It has warmed up. About -10C at 9 a.m. so we got our new winter clothes out and took the dog for a walk. Headed down the hill to our new favorite walk along River Ridge Golf Course. We were the first humans to make footprints on that path since the snow fell, but certainly not the first beings. The path was full of scents for Kelso and his ears were perked the whole way, waiting for 'something' to run out of the surrounding bush.
Walking in 6 inches of powder snow is hard! Really hard. I was gobsmacked by the difficulty of moving my feet. The clothes are great - neither of us were cold, in fact when I got back into the house I was actually sweating.
Despite the multitude of animal tracks, ranging from very small to really quite large, the only mammal that we saw was a coyote. She ran across the river as we were coming down the path. I didn't have time to get the 300mm onto the camera body before she was across and into the bushes on the other side.
Poor dog needed booties! He had huge ice balls in the pads of his feet and had to stop several times to try to remove them. He was successful with his front feet, but not his back and I actually had to let him off his leash so he could run up the hill, his traction was so bad at the end of the walk.
Spent yesterday Christmas shopping and I was pretty dang successful. Finished shopping for 2/3 nephews, 1/1 nieces, 1/2 sons, 1/1 husbands, and of course we were finished for 1/1 daughters a while ago. Now I have a week to get my head around gifts for parents, in laws and two boys. Should be able to manage that!
I guess I should figure out where to put the Christmas tree this year as my next task.
