No photo, but what a sight!

Last night after the wood stove was really putting out some heat, I stepped out on the deck for some fresh, frigid air and heard a funny rustling sound, and out of the mist came a big antlered buck. He's probably the one who rubbed so much bark off the willow trunks. I made a little what I hoped to be encouraging sound but he skittered off into the darkness.

Lots of Baking on a Snowy Day

Molasses turkey and bell cookies, sticky icky hard to handle dough. Two loaves of whole wheat bread, gorgeous lovely to handle dough. We made BLT's for dinner and found the Two Vines cabernet was a perfect match. I have a votive candle going in case the power goes out, but so far, just lots of blinking off and right back on again.

The other day, before it snowed, I was out doing some pruning and discovered a very strange thing. At first, I thought someone had run into this very shrubby willow with a truck and scraped off a lot of bark, but then I realized it had to be done by an animal. No beavers around so it must have been the deer, nibbling away at the bark. I checked with Joe, our very excellent and knowledgeable neighbor, who just had to come over and take a look. He said he'd never seen anything like it before but it must have been the deer who had been around recently. Then suddenly he knew! It was the one with the big antlers! It's rutting season and they like to rub their antlers on trees and get the scent from their sweat glands out to attract the females. Apparently, they don't ever do it so close to a house, but these critters feel right at home around here. After all, we've planted all these special tasty treats in our gardens just for them!

Cliff above Jefferson Beach

12" x 12" acrylic painting

A very old embarrassing canvas impulsively being covered in tinted gesso.




Titled Waltz in the Woods (or something similar). On display at Front Street Gallery.