Well, winter has finally hit the O-town, as I persist in calling our great city. So, this being me, I went for a walk in the snow the other day. The animals, being, as I have commented so many times before, much saner and probably more intelligent than myself, were not in evidence, but I did spot a few signs and such. morover, due to the generosity of my mother (known to most people as "Gwen" and Stephen, I have pictures to share.




Geordie the dog looking a bit bewildered, as he so often does. Possibly wondering what a very small dog can do to avoid getting snow on the undercarriage.










tracking in the snow....this is why cameras are fun. Near as I can determine, those are the tracks of none other than the red squirrel tamiasciurus husonicus , of which we get many around here. I threw in a mechanical pencil for perspective....I didn't have my swiss army knife on me, more's the pity. Tracking is fun, if a trifle complicated. You very rarely get perfectly formed tracks, so there's a fair bit of guesswork involved. I'll be more certain as I get more practice

Also, I think I need to post one more dog picture



primarily because dogs are cute. They aren't really *nature* as such, but they are IN nature.