russian fairytale

Mother nature walloped us with more than 12 inches of fresh snow today, so between shoveling & clearing we got a good snowshoe in, & packed away some warm & hearty food. While my husband made heroic gains with the driveway & path to our compost heap, I made a late breakfast to go with a big pot of tea: steel cut oats with slivered almonds, bosc pears, cream & local maple syrup. 

The snowshoe was absolutely glorious; we are fortunate that our house sits on property that abuts a large swath of more than 400 acres of protected land through which 9 miles of hiking trails wend – we simply strap on our snowshoes outside our back door, & cut a path to the trailhead through our back yard. As far as we can tell, we shared some of the trails with a single snowshoer & their dog, who cut some exuberantly zig-zagging paths through the snow alongside their tracks. Blazing our own trails, we sank down into soft, pillowy snow that reached over our knees.

When we got back in, a big bowl of leftover corn chowder with a glass of tawny port did the trick to warm us up. I do believe we will sleep very well tonight...