The Woods in Winter

My husband wanted to go for a jog, so I went along, walking, with camera. There had been some discussion of actually driving somewhere for this small adventure, but in the end, we just walked up to the gameland that's 15 minutes from our front door, the Scotia Barrens, state gamelands (or SGL as we like to say) number 176.

Conditions were cold, with bright sunshine. We'd had a tiny skiff of snow recently and the ground was just a little bit white. It's amazing that somehow even just a tiny amount of snow makes things look much more wintry. Above is one of the paths into the gamelands. Doesn't it look inviting?

And then we walked home - or rather, I walked, my husband biked - but it was so cold on a bike, he said. Too cold for bikes, maybe even. And when we got back to our own porch, who should be waiting there for us but the little gray neighbor kitty who comes visiting often.

The kitty has become quite bold lately, and has crawled into my car, and into my husband's car; and nearly got stuck in the garage one day when the garage door came down.

He has also tried to get in the front door, and sadly got a paw caught in said door the other night when my husband didn't see him there. (Paw seems OK, thanks, and kitty seems a bit less likely to charge the door now.)

The kitty lives just a few houses away but he seems to want to spend most of his waking hours with us, even when it's cold. My husband has fixed a little cat-nest for him in a chair on the front porch, and the kitty loves to spend hours and hours there.

When we arrived home, the kitty was in the cat-nest on the chair. He rolled around luxuriously, and stretched his paw out toward me in the sun. You may see the dramatic paw-stretch in the extras: It almost seems like he might be saying, "Live long, and prosper!"

The song for the above image of the woods in winter is the Decemberists, with January Hymn.