Snow Much To Share

"10 [inches] fell in Cambridge!!

Heavy, wet stuff! By late afternoon the feeders snow caps slipped right off!

I hear up north Todd and Donna are having blizzard warnings! Good 'Ol North Shore !

Troll hunter!!

YES!! Snowstorm!!

We ~ I am enjoying a good ol fashioned snowstorm! I just came in from outdoors. I shoveled a little path to the coop and Brook ran and bounced through it all. Her nose buried into wood piles and bent over pines. Sniffing out those little trolls that hunker down in little caves made of drifts and heavy laden boughs. (voles, moles and mice :) I was going to put on the snow shoes and head deeper into the woods. But my short 45 minutes outdoors had me sopped and protecting the camera under a plastic bag wasn't easy. The breeze is brisk and snow blowing in different directions or plopping down on me from the pines. We are expecting snow to continue to fall through early afternoon!! What glory we will be in with this new spread of snow!

Faithful friend, Brook. She loves the outdoors!! Right now she is sprawled out on the couch, head on pillow, snoring!

I can hardly look over there without tears. Dad's home. A beautiful landscape of winter's white. All the hallabalooh of weather talk would entertain us both! His birds well stocked for a snowstorm feast. A watchful eye through the his windows. Snow blowers clearing ...progress slow. Chimney smoke .... a contented fire. A bowl of chili... reclining nap.

Isanti County Park / Trail

Denise and I took an afternoon hike on the Springvale Trails. Beautiful!! It felt like late March, like spring planting in two weeks, like sandhill crane migration time! It's only paved a little ways then off into the birch stands and cottonwoods and coniferous and winding creeks and low land ponds. I was told yesterday that Grant and Mike found big bear tracks on the back end of Grandpa's farm and this trail comes up behind it! He said it was traveling along the creek. So we looked for paw tracks. Only saw horse and dog tracks!! The trail is beautifully carved out in the grasses and woods. It took us an hour and a half to meander our way around.

This could be the left overs of DWARF MISTLETOE. A parasitic plant and a member of the same family as the mistletoe that is kissed under at Christmas time. It is a major scourge of Western pine and spruce forests and weakens infested trees. It's own brownish-green woody shoots project from the infected part of the tree and it often stimulates the tree itself to produce dense masses of shoots that take on the form of WITCHES BROOM. (information on this strange sighting from Ten Mile Lake Association, not my own knowledge but the power of google). :)

Stacking Stones. It symbolizes an Altar. A desire to manifest spiritual connections in our everyday life. To bring the sacred into every thought, feeling, and action. I don't think that's Lutheran.

Tending to the Heart

Kelly and I spent the whole day together!! It was one of those days where we lollygagged our way from couch and conversation, chicken noodle lunch, shopping in North Branch and back to the couch with coffee and conversation again. We discussed the latest page turner on our nightstands to matters of the heart. We are both in loss mode but celebrate the goodness of what dear friends are to each other. We laugh easily. We tell secrets. We are like sisters. We have each other close to our hearts and know when to step in like fierce protectors. We know when to bring comfort. We allow space. We are friends who tend to our hearts.