The snow folk

More snow has fallen in the last few days.  So much snow that the neighborhood kids had enough to build two snowmen; or rather a snowman and a snow-woman!  Topsie didn't approve of the snow folk loitering around the courtyard and growled at them whenever we went by.  The snow folk took it all in stride dismissing her objections to their presence.  They were, after all, only in town for a few days.

The first ice

December also brought with it the first snow and ice of the season.  As we set off on our morning walk, ice encased the world around us. The trail was covered in a dusting of icy snow and the bare branches of the trees around us were preserved in a layer of ice. As we made our way through this pristine landscape, we couldn't help but notice a set of tracks on the ground that by all accounts looked like a deer may have come this way.  It has been a few years since we've seen any deer in the glen and hopeful that they may have returned, Tinkerbelle and I came back later to leave a few apples. 

Tracks in the ice

Pendulous things

The first smaller pod

The second larger pod

December started out with the pendulous things.  On more than one occasion just a few days apart we spotted the strange pod like objects hanging from the trees.  With fall almost over, and the leaves all shed from the trees, they easy enough to spot  dangling from the bare branches. We spotted the first smaller pod on our daily walk as it hung from the branch of a bramble bush.  The second pod we spotted at the park coming across it as dusk fell upon the park.  This one was much larger than the first, big and round at the top and tapering to a narrow point at the base.  Tinkerbelle, who is the tallest, walked around the pendulous thing trying to

We spotted the pod as dusk fell

figure out what it could be.  We speculated for a while, each offering our suggestions, before agreeing that it is probably a nest of sorts. But not the sort to poke or prod, we decided, lest it turn out to contain an unfriendly surprise!