Today might be the first day of spring, but we still have about a foot of snow on the ground with the possibility of more to come tomorrow.

icy stream

reflections on ice

Yesterday we took a walk down to the old quarry to visit the local porcupine neighborhood and see who else was ambling around in the past week.

porcupine trail near the quarry

Charley and I at the quarry

Turns out, in addition to porcupines steadily walking on well-beaten paths, a bobcat bounded around the quarry, daintily made its way across the snow crust, toes splayed wide like snowshoes, and meandered through the blackberry thickets in our woods.

bobcat bounding up

bobcat bounding down

bobcat tracks

bobcat walking on crust

And for a real treat, we found otter slide tracks around the edge of the beaver pond, complete with scat made of fish scales.

otter slide

otter slide on beaver pond

In garden news, not much is happening. We have lettuce and spinach growing under lights inside. In the hoop house, the voles happily ate all of the greens and even some of the tops of the leeks. Some chickweed is coming in… hopefully they don’t devour it all too!

lettuce

spinach and lettuce under lights

The houseplants are feeling the longer days though.

Klivia

Orchid

Klivia

Orchid