Springing to Life

Is it possible? Could winter really be over? This nursery owner apparently has his doubts!

My calendar reminds me that on April 18, 1997, Keene Valley was dumped with 17 inches of Snow! But this year, it appears that we are indeed enjoying an early spring.

While the High Peaks still sport caps of snow and ice, here in the valley, the snow piles vanished several weeks ago. We even dodged the "mud season" bullet with only a day or two of mild muck. (If you missed the pictures of our driveway the past two springs, it's worth a visit to the archive!)

A string of beautiful 70 degree days coaxed our daffodils out of the ground much earlier than usual


Our first Easter Sunday in the Adirondacks, we awoke to zero degrees. This year was sunny and in the 70's! We enjoyed a ferry ride to Burlington, VT. This photo shows the ferry passing in front of the remaining section of the Crown Point bridge which was recently demolished.

Here's what the High Peaks look like from the Vermont side of Lake Champlain. We now have some friends in the Charlotte area. They tell us that they look across the lake and wave hello to us quite often!

Spring means BASEBALL! (Go Tribe!) CorrieAnne enjoys a game of catch with Dad in preparation for her baseball season.

Across the road, the swollen Ausable River rushes along providing an energetic sound track to our daily activities.

Still not completely trusting the weather, I've started a few herbs and plants in window containers. You can see the last pile of snow just outside the window.

Our friendly neighborhood waterfall has been released from it's winter freeze.

Wayne and our son, Christian, enjoyed an early spring hike to the top of Snow Mountain

We wish all of you a warm and healthy spring. Don't forget to take time to nurture your spirit with the beauty that surrounds you.

Winter - Part 4

Since we still have a week or so of "official" winter left, I thought I'd squeeze in one more winter blog update.

Many people ask us about the wildlife here in NY. While the Adirondacks are home to nearly 4,000 black bear, a growing moose population, some big cats and more, we have yet to lay eyes on anything more exciting than a hungry deer nibbling on our bushes! Apparently having a 300,000 acre backyard (our property adjoins the High Peaks Wilderness) does not guarantee wildlife sightings. With all that land to explore, I guess the wild things don't need to visit us ... at least during daylight.

BUT the snow makes it possible to see "where the wild things are" while we're sleeping! Here are some of the tracks that we've found around our home and a few actual animal sightings thrown in for fun.

These are the tracks of a Grouse

And here is the Grouse itself - playing in the shrubs along our driveway


Deer tracks

Snowshoe Hare (we think) tracks

Dainty little raccoon tracks

A flock of wild turkeys that ran across the road in front of us (photo courtesy of our friend, Wes, who had his cell phone handy!)

Apparently the coyotes are smart ... they use the bridge to Snow Mountain!

This is our barn. The photo is taken standing at the side of the house. THAT is how close the barn is ...


And THIS is the bear track found in the snow right behind the barn! YIKES!

Here is where the bear dug in the snow looking for whatever bears look for

While we have had no moose sightings here at the Snow Goose, Wayne was privileged to see a moose one morning on his way to work. This photo is of a moose that meandered its way into Wayne's boss' yard early one morning.

This final picture is not of a wild thing (well... some of you would argue that!), but it is a really cool picture of Wayne snowshoeing Round Mountain and since this is my last winter post, I just had to include it!

Happy Spring to all of you ... we'll be joining you in a few months!