Wednesday Walk

We've been forcing ourselves away from the fireside to take advantage of the winter wonderland.  It's not always easy to drag oneself from the coziness of the fire and put on all those winter togs to venture forth, but once you are out, it is well worth the effort, I guess that's with anything in life.

So here is our Wednesday walk in the park.

Today we saw White Geese as well as the usual Canadian Geese.  They can make quite a raucous, especially we've noticed when a group are about to take off, they just gaggle away, like they're saying to each other are you ready, rev your engines up and let's go.  We spoke to the park range and he mentioned that they could be on their migratory path, as we haven't seen them there all winter.  Although one might think this is a little early, but maybe not if you're travelling all the way up north.  We tend to forget that Pennsylvania is on the same latitude as the most northerly part of Africa.

When the Canadian Geese land they look like a Draconian Star Ship, or should I say the other way around since the Canadian Geese came first.  But truly they do, as they glide in with their wings and necks down, in a group, just a lovely sight to see.  In one of the photos I am gazing up at them.

The second picture shows them eating.  The building at the bottom of the valley is an old Spring House from the seventeen hundreds, that was part of the original farm buildings.  Water would run through and keep their food cool in the hot summers we have; which can hover in the 90 f for weeks and even go over a hundred.

From the open fields we walked down into the woods and to the creek; where we saw a deer.  Later on talking to the park ranger he said he was a runt, rejected by the herd.  I guess that's why he never ran away from us.  He had found some greenery on some shrubs to eat and he was not going to leave.

The benches around the park are donated by different ones mostly in memory of dead loved ones, so they all have a plaque, you may recognize the seat with the wreath on, as it's one of our favourite benches to sit on at the park, overlooking the creek.  It looks a little different under snow.  Someone must have hung the wreath there in memory.

I have always loved teasels, there is something so Wind in the Willowish about them.  They remind me of hedgehogs, or maybe it's because you can take a teasel and make it look like a little hedgehog, from a Beatrix Potter tale.

Just for Jean, yes here is the snow plow, plowing the park roads.

And cross country skiers in the distance.

While at the park office I picked up a paper on all the birds seen at the park, so I thought that I would look their pictures up in my bird book.  It's lovely to have this little park, 700 acres, surrounded by suburbia.

Christy