Isn’t it? The weirdest winter ever?
I mean, there’s no snow! I’ve only been out on the snowshoes once, and truth be told, I didn’t reeeeee-ally need them.
There’s even bare ground by the lake’s edge, for goodness sake.
My Cookie and I took another walk this week. Once at the lake we walked on the ice and followed the shoreline.
Cookie raced ahead, then raced back whenever I stopped to listen to the quiet and look up for interesting subjects for the camera lens. Like this little guy.
Every time we head for the lake, I hope I’ll find my eagles sitting on a branch. One of my students lives further down the lake. He told me they see them quite often right now because they throw the “junk fish” they caught onto the ice.
“You should hear how their talons scrape on the ice as they walk across it for the fish,” he exclaimed.
Alas, all I saw was the empty nest.
But the Pileated Woodpecker was on the point again! I’ve seen him more in the last month than I have in all the twenty-one years I’ve been walking these woods.
It’s not a very clear photo, but can you see his tongue?
He kept a close watch on Cookie as she ran from tree to tree, sniffing the bare ground.
Eventually, Cookie and I continued on our way until we were home, where she immediately curled up on the rug and took a nap.
No napping allowed for me though. I have another round of revisions for Mystery of the Eagle’s Nest sitting on the laptop. Every revision has less and less to work on, but with every revision the plot gets tighter and the story stronger. I love the questions my editor asks!
Time to get back to it . . .