Skating on the Pond, dancing chickadees

This weekend was a shoveling weekend. After a heavy snow fall this past week access to the cabin was blocked by a few feet of snow. The clean up starts with calling dad and his tractor to come clear the road. Once there I grabbed a shovel and go to it, path to the cabin, cabin deck, around the fire pit and out to the pond. The worst, but maybe the most needed, is the up hill stretch to the outhouse. Luckily L & N showed up to help clear the pond for a skating rink. The ice is surprisingly good considering it hasn’t had much attention this year.

The afternoon provided a little more time for leisure. I went for a snowshoe hike down the old logging road that leads along the pond. The road is little more than a cleared path between trees and almost invisible in the winter with a fresh snow fall on the ground.

Hiking in the woods in the winter is silent. The snow seems to absorb all sound and enhance the peacefulness of nature. The deer tracks crossing the path leave evidence that life is there but otherwise you would think no life existed out here. Nearing the end of the pond I turn right and heading out on to the ice with the thought of hiking out back to the cabin through the bulrushes at the ponds edge. That thought quickly changed as I found the snow waist deep. The bulrushes must act as a natural snow fence and accumulate extra snow around them. Just as I was starting to think of retracing my steps back to the forest a flash of white and black caught my eye. A family of chickadees fluttered all about. I do not know what they were doing. I stopped and watched them for a good period of time. They seemed to be hopping around the bases of the bulrushes to much delight. Were they looking for food, just having a game of tag, or showing off how fast they could move compared to my slow trudge.