brrr again. tuesday morning, it was sunny again…and the lake was suddenly frozen.
do you think the geese prefer the frozen lake? they wouldn’t want it all frozen, because then they couldn’t eat anything under the water…but are there any fish down there? don’t they hibernate in the winter? maybe they don’t, because i’ve seen fishermen out on the lake in the winter when it hasn’t frozen yet.
it looks like they’re all just hanging out, cleaning themselves. no big deal. that’s the thing – maybe they don’t like or dislike the frozen lake – maybe that’s just the way it is, and they have no opinion on the matter. they just are.
at least one of them is sleeping out there. do geese have opinions? that’s my question today.
you see all that yellow snow in a circle around the bird feeder? the bird feeder, incidentally, that is filled with cheez-its. we had a mouse in our pantry, which involved me taking the tons of food out and finding things that the mouse had chewed. mostly it was just cheez-its and dog treats. anyway, when i saw that yellow ring around the feeder i thought maybe it was some kind of deer-peeing-marking their turf kind of thing. upon closer inspection i realized that no, it was seminola flour. the mouse had opened the bag, and kevin sprinkled it all around on the ground. do you think any birds or squirrels or deer will be interested in the flour? perhaps somebody will make some pasta…
poor winnie. he sits in the window and meows at me. i let him out and he literally turns and comes right back in, and then he meows a lot more. a very sad kitty, who would prefer to live in a warmer climate.
here’s a video of the lake – at one point i did capture the geese landing, and you can see them slide to a stop:
i wasn’t going to go meet kevin after his piano class, but then i decided that maybe it wasn’t so bad outside, and mollie would certainly love it, so at 10:30 we set off.
as we walked, i felt a little chilly but mollie was having a grand time.
here, she’s stopping to sniff and dig a little.
walking…and walking…and more walking. you can get a sense of the bigness of the field.
i kept looking for kevin in the distance as we trudged along. well, i trudged, holding my scarf up to my chilly cheeks. mollie ran and bounded all over the place, digging and sniffing, digging and sniffing…
we walked along the back of the student housing, almost to lincoln land. i stopped and watched and he just wasn’t coming. maybe class ran late for some reason? maybe he’d slipped by us? no, of course not that. i also started thinking more about the footprints in the snow – there were lots of footprints when we entered the field, but i didn’t see any at all as we went farther and farther.
i decided to turn back, and scoured the landscape for any signs of footprints. the only ones i could see were my own, and they stood out quite a bit, so if he’d been there, he would have left tracks.
hmm, did he drive to school? i had though he’d headed out the door and marched down the driveway, but perhaps i was just making that up in my head. ok, so if he did drive, when he got home he’d realize that we had walked to meet him, and he’d drive over and rescue us so we didn’t have to make the long walk back.
as i walked i kept looking back towards the school, then out to the road. nope. no kevin anywhere.
when we got to the driveway, there was his car. i burst into the house. I THOUGHT YOU WALKED TO SCHOOL! WHY DIDN’T YOU COME PICK US UP? WE’RE GOING TO BE LATE FOR THE LUNCHEON! IT’S REALLY COLD OUT THERE!
“i thought you were next door at amy’s,” he said. WHY WOULD I BE OVER THERE WHEN WE’RE SUPPOSED TO BE LEAVING???
“i dunno. it didn’t occur to me that you were walking…yesterday you said you wouldn’t because it’s so cold.”
THAT WAS YESTERDAY. A LONG TIME AGO.
we made it to the luncheon in plenty of time, and i didn’t feel quite as guilty about snarfing down some fudge since i’d gotten a really good workout. plus mollie was delighted.
and the thing is, it’s not even the OFFICIAL beginning of winter yet. good grief, charlie brown.
ok then,
mrs. grace hughes.