Sunday Afternoon Doings

Sunday afternoon Jim and I decided to go look for rosehips. I neglected to pick them after the first frost but we decided to give it a try since we knew last fall where there were quite a few loaded bushes. The day was so beautiful, with little wind, lots of sun -- and warm! We started out down the hill from our house, but there were not many to be found. I remembered a lot of bushes along the edge of our big field, so we headed out that way.

Too bad we don't have snowshoes or cross country skis, although I wonder if we could have stayed on top of the snow for long. We were plodding along in snow up to our knees, so we received quite a work out. I didn't mind, as it felt so good to be out and about after hibernating during the recent cold snap.

We skirted along the edge of the woods, and it was fun to check out all the deer trails and places where they had bedded down in the brush. I have a feeling that deer like rosehips as well, since the bushes we checked out last fall no longer were loaded with the rosehips. We did line our ice cream buckets with them, but that was all we found.

On the way back we walked close to the shore of the lake. Jim noticed a bush that had quite a few highbush cranberries, so he scrambled down almost to the lake shore to pick them. While we were there a snowmobiler came rushing across the lake, and we waited to see if he would run the thing onto our property. Thankfully he had sense enough to make a big u-turn and head back the way he came. It's frustrating to me to look out over our fields and see the scars of snowmobile tracks -- and know they belong to someone that is trespassing.

We passed a spot near the lake where beaver have been busy cutting down trees. There's a little stream that runs there in the spring, and a large downed tree we use to walk over the water. I had forgotten what was below the tree, so I stepped onto the log and then down on the other side -- only to sink to my hips in snow! It was a bit tough to get out of that one.

It was a very relaxing day, and I hope we have more sunny, above zero days to enjoy before spring arrives and the snow melts.