So far...a mild winter...

The amount of snow we have is piling up without us realizing it! We've really had only one large dump of snow, one big snowstorm, but it seems to just keep "flurrying" as I call it, non-stop over the last few weeks. Walking through our bush, it was beautiful and quiet, and full of tracks. And I didn't expect as much snow, but being wind-protected, it does pile up.

The other thing you find, living up here, is when it snows, it usually stays due to colder temperatures. It just doesn't melt as it does further south. Pros and cons, I guess, under normal conditions, we have snow from November to March, occasionally still into April.

This is the front field, and though it may only look like a few inches of snow, there are two layers. This often happens, a layer of snow on the ground will form a hard crust. Sometimes you can walk on it - nice, but other times you sink through, and that is really hard walking. Here, we have fresher snow over the hard layer, hard enough to stay on top.

Our favorite old birch tree that is being (we think) mainly held up by surrounding trees. Each time there's a storm with high winds, we wonder if it will still be there. It's pretty much dead, with branches coming off regularly. We walk quickly under it!

A Dove Parade...

I've never before seen the mourning doves walking and pecking along the deck railing. Unfortunately, I could only get these 4 in the picture, as this was the only window without a screen to shoot through. The other three are out of the shot to the right. When I first spotted them, all 7 were walking one behind each other in the same direction. It was the funniest thing. But when I got back with the camera, they had moved. They are quite skittish and fly off quickly.

It's been one whole year!

I can't believe that it was a year ago today that I posted my first blog on Birch-Bark Hill. What a struggle it was figuring out how to do this to begin with. Donna helped me, and had pushed me to begin a blog months before; I was dropping my website at the same time. And Jo Ann walked me through some of the 'blog lingo' that I couldn't figure out. So thanks, ladies! I really enjoy blogging, probably mainly because I love to take photos, and do on a regular basis. With the website, it was 'always the same'.
I didn't take any pics. today, so here's one of Blast from yesterday on a walk. He's up on that same old rock pile, but now covered in snow, with one of his favorite toys to pull with. I guess we have at least a couple of months still of snowy pictures, sure will be nice to see something different, eh?!