Have you ever seen a Bufflehead? I’ve only seen them a couple of times and once was many years ago in Colorado. I think they are beautiful ducks and I was excited to see them on my freezing cold walk in Long Pond Ironworks the other day.

They were on the other side of the lake from me and very uncooperative in letting me photograph them, so most of these photos are cropped and zoomed.

At first when I saw the smaller brownish duck I assumed it was a juvenile. Not so! According to my bird book this is the female, which I have never seen. It looks like there are two females in the top photo. Here is a cropped look at a pair that ventured a little closer to me.

And up a little closer for detail.

A good look at the markings on the back of the male as the female spooks.

Ducks away!

(photos: A Bevy of Buffleheads on Monksville Reservoir)

High atop a snow bank in the grocery store parking lot, there sits a lonely little grocery cart. It’s been stuck in the snow since the Christmas storms when it got swept up by the snow plows. It almost made a break for freedom during our recent thaw, but got caught once again in the plow’s path in our storm earlier this week.

I feel kind of sorry for it. Left out of the daily cart round-ups. No one to push it through the heated, well-lit aisles. It’s spacious basket not filled up with goodies that it was meant to hold.

With our expected below-freezing daytime temperatures this coming week I think it might be there for a while.

Do you see what I see? I was correct when I said Alex would find a use for my squirrel.

Even though I am not proud of this particular snow sculpture, I wanted to show you that I actually did go out yesterday and build this little squirrel. You probably could not identify it as such if I hadn’t told you what it was, right? I have to admit that I did not take a lot of time in its creation.

I tried to make the tip of the tail curl outward but it kept falling off.

My Snow Bear was much better a few years back. Take a look.

My father was the master snow sculpture person. I spent a good hour this morning going through the old family photos looking for one in particular. I finally found it at the very bottom of the last stack of photos. Here it is:

The back of the photo says that my father created “The Masterpiece” on May 22 (?) 1951. It must have been a late spring snowstorm or the date stamp is incorrect! I call her the Snow Lady. She must have been huge by the looks of her. (In more ways than one.)

He also created an igloo for my sister and me one year out of a huge snowdrift. We’ve both looked high and low for that photo, but it seems to have gone missing somehow over the years. A shame, that.

I’ll try and do a better job with our next packable snow. Until then the Snow Squirrel will probably be used as a leg-lifting post for Alex.

He came while we were sleeping. Softly. Stealthily. The visitor wrapped our world in a blanket of wooly white.

Our visitor, if you already haven’t guessed, was Mr. Snow. I hate it when he visits when I can’t watch. It’s like looking under the Christmas tree and finding the packages already open.

First thing I did was start a fire in the wood stove. There were red embers left from the log we put in just before going to bed last night, so getting the fire going was easy. When I looked up I saw its fiery reflection in the sliding glass door and snapped this photo.

At first glance the snow looks fluffy and inviting.

That was before I went outside to shovel.

That fluffy, oh-so-inviting-looking snow was actually about 5 to 6 inches of wet cement! Ugh! Snow is sometimes better appreciated from inside the house looking out, sitting around a nice little cheery fire.

As I shoveled (mostly pushing) it off the deck it was rolling itself into solid little balls. An idea immediately formed in my head. Something made from packed, rolled snow.

I am thinking a snow creature is in my future today. Stay tuned.

(photos: top; Snow Fire: bottom; Deck Steps)