Ice floes

Floe: a large mass of floating ice

For the non-water people among us, those large flat snow-covered things in this photo are not rocks--they're the ice floes!

Deer!

Milder temps and even sun (!) enabled us to take a long walk outdoors this weekend--along Seven-Mile Creek itself and all around our 120 acres. With the heavy snows and below freezing temperatures, walks outside have been few and far between--ones along the creek path non-existent--for the past 6 weeks.

Of course we saw scores of animal tracks and with our occasional sightings assure us that our deer are out and about 24-7 no matter the season. The big surprise though were the ice floes. I had heard that the creek was no longer ice-covered and was flowing strongly but I didn't connect that to the presence of the huge slabs of ice that I'm used to seeing in late February or early March. But, there they were, all along the sides of the creek--at least 6" thick and large---one of nature's water mysteries. That flowing water can break and then lift these huge masses of ice so that they land along the side of a river is miraculous! Mother Nature's amazements.