Friday Was Glorious

Friday was glorious and it needed to be.  It has been cold and windy, generally nasty so I hadn't been out much.  Cabin fever has never been a problem for me but I can't really describe how good it felt to be outside on Friday.  It was calm, the sun was shining in a beautiful blue sky.  Pat and I had put on our snow shoes with the idea of renewing the trails that we were sure had blown in.  They weren't too bad and the upside of strong winds is it makes the snow hard allowing us to walk on the surface in many places.
The wind is also a very talented sculptor.  We had a fantastic time wandering around the quarter admiring the sculpted snow.  If only we had brought the camera along. I'm not sure the snow sculptures would have photographed all that well, but it would have been worth a try.

The second reason for wishing we had the camera. We were at the bottom of the ravine just about to start up the hill and I saw white movement.  It was a stoat. 
I must tell you that just before Christmas I was reading a magazine that had an article about stoats. I had never heard of a stoat.  What we have called weasels are actually stoats.  How do you tell the difference.  The tips of stoat tails are black.                    Their reproduction is quite interesting as well but you will have to learn about that yourself.  There will be a quiz. 
We quietly moved a little deeper into the bush and watched that little guy run around for quite awhile.  Pat commented that he has never seen one for so long and maintained that he was watching us trying to figure out what we were up to.  I was thrilled as I had not seen one before.  He was cute!  I have pulled two pictures off the web for those who have never seen a stoat in winter.

I had a look for him the next day when we were down there with the camera but of course he was no where to be seen.