This morning at 5:30 a.m. the outdoor thermometer said, “-15”, actually it shivered and said that. I know it shivered, because after I tapped it to make sure it was settled, all the numbers below 0 fell off and went to the bottom and what did not fall is hardly enough to read the thing properly anymore…
What a bummer!
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Therefore, with the demise of our outdoor thermometer; Boza and I went walking in the frigid, crystalline, and clear sky of Russia. That is a rare sky in the winter. Oh, it is always clean and frigid, but clear, hardly ever, clouds seem to be the norm…
Boza checked his winter fur coat before going out and he was satisfied that he had enough fur to do the job, then I proceeded to put on long underwear, two pair of heavy cotton pants, three pair of socks, the heaviest coat, a stocking cap, scarf, gloves, emergency bag of peanuts, flashlight, three shirts (two – long sleeve,) and a partridge in a pair tree… (I am not as furry as Boza!)
I take a bag of peanuts with me, in case something happens on the long walks I take. Sveta appreciated them the other day, as we ate peanuts in the middle of the woods, in the middle of nowhere. They were really good…
I had two cups of coffee before we left and now I am sipping on a cup of hot tea as I write this article…
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I sat on my bench I made in the summer this last year. It was crisp, but I sat to hear what the world would say to me. I was attempting to hear what songs nature would sing today to me, for yesterday, I was presented with an orchestra that beats all orchestras. Today was too early and all I heard was cars in the farthest reaches and highest reaches were filled with jet engine noises, as I could see the dot of light transverse the sky…
But yesterday I had a song of nature…
Boza and I had walked for several hours yesterday and we stopped near the cemetery and sat on a log. Boza was busy taking a snow bath and I really thought he could try harder to make snow angels, but he refused to listen to me, as he rolled in a snow drift. I was listening to how quiet it was…
Then I heard a woodpecker. He decided that we were not evil and he went back to work. Then some chickadees joined in with their little chirps, then a few more woodpeckers joined in. Within a few minutes, a breeze blew and the trees creaked, the birds chirped, the woodpeckers pecked and all of a sudden; twenty more woodpeckers joined in and hundreds of birds and a single yelping Fox…
It was unbelievable: The woodpeckers were drums of various types, the trees were musical notes from wind instruments, the birds were the ringing of bells and other instruments and then from nowhere came our huge flock of sparrows. They run in a flock and were born in our yard. Sveta got a taste of them, when they buzzed us one day. They are a huge ball of fluttering wings and they decided to join the band as it played. The noises all went together and I for several minutes enjoyed a song of nature. Then…
A big fat stupid Raven, came uninvited…
He lives in the cemetery and he swooped down among us and saw Boza and I. Then he screamed bloody murder and told the whole world as far away as New York City, USA, that we were near his cemetery. The orchestra ended and I got mad…
I shook my fist at the Raven! He looked at me as if, “Gotta do better than that!”
Then I yelled at him and shook my fist! The Raven was undeterred. But Boza jumped on me and told me not to threaten a Raven. Then since I was really grouchy; I took my walking stick and showed the Raven who was boss. I waved the stick of death and destruction at him and he decided that this bear was in a really bad mood and he flew off, cussing all the way. Boza started to growl at me as if it was all my fault and told me to stop threatening the Raven with death and destruction…
Since I am the boss; I waved my staff of magical powers at the fleeing Raven and Boza jumped on me one last time and we stomped home… 😉
But, Oh what a beautiful song I listened to in the woods yesterday. Nature knows how to play music and I will try to go back and listen some more…
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The walk yesterday had another twist of nature and delights…
Boza and I were walking along the river. The river is full and wonderful, but as we walked we noticed that someone had been cutting down trees recently and we decided to walk over to the edge of the river bank and see what some human was doing. I could see no reason why some fool human would be cutting down these trees?
We walked upon the set of trees we saw cut down and I looked at Boza and said to myself, “Self, this is no axe or saw!” and or then, “Self, this is no human!”
Then right behind us, a tree fell…
I mean fell five feet from us and could have killed us. I spun around and Boza spun around. I looked at the tree and followed the trunk to where it was broke off, or should I say cut off?
I said,”What The! (and maybe a few choice words after that)”
Then all hell broke loose. There was three beavers staring at me and they did not know we were there…
The snow was a perfect muffler and Boza and I had sneaked upon a beaver family at work. The beavers screamed in terror, I screamed in terror and Boza yelped in terror. Then before you could blink, the beavers jumped of the edge of the river bank and took a slide down onto the ice. Slide off the ice ledge and slipped under it to their home. I stood there is awe and Boza finally woke up to the fact that something interesting had happened and started to bark as if he was in control of everything…
Then Boza and I walked the river bank and found that there had to be hundreds of beavers all along the bank of the river. We found trees cut off and path after path leading down to the river and we walked for over a kilometer. Fresh cut trees everywhere and now we were looking for falling trees. I snapped some images later in our walk after recovering, but need to go back with the big camera and try to catch the beavers at work…
These beavers all live in burrows in the river bank and I could not find a single structure or entrance anywhere. The water level is high and the holes are underwater. But I found the beavers…
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I guess that is enough for today. Our walks are interesting to me and I look forward to seeing new things everyday. One thing I have learned is that we are never to old to learn and never to old not to explore new stuff…
Just need to teach a beaver to say, “Timber!” Ouch…
Have a nice day…
Kyle and Boza
Windows to Russia (WtR)