The Homestone

Monday, January 21, 2013

Chinooks and swamp donkeys



We are basking in a Chilcotin Chinook right now.   
Beautiful warm days ~ t-shirt and picnic kind of weather.   Well, almost.

What happens to the Nivean world in a Chinook?  It would be like the roof of your house dropping in on you. On these warm winter days the crust drops as the snow melts... 
‘Nivean/sub-nivean; a term I just learned ….  the world under the snow.  It describes the winter environment of voles and mice and insects who set up camp in that layer between what we see as the crust and the frozen meadow below.    Fascinating. 

Beautiful.  
These warm January days have offered the most magnificent light shows at sunup and sundown.  










We've barely seen moose on the meadow since the big wildfires here a few years ago.  We were sitting at the kitchen table the day before yesterday and David said "I can feel someone watching me.  There is a moose out there."   Three moose on the meadow !!! that he sensed were there before we saw them.  He is uncanny like that. 
 
We were on the lookout again this morning, knowing that once the swamp donkeys arrive, they generally stay for a while.  Lo and behold David burst out laughing as he spotted two BIG ears poking out of the snow down by the flagpole.
Sure enough there’s the young’un of the three moose … and once he was up and about we got some good pics of him.
Onward, ever onward. 
Lots of power, courtesy of the sun.
Life is good.  
For us and, methinks, for our 4 legged visitors too.

1 comment:

Hildred said...

Wonderful post, Nick, - gorgeous skies and friendly moose, and a new word for the world under the snow. Thank you....