🚀 go-pugleaf

She:Kon Kwe KWe
    It is Cindy from the Pole Star Region.
    The Holiday Season is upon us and the house has electric candles made to look like real ones burning electricity instead of whatever it is that the natural ones use as fuel.  The tree is up and it up and it is natural We cut our own from a neighbor, the local "James HErriot " type vets Christmas Tree lot.  Its fragrance brings back memories of Christmases past and helps us render today a happy memory for tomorrow.  Our tree is decorated simply with origami paper cranes of peace, blown out eggs, pairs o



f bayberry scented tapers, tiny white lights, and dried statis.  It looks like something out of the nutcracker when they are in the land of the sugar plum fairies.  The spirit of giving and love and hope is within us and desires to come forth.
    The foot of snow on the ground, which came well befroe Christmas, lends those accustomed to the wintery delight, lends a mantle of continued beauty to the sleeping "Mother".
     LOCATION
Rural Ashfield, Massachusetts, USA 130 miles west of the Atlantic Ocean
Longitude:42o 30'N Latitude:72o 46'W
      S
      STUDY AREA
My backyard (includes about 15 acres 1/2 pasture 1/2 woods with a stream on the west .
     THE WEATHER
COld and windy.  The shutters have had to be secured as the wind has been gusting making the cold even more so.  Thank goodness the horses have a goodk winter coat or they would be most uncomfortable.  Need to check their water buckets several times daily and each tiem find the ice several inches thick.  Old man winter and I do our yearly battle over icing over the buckets.  The horses don't have access to the stream at this time of the year and it is too dangerous as it is mostly frozen over although unde



rneath there continues to be a good current.  
The temperature remains around the freezing numbers but is high enough to have intermittent flurries of snow.  We have a day or two of clear weather than one like today where it  misted, drizzled ice and had flurries of snow.  These didn't amount to much except kept one inside by the homefires.
The local ski area, where my students will ski in January and February, has a great snow cover and is able to continue making snow.  This has been the first good year in about 10 for the local ski areas.  In the past 10 we have gotten more than our fair share of ice storms and they usually hit on the weekends.
    CRITTERS]
Our birdfeeders are a haven not only to the winged ones.  Now we are feeding the pesky gray squirrel{ whom my husband refers to as a rat with a bushy tail, as well as the smaller cousin the red squirrel.  The chipmunk is resting with the weather so he does not come to visit that much.  The problem with the grays is they not only knock all the seed about but in their frenzy to obtain the seed the gnaw through whatever you are using as a feeder for the winged ones.  My surfing son dug out underneath the feed



er, as the snow had accumulated underneath making it easy for the grays to jump up on the feeders, and this seems to have alleviated the problem.  
Not that my son is a critter but he is a surfer and that requires a special kind of beast.  He surf throughout the year and often encounter otter and at some distance dolphins and whales.  Thank the lord he leaves the water when there are seals as they usually harbor critters who have a hard time distinguishing their dinner and seals and surfers when looked at from below are hard to distinguish.  Regardless he surfs in water temps that also range in the freezing zone.  He finally got a dry suit so know he 



can stay out even longer.  Hopes to get down-under sometime in the near future to catch a few of the waves he dreams of.
I better sign off before I further digress . The days start to grow longer.  Sun was rising at 7:45 and setting at 4:30 but as of the 22 the minutes of daylight are growing .   
                                  Sken:nen


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