Kendal dotes on Faye. Rightly so, she adopted him about ten years ago. Here he is zoomed in on her. He is an elder statesman now, he’s twelve plus and entitled to some special treatment. Kendal is not perfect, who is? At twelve he is still enthusiastic, full of life. He’s a good boy and I love him.
No more words necessary.
Like the maple tree all five of us reached out to the sun, enjoying some time outside. We have endured a long, cold, snowy winter. It isn’t over yet, we will have more cold and snow to endure. Yet I think the most brutal and hardest spells are behind us. Winter’s end is closer, each day spring is one day closer. A cardinal was caroling in our Manitoba maple day before yesterday.
No, not a face plant. Faye busted me stretched out capturing a ground-level view of light and shadow.
Taken with the PlayBook.
I have had trouble connecting the PlayBook to the laptop thereby backing up the 700+ photos on it. Today I finally came across a back door way to link and backup, thank goodness. I would not want to lose shots like this blush of dawn.
Won’t see anything like this tomorrow morning, about 10 cm of snow is predicted for tonight. It’s howly-growly out there as Faye likes to say, there is a stiff and gusty wind blowing now. Rain for Thursday.
Taken and posted with the PlayBook.
We sat outside for a while this afternoon. The snow had stopped, the sun emerged, and the thermometer made a giddy charge in the general direction of the freezing mark. While it stopped short of achieving that ambitous goal, it was a pleasant sojourn.
The cattle dogs joined us and for a time Achilles lay down on the duvet Faye spread out on the snow. Several crows roosted high in the maple tree across the road and Achilles exhibited an unusual level of interest in them.
Sorting through photos, I came across this one of a white trillium, Trillium grandiflorum, Ontario’s official emblem. On one of my visits before moving to Canada Faye led me on a walk on a path in the bush adjacent to Wawanosh Lake in Huron County. It may have been the first time I saw this beautiful woodland flower.
We were in the Goderich area yesterday. It was a glorious day. Driving a back road we startled this owl off the roadside onto a hydro pole. Faye got out and took a number of photos. It is still so surprising that a bird which must be unaccustomed to humans and cars tolerated our presence for 10 or 15 minutes. Faye cropped and zoomed the original image and this is the result. Yes, it’s looking directly at the camera.
Full credit to Faye for having the eye, the patience to capture the original image as well as coming up with this great image.
Some birders never see this magnificent animal and I’ve seen two in two weeks. How remarkable, how fortunate I am.
Here are a few more photos from our Moore Habitat Management Area (MHMA) snowshoe outing.
MHMA has a variety of habitats including an experimental tallgrass prairie, upland forest, riparian river, and floodplain forest. The main reason I chose this place is that it was sheltered from the stiff southwest wind creating wind chills of around -20C. We spent all of our time exploring the floodplain forest.
It was easy to see why this is floodplain forest. During the January thaw, the water level was apparently several feet deep here, as Faye demonstrates.
The work of parasites made cool patterns in the trunk of this dead tree.
Neat framing.
Faye as we head back to the car.
I look forward to a return visit.
previouslytexan 