🥌 World Curling, Fred Groundhog, snow

🥌 World Curling has kept us going with all the slushy snow and rainfall outside. The WMCC website is quite robust and responsive. 

It is the World Men's Championships, and it took some effort to see the sign. It has two lightly coloured letters, which threw me. It actually says HEIA NORGE, if you see what I mean. Translation: GO NORWAY!

We are hampered by the time difference, it being played out in Switzerland, a 7-hour difference, but TSN has been good at posting the schedule. In between games we do chores. I washed the kitchen floor Friday. After lunch I went walkies in the forest to check trailcams. There was NOTHING on them! The wise critters hunker down in the slushy snow.

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🍀 The Leprechaun is melting! OK, I began creating this post yesterday, and Leprechaun is just a small ball of snow today! 

I peeked in on Percy Goldfish. He is hunkered down under the cedar logs I threw in for protection. He is a bright orange!

We've one star flower blooming. Soon the bees will be out enjoying them (2nd photo ↘ April 22, 2011)! I was attacked by a mosquito yesterday. Soon they will hatch out of the pond and a whole new generation will be on the look out for fresh blood. 

The tulips are OK, as are the daffodils along the driveway.

The trailcam on the steps has captured Fred Groundhog wagging his tail.

Here s/he was on April Fool's Day, prior to the snowfall.

Fred April 1st from Jennifer Jilks on Vimeo.

After the snowfall, I could track Labbit across the yard. Except it melted under the trees in the warmth of the sun. I love those distinct bunny tracks.

I wasn't sure where Fred went. He has several holes in the yard. His claws are quite long, and I found tracks near the shed. Someone knocked over little bear trying to get into the burrow under the slats. We haven't burned as much wood as in the past. 

He has large claws and is an excellent digger and climbs, as well. 

This is a screen capture from last year. Look at those claws.

The frog pond is melted. It has been quiet, though. 

Yesterday most of the snow is gone. This morning it is -1 ℃ but expected to rise to 14 ℃ today.  For the eclipse on Monday, April 8th, we may have clouds. We shall see.

Who goes there? A snow story!

Lots of my fellow bloggers love reading the stories in the snow. This is a deer mouse tale! I caught this one, back in the summer. It's also a hubby, doe and buck and robin tale!


Hubby was out using his new snowblower. I was doing the back deck, and filling bird feeders. Sadly, there have been deaths in the US from this storm.  The NY Times reports:

By Friday night, nine deaths — five in North Carolina, one in Virginia, one in Kentucky and two in Tennessee — had been attributed to bad road conditions and ice. 

We were prepared for last Monday's snow. We are used to such dumps of snow. 


As I walked to fetch the newspaper, I noticed a little but very long track. Having confirmed the track pattern: the two paws, plus the wee tail dragging in the snow, I figured it was a deer mouse. It went a long, long way from the side of the house, around the fence, across the front yard, across the driveway and into the snow. I scouted all around and couldn't find where it came from. It must have come for some seed from under the bird feeder, but this is about 50m away!


This part was fun. as it headed to the driveway, there is a wee curve in the line of the relatively straight track. There is a little hole, as well. I think an owl suddenly went after my traveler mouse! We have quite a few different kinds around here, but the most common or the one I've seen most often, is the Barred owl.


As I was looking for the origin of the deer mouse track (which was beside the house), I found another deer bed just behind the decorative fence. A momma and fawn, with the second fawn just behind the tree.


What is fun, is the the males, who have been scarce, have turned up again. They still have their antlers, too. This is unusually late. I haven't seen my favourite, Tigger, yet.


Then, to my great delight, I found a Robin. There are Mourning doves (3), two Blue Jays, and my Robin in the Horse Chestnut tree. Robin came back later in the day for another drink of water. They normally migrate, although with our mild December and January (till now!), they can overwinter by eating berries, like the sumac berries, of which we have a fair number.

They are so quick!
I am so slow!