Tracking

Saturday afternoon, up in an area called Redman, about 20 minutes from our house.  Bernie wanted to get in some Xcountry skiing; I wanted to get in some snowshoeing.

Check out how deep the snow is, and how untracked aside from Bernie's ski trail.

Lots of pretty scenes...

Figured you might want to come along with me.  

Mostly I am looking for animal tracks.

I don't have any means of identifying any tracks I come across, but that doesn't really bother me at all. 

Tracks are beautiful even if I don't know what kind of creature made them.

Looks like an embroidery stitch, doesn't it?

All the tracks are animal made here.  The humans have a groomed x-county ski track that circles the forest.  Bernie is on that; I have the forest to myself.

Well, at least by myself as far as other humans go.

Overhead the ski was just starting to get the slightest bit of milky haze from an incoming storm. 

Milky hazed sky= rainbow around the sun, as usual.  After the first time I saw this phenomenon and blogged about it, I have seen it many times. 

Usually I feel a bit guilty about adding my own tracks in otherwise pristine snow. Knowing a major snowfall is due during the upcoming night allowed me to clomp about guilt free...my tracks will be buried overnight and the snow will be pristine again come dawn.

I'm following the tracks...and find it interesting how often they go to a tree, and sometimes disappear there too.

A stream bed was burbling softly close by so I plowed over there to see.  This ENORMOUS fallen tree spanned the stream.  I can't imagine how something that big managed to break off so close to the ground.

Some tiny creature had come by to investigate...

 

I didn't dare try to follow the tracks that led over the snow piled up over the stream.

The tracks of whatever that creature was looked like very tidy straight back stitch stitches.

OK...I would love to know what animal made the two side by side tracks followed by two in a column behind track.

Don't those tracks look like they are leading out?

My absolute favorite scene of the day.
My favorite photo too...

This is the backside of the  mound in the previous pictures.

I am forcing myself to smile here.  There are about four pictures before this one that Bernie took of me with my mouth wide open in a pant trying to catch my breath.  I had handed over my camera to him at this point because I was exhausted.

Believe it or not...a few minutes earlier I was heading back to the car at our agreed upon time when I walked over a very slight rise in the snow and had one leg drop down between the bench and the table of a snow covered picnic table.

I didn't hurt myself, but it was just plain awkward and required a lot of strength to pull the one leg free (with snow shoe!) while straddling the bench and having fallen flat into the deep snow with my upper body.

So ridiculous trying to extract myself from that contortion...and as I rolled about, I could see Bernie skiing by just a few yards away.  I yelled...and could of blown my emergency whistle that I was wearing, but by the time he heard and turned back I had gotten myself free.

Surprising how winded gaining such an "escape" made me!

We traveled together back to the car along the path we had broken an hour earlier.

I was SO glad to see the gate...I was huffing and puffing like crazy.

Bernie helped me off with my boots and I collapsed into the front seat, and started swigging water. Oh did that water taste good and oh did the heated seat feel good too as we drove back down the canyon to home.

And lest you imagine that we live in a frozen wasteland...here's the thermometer on our deck photographed when we returned home at 3 pm. 

It did snow overnight. 
The view from the back deck this afternoon.

And the view up the street. The big tree in the corner foreground is in the corner of our front yard.

A high school classmate posted pictures he took of Switzerland on Facebook yesterday.  If he hadn't stated that his pictures were taken in Switzerland I would have just figured he was in SLC for the Presidents Day weekend, along with a hoard of other visitors looking to get in some ski time.

I want to post this picture to my FB page 'cuz my scene here is better than his scene there...

(There are a couple of my high school classmates that live here  in SLC.  We think where we live is cooler than where the rest of our classmates live). 

This is the house one up from us...the brown fence is on our property.

The view at the foot of our street...I stood four houses down in the middle of street to take the picture.

I never get tired of this view across the valley.

The house in this picture is directly across the street from our house; I am standing in the middle of the street again at the roadway "T" one house down.

And there are animal tracks to be seen closer to home too...these being Tiger/Missy's tracks.
He comes by and spends the day on our deck couch every day.

Even when it means he has to "snowpaw" through the snow to get there.

Keep your eye on the birdie!

The goldfinch are steady customers at the window feeder again. They perch out on the tree, then flit in to grab a thistle seed, then flit back to their favorite branch over and over again.

As the time progresses, they feel a bit more comfortable lingering to peck out several beakfuls before flying off again.

I appreciate it when they linger; it makes taking their picture much easier.

Bitsy feels the same way, but for different reason I am sure.

Anyway...everyone in the house is enjoying the exact same hobby: bird watching.

Maybe the birds have a hobby too?
Wonder what it is that they like to watch?

A catchy song...

A goofy little tune that got stuck in my head...

I like it because the guy is falling head over heels in love with someone he just met (her car died on the side of the road), and he is already talking about making a family and having kids.

Signs

A heavy snowfall performed a white-out function in our world yesterday.
As we drove around a bend, a sign blasted colorfully at us, warning of curves ahead.

Each curve was posted; it wasn't hard to notice the warning when it was against such a colorless backdrop.

The speed limit sign was harder to see... and it advised a speed that was faster than advisable for the situation. 

Slowing down was wise both for safety and scenic appreciation.

Coming upon a place to pull over was a bonus for picture taking.

Most of the roadway was so snow banked as to make stopping an ill-advised plan.

When we did stop, I found beauty everywhere I looked.
I looked all around me.
I looked up...

And up higher...

The furthest views on high were shrouded with snowy fog.

 

I was using a tripod and a prime lens; both seem limiting to me as I couldn't just swing my camera around freely as I do when I am doing hand held shooting.

The prime lens allowed no zoom. 

The trade off:  learning to take the time to set up a shot, and then getting the shot in crystal focus.

Seeing signs while journeying...and life journeying.

Sometimes the paths are flat and one can see quite far ahead. Other parts of life seem to have warning of curves ahead.   Then there are times when you are headed into woods that seemingly have no signs or warnings at all.

(I was on snowshoes here, walking around a frozen snow covered lake while Bernie cross country skied a different trail.)

All this snow...yet just two days earlier I found another sign of sort.

I had been walking through a garden, a winter frozen dull place.
The bare branches and bare flower beds offered little visual beauty to me. 

As I rounded a curve on an up hill path...thinking that the walk had yielded nothing of interest...

I found another sign.
The first blooms of winter.
The snowdrop!

I sprawled flat on the path to nudge my camera close, then closer to commune with their bowed headed beauty.

Up close...I saw an early Valentine!  A green heart, hidden away, turned upside down.
Perhaps the heart was a Valentine meant to be seen only from the view of the earth while looking heavenward?

 

 

Lifting a blossom, I peeked inside.
How secret, how tiny is this winter braving bloom!

There were signs all throughout the garden; not a one was staked here to say that snowdrops were in bloom.
There wasn't much to see for anyone traveling swiftly by.
Sometimes to find refreshment of ones soul one has be humbly prone, with one's chin on the ground to really see life's garden hidden treasures.