Winter finally arrived in Northwest Montana this month.  Big time in my little town.  Certainly beautiful.  Certainly a challenge.  Where to put all this snow!?! 

Normal walks are over for now.  Exercise comes mostly in the way of shoveling, though I have a great neighbor who keeps my driveway snow-blown clear for me.  But there’s always shoveling.  First, I had to clear paths for my little dog to do her “thing.”  At one point there were 20 inches in our back yard.  Some days her trenches had to be shoveled out 3 times.  The snow just wouldn’t stop.  And sometimes re-shoveling is necessary when the city snow plow throws snow over your freshly shoveled walk ☹

I haven’t skied or snowshoed in years but still venture out and get my exercise, always with my dog. And always after strapping on boot cleats, as the ice can be terrible and not always obvious.  Paths at river accesses get trampled pretty quickly and we love exploring the current white world, so different from the green or gold backdrops we’ve seen along the river in other months. 

Coco’s usual path to her play spot at the river hadn’t been trampled down yet the other day, but I wanted pictures of the crystals in the water so we went off road.  She’s a tough Montana girl and plunged through the snow behind me. 

And we found a bit of open water for her to get her feet wet and lap a very cold drink.  I love the pics I got.  Then we had to trudge back through our deep path to the regular trail.  It’s heavy, like wet beach sand.  It’s good for both of us 😊

I worry about ducks in our frozen canals.  Footprints are everywhere, searching, and some days there’s no open water. I guess flying around looking for open water is good exercise for ducks and geese but it must be hard. 

I know where a little muskrat lives, in a small hole inches above water level.  It’s been frozen over for 2 weeks now.  I wonder how he gets out and around and finds food?  Winter is a challenge.

Winter uses its talents differently than other seasons, changing water into art – in the water, on the ground, on roofs, dripping off roofs, on trees and windows. 

Some of it requires exercise to enjoy but it’s worth it.  Tradeoffs to everything.  I think we’ll bundle up right now and head out to see what kind of magic awaits our efforts to get there 😊