Winter spirit walking

Towner's Woods. Effects added in Picnik.

The joy of all mysteries is the certainty which comes from their contemplation, that there are many doors yet for the soul to open on her upward and inward way.

~ Arthur Christopher Benson

*Post title courtesy of my search engine terms.  When I can’t think of a good title, I can usually count on finding something good in the search engine terms that bring people to visit Life in the Bogs.

Towner's Woods. Processed in Picnik.

The last 24 hours or so have been interesting.  I’ve seen two new sights, and the weather has taken some odd turns.

On the Buckeye Trail.

As you may recall, M and I went for a hike late yesterday afternoon as part of our vacation training.  We decided on the Mogadore Section of the Buckeye Trail since it’s nearby.  We hiked on the part of it that runs along the Mogadore Reservoir.  It’s been a while since we’ve hiked that trail and it looks as though it’s been a while since anyone has hiked it or done any kind of trail maintenance.  Trail maintenance is done by volunteers who adopt a part of the trail.  I might look into that.  Perhaps they need a volunteer for this particular section.

Late yesterday afternoon was, as promised, sunny with clear blue skies and a little chilly.  Perfect hiking weather as far as I’m concerned.  The sunlight was slanting just right through the trees, creating a lovely golden glow.  The trail was a little squishy in parts, but since we stayed on the maintenance road rather than go back into the woods, it was dry for the most part.  We know from experience that part of the trail that runs through the woods is likely to be boggy or even covered in water since it’s not cold enough to be iced over.

The first thing we came across that was new to me involved a creature who does this:

Looks like whoever worked on this tree got thirsty.

I have seen evidence of beavers along many of the trails we hike around here, but I haven’t actually seen the beavers or their lodges.  I still haven’t seen a beaver, but I did finally see a lodge yesterday.

Since it was close to the path, M and I were able to have a good look around and even find some of the various entrances to the lodge.

Beaver lodge sculpture

Remember that the beaver reminds us that we have to act on our dreams to make them a reality.  When it shows up, it is a time for action.  Beaver can show you how to construct wonderful dreams.

~ Ted Andrews, Animal Speak

We hiked for a while after leaving the beaver lodge before we saw something else I have never seen in this area.  I’ve heard they might be nearby, but this is the closest to home I’ve seen them.

Bald eagles!!  Two of them, majestically soaring overhead.  They were much too high up for me to capture well.  I’ll post the bad photos because they’re all I’ve got.

I’ve cropped the photos to get a closer view, but there is too much noise and they look awfully pixelated if I crop too close.

M and I stood and watched the eagles for a while.  They didn’t seem to mind us too much.  They even swooped down a little closer a few times, as if checking us out.  Naturally I was not ready for that and ended up with photos like this:

Ah well.  It was enough to see them.

As for today’s weird weather, it snowed like crazy all morning and into the early afternoon.  The weather folks were calling for warm temperatures and rain.  It wasn’t all that cold.  Almost forty degrees.  But it snowed anyway.  Big, fat, heavy snowflakes filled the air.

Most of it melted right away, and now we’re back to clouds and rain.

That’s about it from the Bogs for today.  Thank you so much for dropping by.  Sorry I couldn’t do a better job of showing you the eagles.  Even with a more suitable camera and lens, I doubt I’d have captured them well.  I was so excited to see them that I was doing a little happy dance, and it’s really tough to get good images when you’re dancing around.

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