Here we are, down by the river, and this is the moment just before Jack dives in.

From Giliell, so much adorable! Click for full size.

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There are several fallen trees blocking our usual forest path so Jack and I are scouting out new places to walk. Today we tried this path just outside town, but found that it was too noisy and not very scenic. It might look better with a bit of greenery, but winter just won’t give up this year.

From Giliell, click for full size! Such a serious looking cutiepuss. :D

© Giliell, all rights reserved.

Our feet took us past the train station today.

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We had a lot of freezing rain over the weekend and it caused some minor damage to the trees in my neighbourhood. A few small branches down here and there, but nothing serious. I wish I could say the same about our favorite trail in the woods. Today we found major storm damage there, including three large trees, each about 25 – 30 meters high, pulled up by the roots and laying across the path. There are also several smaller trees and lots of large branches down across the forest and over the path. We went around a lot of obstacles today and in places we had to scramble up and over. This will likely cause damage to the flowers as well because people are treading off the walking path and onto the beds where the trilliums and jack-in-the-pulpit grow. We also heard a few branches cracking overhead which gave the whole place quite an eerie feel. All in all not our usual walk today.

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Today Jack and I drove out to the country so we could take our walk beside a pretty little river called the Thames.  It’s named after England’s Thames river, but it’s much smaller, much slower, very shallow and not fit for boat travel of any kind. Even a canoe can only go a few feet before getting stuck on a sandbar. I know about that from experience. Today, though, the water was very high with a strong current and large areas of flooding. There’s also still a lot of ice.

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From Kestrel: We are discing a field preparatory to planting it (even though it does not look like a promising year for rain) and one of the horses, Tito, decided to “help”. You can see he’s not scared of tractors, but it’s still fun to run in the field anyway. At least until it’s time to go back to sleep.

Tito’s a beauty, click for full size!

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For a rare change, today Jack and I have not gone for a walk. The weather has been awful. All morning we had high winds and rain which then turned to freezing rain and now the temperature has dropped to minus 2 c and it’s snowing. It’s also still really windy, making it feel like minus 9 c. Poor Jack had to brave the weather to use the yard, but I haven’t left the house all day. I have a few health problems that are affected by weather and on a day like this the old body starts to feel like an old body. So today instead of our daily photo I’ll give you a classic shot. This is Jack at 3 months old.

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Jack’s been playing in a lot of mud lately and he needed a bath. Giving him one at home can be a bit of an ordeal, though, so instead I took him to the lake for a swim. It washes off most of the dirt and it’s definitely more fun than a bath. We met this friendly couple while we were there and Jack kept us all entertained with his goofy splashing around. He loves to be the center of attention. We had a good time and it was nice to see the water. It’s the only colour I could think to find in this dull, dreary, cold and barren landscape.

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