Snow-Dusted Morning

I had another dusting of snow overnight. This one was unexpected, though the sky was overcast all evening, and I didn’t know it had snowed until I opened the front door. Baby Dog exploded out the front door like she was shot from a cannon. She slipped on the powder, crashed into the deck chair and the cat feeder, recovered her footing and leaped off the deck, never looking back. Oh, the joys of youth.

Off I went, at a much slower pace, to retrieve the ricocheting dog who was now running from one end of the driveway to the other. Snow does that to her, for some reason. Eventually, she wore herself out, we set off for our much more sedate morning walk, though she never really calmed down completely. Snow makes her giddy, and since she’s just 1.5 years old, she’s already pretty giddy.

The wild critters aren’t made giddy by the snow, not at least as far as I can see. A bit of snow brings more birds to my feeders but that’s about the extent of it. The opossums and the raccoons are hibernating. The deer still come out at dusk to graze in the field that Roundtop uses for overflow parking. I saw nine of them the other night. Squirrels raid my bird feeders daily, plopping their fat selves in the middle of one and eating until they can’t eat anymore. I have very fat squirrels.

I haven’t seen turkeys or fox lately. This morning in the snow I saw a mouse trail crossing the lane and then crossing back again. It is, finally, starting to feel more like winter. The temperature is more winter-like, and the forest is starting to take on the feeling of winter’s sleepiness, where not much happens and even that slowly. I still have a vague sense that this year winter is more like a nap than a good night’s sleep, but at least winter is no longer an insomniac.

The photo today is taken down at Roundtop’s old snowmaking pond, just as the first rays of morning were breaking through the clouds.