Into the woods...again

First, though, the heart.

One of my nieces collects photos of hearts she finds in nature. Try as I might, I can never seem to find a good, natural heart...until yesterday morning..

I was walking with Molly up our driveway when VOILA! I looked down and there, near the front steps, was a perfectly-shaped heart.

I was so excited that I took Molly into the house, grabbed my camera, and photographed the darned thing from three different angles.

A couple of hours later, once the sun had shone on the heart and the day had warmed a little, the heart had turned into a big, amorphous blob.

But at least it was there and I happened to spot it before either Molly or I accidentally stepped into it.

And this morning we went back into the woods, this time on our cross-country skis.

Linda asked after my last post which is harder, snowshoeing or cross-country skiing. Cross-country skiing is definitely harder, but then, it gives a better workout, too.

With cross-country skiing you use your leg muscles to control the direction of the skis...or to try to control their direction. (I took a spill only once this morning, which is about par for me when skiing in the woods. The snow was especially "fast," due to the cold temperature, so I didn't have the control I would have liked.)

Also with cross-country skiing you use your arms as you keep your poles moving along. I like both snowshoeing and skiing, but it's seldom I go out skiing without wiping out. And when I wipe out, I become a turtle on its back. Usually Ken has to upright me and get me moving again.

We studied these tracks for awhile. First we thought they might be coyote, but then Ken said they're probably just squirrel.

Quite a fracas happened here. We couldn't figure out what might have been going on. There was no blood-shed involved, so that's a good thing.

We spotted a lot of deer paths. Ken said it's odd that the deer haven't penned-up yet, given the depth of the snow. We did see a couple of places where they've been bedding-down. And they certainly are enjoying the trail we made, judging from all the deer tracks in it.

It was a cold, crisp, clear-blue-sky morning to be in the woods.

Now the weathermen are all a-twitter with the possibility of a major snowstorm arriving on Wednesday.

We're taking a look-see attitude. If we get the amount of snow predicted, our groomed trail will be no more and we'll have to get out the snowshoes to groom it again. But that's OK.

Into the woods

We finally took the time this morning to put on our snowshoes and go into the woods. Our purpose was two-fold: enjoy the peacefulness and beauty of the woods, and blaze a trail with our snowshoes for our upcoming cross-country skiing. It's much easier to go cross-country skiing if a trail has been made in advance.

So off we went.

We always enjoy looking for signs of deer, and the deer are plentiful in our back woods, despite our neighbor, a hunter, who often complains to Ken that the deer have left the area since we moved to the property adjoining his.

I'm no fool. I let Ken lead the way. That makes the trek a bit easier for me, and I get to "groom" the rough pathway with my snowshoes.

Once we were quite deep into the woods, I turned around and took a photo of the nice trail we were leaving behind us. That's the shadow of the "triple oaks" cast across the trail. We always stop to admire the triple oaks, but I wasn't aware I'd gotten it into this photo. I told Ken if our property were a Southern plantation, "Triple Oaks" would be a great name for it. Alas, it's not a Southern plantation.

The only sound we could hear was that of a distant woodpecker, madly hammering away at a tree.

Here Ken shows me where deer have been digging under the snow, into a pile of brush that Ken cut last summer. They enjoy nibbling the bud ends of the branches.

Ken spends so much time in these woods in the summer, as he's cutting our firewood, that he knows each of the trees practically by name.

I was determined to find a heart for Cheryl, my niece, while trekking about. And find one I did! It's not a snow heart, which is what I expected to find, but it's a heart.

It was a good morning to explore in the woods. I often forget about the life that exists out there, so it's good to see signs of their existence and be reminded we're all on this earth together.

Cold...and cold

First, the cold. I guess that's what it was. It humbled me for ten days, left me practically immobile on the sofa for hours on end, made me wonder if one's sinuses are capable of exploding. For two solid days I didn't so much as pick up a knitting needle, let alone pick up a second needle and some yarn. Now THAT'S a sure sign, if ever there was one, that I'm not feeling well.

But now, finally, I'm feeling much better. I even went to exercise class yesterday morning, and I'm knitting again.

So that's that.

Ken, meanwhile, has been doing some work in our bedroom closets and bathroom. He decided to tear out the carpets in the closets, which we never intended to have in those little rooms anyway but which the building contractor installed for some reason. First, though, because Ken never does a task without doing it thoroughly, he emptied the closets of all shelves, rods, and drawers, ripped up the carpets, painted the ceilings and walls (of the bathroom, too), and put down the new hardwood floors. Now he's reassembling the shelves, etc., in the closets.

Next he'll move on to ripping out the bedroom carpet and putting down a hardwood floor there, too. I'm really looking forward to finally getting a hardwood floor in there!

This photo is of one of the closet doors. For two solid weeks I didn't know where I'd find this door when I went into our bedroom. Here it's leaning against the doorway to the livingroom. Now it's back on its hinges, where it belongs.

Cold! That's what it's been here for the past couple of days. I took this photo of our indoor/outdoor thermometer at 5:00 yesterday morning. It reads -10.1° outside and 64.4° inside.

Rather nippy, I'd say. Needless to say, when my friend Lynn and I went to exercise yesterday morning, we chose NOT to walk outdoors. Later I went out to the mall and noticed the outside temp was 0°, according to my car's thermometer.

I haven't walked much lately but am getting back into the routine. It's hard to stay inside, really, when the landscape is so pretty. We've had three good snowstorms in the past couple of weeks. The weathermen can't decide whether the latest storm now churning our way will actually pay a visit or go out to sea. Time will tell.

Maine: The Way Life Should Be

I'm a softie for a good, old-fashioned Maine blizzard. And that's what's happening outside our windows today.

It's about time. Just a couple of days ago, I mentioned to Ken that we really needed a good snowstorm. Fields were looking bare; there wasn't enough snow to ski or snowshoe in...and what's a Maine winter for if not for playing in the snow?

Molly has staked out her territory for the day: the end of the sofa nearest the woodstove. It's no coincidence that she chose the end nearest the heat of the stove.

The cardinal has been to the feeder many times this morning, stocking up on groceries.

And, Ken's biggest thrill: he got to use his pickup's four-wheel drive when he took Molly to the vet for a tune-up earlier this morning! What guy doesn't enjoy putting his vehicle into four-wheel drive when given the opportunity? I suspect Ken gets to use the four-wheel drive about twice a year, max.

As for me, it looks like a good day for knitting.

Rejected

I decided a few years ago to become a die-hard, card-carrying Red Cross Blood Donor. I'd made a couple of half-hearted attempts at this commitment once before, but the first time the nurse who injected the needle to start the blood flowing must've been using a dull-tipped instrument, and the second time I nearly passed out a couple of hours after the donation.

That was it, I told myself. No more blood donating.

Then Ken, who has given literally many gallons of blood over the years, had open-heart surgery. As a result of his double-by-pass, he's on various medications which prohibit his donating blood.

Consequently, after mulling this over for awhile, and after realizing Ken regrets not being a blood donor any more, I decided to quit my whining and fussing, to quit making excuses, and to put on my big-girl panties and become a bona fide donor.

Yesterday I was to give yet another pint of blood. I looked forward to having my blood donor card updated with yet another pint given. I arrived at the donor site, read the multi-page manual, and declared I was ready to give.

A nurse took me to one of the cubicles, checked my blood pressure, drew a smidgen of blood from a finger tip (always the most painful part of blood donating) to check my hemoglobin, then settled into asking me the long list of required questions which a donor must answer before each and every donation.

Had I lived in a foreign country for more than three years? No

Do I have hepatitis? No

Have I lived with anyone with hepatitis? No

Am I pregnant? No!

Have I ever had sex with a prostitute? Definitely not.

Do I take any of the following medications (Coumadin being one)? No

Have I traveled outside the country in the past 12 months? Yes

What countries have a traveled to? Singapore and China

What cities did I visit in China? Chengdu and Beijing

While in either city, did I travel outside that city? Yes.

Where? Luodai, a village just outside of Chengdu

The nurse promptly excused herself and returned to our cubicle a few minutes later with a World Atlas. She found China, had me point to Chengdu, then tried to find Luodai.

I explained that Luodai is, by Chinese standards, a "small village" and is probably not on her map. I then added, humorously I thought, that of course in China, a small village probably has a million residents.

She studied the map some more, excused herself again, came back about five minutes later, and said I'd visited an area of the world which might have exposed me to malaria. Malaria can present itself in a patient up to one year from the date of exposure, so I can't donate blood to the Red Cross again until after May of this year.

I showed the nurse my donor card and pointed out that I had already donated TWICE since returning from China, once last June and again in October.

She excused herself from our cubicle again, stayed gone for quite awhile this time, then returned to tell me, once and for all, that I wouldn't be allowed to donate that day or at all until after May 2011. She asked if I'd answered the usual litany of questions the same way last June and again in October. I assured her I had.

So I left with the same amount of blood in my system that I'd walked into the donor site with.

What has occurred to me since yesterday, though, is that a slight difference in wording of the questions might cause me to answer them differently.

If I were asked, "What cities did you visit in China?" and I answered "Chengdu and Beijing," and I were then asked, "Did you visit any other cities?" I'd no doubt respond with "No."

But this nurse asked if I'd gone outside of either Chengdu or Beijing. That's a horse of a different color, so of course I replied "Yes."

Either way, I'm on the wagon until the end of May, and I'm disappointed.