lame weather

Dear, dear, I am not saying, that am not worried about this weather here. It has been snowing now for two days and it is still coming down. After being inside most of the day yesterday. This morning I no longer could stay in, and donned my raincoat and took off. Same direction, for whatever reason I am most often drawn to go north-west up hill. The lupines stand strong. It really looks beautiful, the purple, set in white and bright green. I ascent 'Don's descent' hoping to get some sort of view. Well the view is grey. A different horizon shows, little hills nearby that normally go unnoticed. There are no tracks of any kind in the snow. I suppose all the animals are bedded down. In a round about way, I come out on the path to 'Moose skull lake'. It's a narrow path through the thick spruce. As I come out by the lake. The world is magical. The lake looks sublime. All in grey, in front there's ripples and at the far end a streak of smooth surface, which only reflects more grey. The ducks are so calm , just swimming together and a little bit of diving. Today there are 18 of them, mostly Scaups and two pairs of Buffleheads. Walking along the lake I take an older trail back to the road. The bush road here is going uphill and being on the north side of a hill, the snow is thick here. There is a least an inch staying on the ground. I go to the top of the hill. The rocks are exposed, wet and black. The Saxifrages blooming around don't seem to be faced by this weather either. It will be interesting to see how everything pulls through this cold spell, which, I do trust it will end. On my way down, I am sorry to accidentally scare a Junco of its nest. The nest is under an overhanging rock, draped with Kinnickenick. I peek in and there's little ones, fluffy balls with big yellow beaks. They look totally comfy , I rush off to let the parent keep them warm again.