Posts Tagged ‘trail walking’
Special Visit
Despite the prolonged drought, some of our flowering plants continue to put on a show and attract hummingbirds.
The 10-day forecast shows no sign of precipitation to ease the suffering of plants that are clinging to life. I think most of them have simply started their transitions toward the end of their growing season.
Even though our grounds look far short of their best, I enjoyed the pleasure of hosting a visit from a couple of my Eden Prairie classmates, Jodi and Kelly, yesterday. (Cyndie is up at the lake with a friend for a couple of days.) This was the first time Kelly had been here. It was a great chance for me to notice through Kelly’s eyes how many different things we’ve done to enhance the property over the years.
As always, the precious energy of Wintervale comes alive whenever people visit to experience the natural beauty of our sloped terrain, forest trails, and open fields.
It doesn’t hurt to have the eye-catching labyrinth and mystical spirits of four beautiful Thoroughbred mares on top of everything else special about our place.
Light and Mix were mostly well-behaved, but not the least bit bashful about insisting they deserved endless carrot bites from our guests. Swings stood back for the most part, not being as interested in trying to chew a carrot. I held a soft treat for her that I was able to serve up in a fleeting moment as she moved past when they all rearranged positions.
Mia removed herself from the area for much of our visit, then eventually made her way in, swinging her head up and down the whole way. She had a cloud of flies bothering her, so I grabbed her a fly mask, and that seemed to help. She even came close enough to receive some carrots, as well.
I expect that none of you will be surprised that I made sure to show off my composting area, but in my defence, Kelly brought up the topic first!
We were blessed with a gorgeous summer day, and the opportunity to spend some casual time with lifelong friends made for a really fine afternoon. I appreciated that they were willing to make the trip. It’s usually an hour-long drive minimum from the Twin Cities, and that can be perceived both as a long trip and as not so bad. Usually, after people have done it, they report the drive is worth it.
Cyndie and I have gotten so used to it that the distance seems perfectly reasonable to us. Still, I respect those who may not be inclined to drive so far, but on occasion do so for our sake.
Sharing our sanctuary with others is as rewarding for me (and Cyndie) as it is for the people who visit. I strongly believe that the horses and Asher tend to agree.
Great minds think alike, you know.
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Night Walks
Just because the daylight hours are short doesn’t mean Delilah doesn’t still get that obligatory one last out-and-about before bed each evening. This time of year those “potty walks” have an added sense of adventure due to the distinct tunnel vision view we experience as we meander along the trails.
Who knows what could be lurking just out of view in the dark?
At least with the snow, we can see clear evidence if there has been recent traffic either crossing or traveling along our same path. I should probably never doubt that Delilah’s nose wouldn’t sense if another animal was nearby but we’ve seen so many times when she appears to ignore some creatures we encounter in our daytime travels that I’m left to wonder.
One time I turned my spotlight 90° to our left in the woods and illuminated four or five sets of reflecting eyes staring back at me for a brief moment before the herd of deer bolted in exit, stage right. Delilah didn’t even flinch.
All the night-vision animals offer up such noticeable eye reflections that it is those two bright dots that I find myself watching for more than anything else. That’s a tendency I have honed over many miles of commuting our country roads in darkness.
I’ve encountered many more staring animal eyes while driving my car than we’ve ever come upon during our night walks. I figure they have a lot more time to figure out I’m coming toward them when it’s me and Delilah plodding along on foot through the darkness and they don’t choose to hang around for a closer look.
Honestly, that’s okay with me. Even though it’s a thrill to occasionally find an owl perched in our woods, I don’t mind doing our treks without uninvited company providing momentary startles right before bedtime.
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Lucky Surprise
Well, well, well… nature didn’t have it in for me after all. That predicted snowstorm I referenced in yesterday’s post got upgraded several times, deservedly so, and smacked us hard with wicked wind gusts driving the falling snow horizontally, making it near impossible to tell whether the accumulation was actually from the clouds overhead or from flakes blowing in from South Dakota.
The deck railing doesn’t seem to collect any snow, but during last night’s final bedtime walk for Delilah, we discovered somewhere between 6 and 8 inches already on the ground, making the trek a bit of a challenge.
The silver lining surprise about it all is that we received hours and hours of significant rain prior to the snow. The rain completely cleaned the driveway!
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My big concern about the old glazed tire tracks becoming the base layer for today’s plowing didn’t come to pass. Hooray! Disaster averted.
Sort of.
Now we have the aftermath of the blizzard to contend with. There is an icy crust over everything from the mailbox to the chicken coop due to the rain that froze, and I’ve got a lot of plowing and shoveling to do.
A little over an hour after the precipitation had turned to snow, Delilah and I were traipsing along the main perimeter trail through the woods and I noticed the view ahead was much different than the view behind us.
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I took pictures of both scenes.
The frosted forest sure is beautiful to look at.
I sure am glad we had the lucky surprise of a clean start before the rain turned to snow.
I sure wish the shoveling was already done this morning.
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Winter Walking
Referring back to my recent post about feeling maladjusted to real cold, this morning’s walk was extremely refreshing at -1°(F). The big moon was low in the west and lit up brilliantly by sun rays that hadn’t crested our horizon yet. I hastily tried to capture a shot with the new Olympus pocket camera while standing on the trail down to the northwest corner of our property.
Nothing spectacular about the image, but that is not the camera’s fault. I didn’t do anything to contribute toward making it a better photo. It was a quick exercise in seeing how well I could pull the camera out of a deep pocket and get a shot with my bare hand while Delilah patiently waited to get on with the more important tasks on her mind.
The pads on her feet are calibrated for the indoor comfort of our house, so the bitter cold snow gets painful for her to stand upon. We made the morning jaunt a short one today, skipping to bother even opening the chicken coop until after the sunshine offers at least a suggestion of possible warmth.
Yesterday, in the bright light of midday, I took some pictures of the snow conditions we are stuck with so far this year.
The snow is crusty, not very deep, and rather uninviting for romping around. That’s not all bad, though. I’ve needed to do less plowing and shoveling, and walking the trails with Delilah can be done without putting on snowshoes.
On the bright side, there is at least enough snow to offer the classic sound absorption that creates mystical quiet in the great outdoors. Both yesterday and this morning the glory and wonder of a winter walk with just the sound of boots on snow were at a peak.
When I stop moving, the lack of sound slowly reveals the delicate notes of a single bird in the distance or the sound of Delilah breathing in the trace of a scent hanging in the still air.
We live in a winter wonderland, no matter how much snow we get.
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Didn’t Hear
If a tree falls…
We didn’t hear a thing, but there is another tree across the trail along our western border. I’m not sure there was even a storm that occurred here since that tree came down, although it was rather windy yesterday.
It was a hot wind for the most part, although the high dew point of 78°(F) caused enough sweating that the air moving across wet skin provided a nice cooling effect. I monitored the storm activity going on to the north all day yesterday, and witnessed some serious damage from hail and downed trees, but the thunderstorms never spread down to us.
I should be more thankful, but part of me feels like we missed out on a big shift of conditions that storms provide. Our temperature and humidity just quietly eased a little overnight. This morning the thunderstorm activity is sliding across just to our south, showing an outside possibility of reaching us before the day is out.
Apparently, Delilah didn’t hear or smell the deer that was laying about 10 feet off the trail this morning. She obviously didn’t see it, despite the rather obvious way the light brown color stood out against the dark earth and green foliage of the surroundings. I decided not to stop for a photo in order to allow this brave animal to remain in place as a reward for it trusting we were not a threat.
I offered a greeting as I passed and we continued on our way. I found it humorous that further along our walk along that perimeter trail, Delilah showed signs she smelled something of interest in the middle of our forest. Her behavior conveyed, “Hey! There are deer in there! Can I go see them?”
Too late now, pooch.
We had a date with the chicken coop to open the hatch and clean the poop board.
I’m pretty sure the hens heard us coming. They started up a chorus of pleas to be freed for a day of free-ranging bug feasting.
I was more than happy to oblige them.
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Relative Something 