirrels and smaller rodents… I should be able to get a glimpse of their daily activity.  The great benefit of lots of snow.