Frosty chin whiskers

Yes, well, although I am almost of an age to start growing Nanna-style chin whiskers, in this case I am talking about dog chins...

We went out for a very nice walk today. It was -15C but there was no wind, so I felt quite toasty in my parks and silly raccoon hat. We snowshoed to the back of the farm.

The dogs were so happy to get out for a walk, they couldn't decide which way to go!

Me and my number one furry man. Well, Gordon is furry too, in his own way... he's my number one humanoid furry man! I love this dog. Tristan is slowing down so much. It's a bittersweet time. He sat next to me while I took photos and just snuggled right in.

We all enjoyed walking through the woodlot. I can only get through this east side of the lot in the late fall until early spring. The rest of the year, the vegetation is too gnarly and high to walk through without scratching my legs to ribbons.

Tristan followed some tracks under the fence. Deer? Coyote? Fox?

I found a hole in the snow, about as big as my fist. Whatever it is, it likes pine cones! Pine marten, maybe? They are predators but they do eat berries and things like that, and I know we have them in our woods. 

Nobody was home. At least, I don't THINK anybody was home!

We're having quite a cold snap this week. By Wednesday the high is supposed to be -20C, the low -27C. But this is apparently the statistical dead of winter, and after this the worst of the cold will be over.

"Cold? I don't care about no steenkin' cold!" And she doesn't. Sophie loves nothing more than to be outside, running running running!

I saw lots of snowshoe hare tracks in the woods. I don't often see the hares themselves, but once a large one bounded across the trail in front of me, and the dogs took off after it. No way would they ever catch it. The hares are amazingly fast. In summer, they're brown, but in winter they are all white. Hinterland Who's Who says they can "advance up to 3 metres in one bound and travel as fast as 45 km an hour." Incredible.

Tristan was pretty tired when it was time to head back, but he methodically plodded home.

My cutie stopped for a roll in the snow...

rollrollrollrollroll

...and a cuddle and photo shoot!

It was all going very well until...

...Sophie couldn't take it anymore and gave me a great big kiss. Which wouldn't have been so bad, except a few minutes earlier, she'd had a big snack of coyote poop, preceded by a big snack of her own poop. UGH!! Where's the Lysol when you need it??

And the sun is setting a little later every day now. The white pine and sumac in this photo were planted along the creek banks a couple of years back as part of an erosion-prevention program. They're doing well!

I always have such a nice time snowshoeing with my dogs.