Surely, Signs of Spring

More musings, some from the drive--again, back from LaCrosse. We love trialing there. Last weekend Maggie earned her TACh #2 in "teacup" agility--an organization geared for smaller dogs, with big dog challenges. Maggie likes the shorter yardage and smaller equipment. Winn is getting the hang of it. In fact he was brilliant at the trial. He missed only one weave pole entry (out of six) and had no off courses. He's living up to his fancy National Champion title and I am proud of our work.



I opted for the shorter (well, faster) drive home. It was nearly 40 degrees on Sunday afternoon. Along I-90, the strong sunshine has glazed the snow. There are many spots where the past few blizzards have sculpted some impressive snowbanks. Fences are still buried nearly to the tops of the posts. And it all reminded me of---meringue! It's still very white, up the hill from the road, and looks as shiny as the top of a pie.


The edges of the dirt roads aren't as pretty--I'd like to say that it looked like shaved almonds, but it's clearly dirt.





And when I got home, Allen pointed out that a "critter" was "growing" underneath the (now-empty) gas tank by the barn. Is it an ice weasel? A frozen camel? A clear panther?






Glad we have it captured here; the week continues warm, and it may crawl back from whence it came.

The commuting deer have now added more members--we counted 14, including two bucks, marching along their trail. They have made a path that we might be able to walk. The snow in the woods is still over the tops of my boots (a good 24") and thus much too deep for my short-legged companions, but we might try the deer path. It winds around the swamp to the south, up a hill into the neighbor's woods, and I think, comes out in our back horse pasture.