Meteorological winter starts tomorrow and with some predicted snow and wind, it probably will look and feel like a white winter wonderland for the start of December. But I rather see white in the form of foam caused by lovely waterfalls instead, especially on a nice summer day hike where you don’t have to be bundled up in coats and hats.
Foaming Falls
This morning there was a lot of critter tracks in the fresh snow like deer, squirrel, dog and cat, including some bird tracks at the door. It is always interesting to see the variety and number of tracks created in a few hours but it is more fun to observe bird tracks left on the beach sand during a warm and sunny day.
Seagulls on the Sand
There are still some corn fields not harvested yet, but even though the corn stalks might be standing yet, there are many bare cobs where the various critters have helped themselves to a snack of corn kernels. The yield will continue to go down as more cobs are eaten by hungry critters.
Bare Corn Cob
I guess I should have known when the squirrels were stocking up on my bird seed yesterday that it would snow today even if the weather forecasters didn’t mention the “s” word. Even the red cardinal was at the feeder this morning confirming that it was snowing.
Seed Eating Squirrel
My pond refroze since the colder weather has returned but the water created unique inkblot like patterns across the surface of the pond.
Ice Spots
The chickadees seemed extra cheery this morning and I suppose it was because the sun made a brief appearance. Although the steady flow of chickadees stocking up at the feeder all day has me wondering if they know about the colder temperatures coming again.
Chickadees Stocking Up
It was hard to see very far this morning with through the fog, but the fog meant above freezing temperature which caused almost all of the snow to melt exposing the autumn leaves once more before the next snow covers them.
Leaves Revealed
Today I was trying to finish up some outside work, like pruning the raspberry canes, since it was above freezing, but a trip to Raspberry Island in the summer to see the lighthouse would have been more exciting.
Raspberry Island
For many people, the Thanksgiving meal included turkey as the main course but another common item is cranberries in a variety of forms. It’s debatable whether or not there were cranberries at the first Thanksgiving, but due to the importance of cranberries as a native fruit in early North America it is believed that they would have been at the first Thanksgiving. These cranberries were harvested last month, when the temperature was much warmer than it was today.
Cranberries for Thanksgiving
Since most of the turkeys are already dressed and ready to be put in the oven tomorrow, this guy is probably safe from being the honored guest at tomorrow’s Thanksgiving dinner. But the deer hunt continues for a few more days yet so with the guns going off, he might not feel very safe.
Safe Turkey
