It’s six weeks after the winter solstice, and darned if it doesn’t feel like spring.
The snow is pretty much gone, and there’s lots of boot-sucking mud.
In a real spring, we’d expect the river and the creek to be higher, but who knows what we’ll get this year if we continue to get so little snow.
Wait a second. Am I complaining about how little snow we’ve had? Man, there’s no pleasing me.
Add to the lack of snow the fact that we went hiking on Groundhog Day and saw no groundhogs whatsoever. Granted, we’ve never seen one on a hike before, but they really could have made an effort on the holiday named for them. On the way to the trailhead the kids and I were imagining a groundhog fête with whistlepigs in party hats dancing to bluegrass music and gnawing on crudités.
We didn’t even see any muskrats. The closest we saw was a hawk, which took flight as I pointed my camera at him. He was clearly also disappointed not to find a rodent party in the meadow. (Update: my daughter says she thinks this might actually have been a Northern Harrier (Circus cyaneus) because it had a white underside.)
The trail was extra-friendly this week, though, and bid us farewell as we walked back to the car.
Until next week!
Imperfect Happiness 