Where's the Blizzard?

Well, that blizzard that was so hyped? Yup, never happened. We got maybe an inch of snow up here. All that was left was a whole lot of wind and cold air. I must admit, I am not unhappy to have escaped with only a dusting of new snow. We have enough, honest!

In the end, despite the fact that I could have gone for a run, I stuck with the plan to hang out with Sam and Ryan all day. We had pancakes and bacon for breakfast (Sam ate four pieces of bacon!), had a morning drawing session, talked to Neenie and Pip and Morgan via Facetime, worked on some of Sam's stretches and exercises for her right leg, and then later this afternoon, suited ourselves up in all the layers and headed over to the Cathance for a snowshoe.

Yes, it was cold and it was windy, but it was also wonderfully sunny and we were walking out in the woods, mostly protected from the wind. It was lovely out there. Nicely packed snowshoe trails surrounded by deep snow, animal tracks to look at, big piles of snow atop trees and branches, the river gurgling on our left, and even some trail to break! Sam is getting increasingly stronger and more comfortable on her snowshoes and we had a lot of fun. No one else was out there and we had the trails to ourselves. We stayed out for about 1 1/4 hours and snowshoed 1.25 miles. It was a great way to end a nice day together.

Morning drawing session: Flora. Sam decided we should start with the Canada Yew.

Afternoon sunlight

Cookie break!

Relaxing on the bench which is covered in snow!

Pretty woods

Sam and Ryan snowshoeing

Long shadows

 Our return route took us back on a short stretch of trail that had not been broken out. Sam decided she would break trail for us, and when I asked her how it was, she said, "This is easy!" She is one tough cookie :)