walking with Willem in the snow along the stream
Tuesday, January 13, 2025
I asked him if he’d like to go for a walk with me and he said he would. It took a few minutes as usual for us to get ready.
I had made a path to the road with one hand and my shovel kicking it out of the way as it filled up, the shovel I mean.
It was so lovely outside. The sun was shining and the sky was blue. The snow looked crisp, actually the snow didn’t look crisp. It was mild and it felt a bit tacky as we walked.
Going down the hill is so much easier than coming up. We turned in at the entrance on Kingfisher Lane. The ramp down from the road to the level of the flood plane is about 4 feet, maybe 3 feet.
I have boards on the ramp which are not screwed in. Maryjane slipped on them when we went down there
That was when the board slipped and got on top of another one. However, now they are all frozen tightly together, so walking on them is not a problem. They are also covered by about 4 inches of snow.
Under that snow is also refrozen snow and below that is ice.
I always like arriving at the edge of the stream to the porch swing that’s on the left and the cedar tree ahead with the sign on it that reads ‘Brookside rest’.
Much of the snow made cool noises as I walked on it. It was also a little bit higher than Willem‘s boots and so it kept falling in.
I went in front of him to create a pathway so that it was lower, and he was in the clear.
We didn’t stop and sit in the streamside grass hut. We walked along the black stream.
A while ago it had rained and we’d had a melt. At that time, the stream had risen 6 inches above the water normal level. When the water moved out and the level was low again, an ice shelf remained. It’s about 1 inch thick with 4 inches of snow on top.
The ice formations have changed again. Where the water had flooded the logs, ice now remains, in a long ice sheet that obscure where the bridge actually is.
I wouldn’t call it a really good bridge. It’s too logs, one of which is quite narrow on one end and slopes downward. The other one is not long enough, and the end lies down in the water, the big butt end. So neither of them make a really good bridge. I have thought about making a railing and how that would work and how I would do it.
I had a failure, making a railing on the every which way bridge by the grass hut settlement a few years ago.
I don’t want to repeat that mess, but I was thinking of how I could secure a railing.
So as we walked along in the pathway through the alders, the arching branches that line the stream and the pathway and all the way till Kingfisher lane.
The white snow against the black stream, and the translucent ice formations beneath the ice chef and the little ripples and flow of the water are just so beautiful. It’s breathtaking.
I just love filming it. I was worried that my camera battery would die, my phone battery. So I didn’t wanna take it out there to use. But I had it. So I did use it.
I made lots of little short videos after the one that I was currently making as we walked.
We walked along the path till the causeway bridge who sign says causeway over there is nice.
We went around the grassy of horseshoe Island and came in from the wrong direction.
I really need to go down there with my brush cutter and make a proper pathway so that I know where it is and I can follow it easily. The deer have their own pathway, but it’s not a shortcut.
It’s a bit, disappointing that the metal porch swing at the edge of serenity deputy pond, where the deer pathway comes out, is broken.
The metal itself is actually broken. This is a good time for having a welder. I don’t have a welder. I have a blow torch And I have rods. I suppose it might be made of aluminum.
But I think it’s made of steel. How do you fix that?
We went into horseshoe Island grass at TP and sat. I recorded it all. I sat in the white chair at the back of the TP because my swing had snow on it. Willem had to sit and get the snow out of his boot.
We walked from there down to the boat road, the tri aqua trail. There’s a little bit of a slope to get down off of horseshoe Island, which is only an island in the flood seasons, so you have to hold onto the branch of the alder alongside the pathway in case there’s any ice under the snow. Following is not in my future anymore
The snow has dragged the grass down. It’s no longer feasible to cut grass for my grass huts. I would, however, like to cut the pathway on the top of the island to get through all that tangled of raspberry canes and blackberry canes.
An otter had come out of the alder pathway that I had cleared a few years ago. It made a beautiful trail, like the shape of his body rounded and about 6 inches wide.
His footprints dotted the path, sometimes a foot apart and sometimes a metre apart.
I suppose when they were near each other, he was getting up speed, perhaps on a little incline over the grass, and then the slides would be the longer distance between his footprints, his tracks.
The tracks are pretty much across from one another.
We didn’t go in to see iceberg Pond, I was aware of Williams’s feet and didn’t want him to get snow in on his socks again. He wears these thin little socks that he gets in Holland. I guess they dress socks.
Not me I wear my gray socks and my long knee socks. But on this day, I had worn pants and the gray socks. Snow had brushed against my leg until I put the elastic end of the pants over the top of my boots
The otter had slid along the far side of the boat on the ice, which is actually a bed of snow now.
It must be fun to be a beaver. He was sliding all along his footprints wide apart.
The other side of the island, where the tri Aqua Trail separates it from the wetland, I realized how many cattail plants there are in there. It would be nice if it were more cocktails Maybe even a little ditch that’s only a foot deep and a metre wide would be perfect for cattails. I would be able to walk on both sides of them and reach in and cut them. When there’s a whole long marsh way, it’s too wet to access them.
I never walk in that area. I suppose there are dry areas through it, but whenever I’ve been in there, I’ve always ended up getting myself wet. It’s not deep, and I used to walk through there. In fact, we used to have the boardwalk going through there. I suppose it’s still in there, even though the cedar boards have now thoroughly decomposed or broken. I don’t suppose the boards have really decompose because cedar lasts for 20 years.
We passed the teardrop point and went back into the Elders through under Willow archway on under Willow path.
We again walked through the thick alders, noting how many broken and tangled branches there were.
Once again, we didn’t sit in the streamside grass hut. William chose the porch swing by the stream. It’s a lovely spot, the canopy keeps the snow from falling on the seat.
Having learned from experience, I didn’t try to tip the canopy and drop the thick snow off it. Last time I did that it fell on the seat.
So we sat on it the way it was. It was just amazing to be there. It was still and quiet.
The sun shown on the ice and the stream and the snow. I made videos. William heard some birds. I didn’t know what they were, actually I don’t think I heard them. But he thought one was an owl. So we turned on the bird net app and let it listen.
Cars came along as we’re not too far from the highway there, which the microphone picked up. It also picked up Williams‘s rumbling stomach, and any movements that we made, but a distant woodpecker wasn’t picked up.
It was a pileated woodpecker which called incessantly as we walked back to the road. Willem held a swing out for me while I tipped the top to let the snow fall off.
I wonder if I ever got the swing from the bus stop area. I don’t think I did. I think it’s still there. I’d like to move it. There’s so many wonderful places to sit and look at the stream or the Beaverdam. I think I’d like to put a swing at the Beaver Dam. The ice formations they are pretty incredible.
Walking up the hill was not as difficult as it was before. I think using the treadmill and the incline on it are helping. But I tell you, the angle of that road is pretty steep. I wonder what exactly it is. I wonder if I have an angle maker out there in the shady deck in my Woodworking-area
We weren’t cold when we got home. I hadn’t worn gloves, but my coat is so good for shrinking my hands back into it.
I was so glad we had gone for a walk. It was so beautiful and I had those memories now.
I asked him if he’d like to go for a walk with me and he said he would. It took a few minutes as usual for us to get ready.
I had made a path to the road with one hand and my shovel kicking it out of the way as it filled up, the shovel I mean.
It was so lovely outside. The sun was shining and the sky was blue. The snow looked crisp, actually the snow didn’t look crisp. It was mild and it felt a bit tacky as we walked.
Going down the hill is so much easier than coming up. We turned in at the entrance on Kingfisher Lane. The ramp down from the road to the level of the flood plane is about 4 feet, maybe 3 feet.
I have boards on the ramp which are not screwed in. Maryjane slipped on them when we went down there
That was when the board slipped and got on top of another one. However, now they are all frozen tightly together, so walking on them is not a problem. They are also covered by about 4 inches of snow.
Under that snow is also refrozen snow and below that is ice.
I always like arriving at the edge of the stream to the porch swing that’s on the left and the cedar tree ahead with the sign on it that reads ‘Brookside rest’.
Much of the snow made cool noises as I walked on it. It was also a little bit higher than Willem‘s boots and so it kept falling in.
I went in front of him to create a pathway so that it was lower, and he was in the clear.
We didn’t stop and sit in the streamside grass hut. We walked along the black stream.
A while ago it had rained and we’d had a melt. At that time, the stream had risen 6 inches above the water normal level. When the water moved out and the level was low again, an ice shelf remained. It’s about 1 inch thick with 4 inches of snow on top.
The ice formations have changed again. Where the water had flooded the logs, ice now remains, in a long ice sheet that obscure where the bridge actually is.
I wouldn’t call it a really good bridge. It’s too logs, one of which is quite narrow on one end and slopes downward. The other one is not long enough, and the end lies down in the water, the big butt end. So neither of them make a really good bridge. I have thought about making a railing and how that would work and how I would do it.
I had a failure, making a railing on the every which way bridge by the grass hut settlement a few years ago.
I don’t want to repeat that mess, but I was thinking of how I could secure a railing.
So as we walked along in the pathway through the alders, the arching branches that line the stream and the pathway and all the way till Kingfisher lane.
The white snow against the black stream, and the translucent ice formations beneath the ice chef and the little ripples and flow of the water are just so beautiful. It’s breathtaking.
I just love filming it. I was worried that my camera battery would die, my phone battery. So I didn’t wanna take it out there to use. But I had it. So I did use it.
I made lots of little short videos after the one that I was currently making as we walked.
We walked along the path till the causeway bridge who sign says causeway over there is nice.
We went around the grassy of horseshoe Island and came in from the wrong direction.
I really need to go down there with my brush cutter and make a proper pathway so that I know where it is and I can follow it easily. The deer have their own pathway, but it’s not a shortcut.
It’s a bit, disappointing that the metal porch swing at the edge of serenity deputy pond, where the deer pathway comes out, is broken.
The metal itself is actually broken. This is a good time for having a welder. I don’t have a welder. I have a blow torch And I have rods. I suppose it might be made of aluminum.
But I think it’s made of steel. How do you fix that?
We went into horseshoe Island grass at TP and sat. I recorded it all. I sat in the white chair at the back of the TP because my swing had snow on it. Willem had to sit and get the snow out of his boot.
We walked from there down to the boat road, the tri aqua trail. There’s a little bit of a slope to get down off of horseshoe Island, which is only an island in the flood seasons, so you have to hold onto the branch of the alder alongside the pathway in case there’s any ice under the snow. Following is not in my future anymore
The snow has dragged the grass down. It’s no longer feasible to cut grass for my grass huts. I would, however, like to cut the pathway on the top of the island to get through all that tangled of raspberry canes and blackberry canes.
An otter had come out of the alder pathway that I had cleared a few years ago. It made a beautiful trail, like the shape of his body rounded and about 6 inches wide.
His footprints dotted the path, sometimes a foot apart and sometimes a metre apart.
I suppose when they were near each other, he was getting up speed, perhaps on a little incline over the grass, and then the slides would be the longer distance between his footprints, his tracks.
The tracks are pretty much across from one another.
We didn’t go in to see iceberg Pond, I was aware of Williams’s feet and didn’t want him to get snow in on his socks again. He wears these thin little socks that he gets in Holland. I guess they dress socks.
Not me I wear my gray socks and my long knee socks. But on this day, I had worn pants and the gray socks. Snow had brushed against my leg until I put the elastic end of the pants over the top of my boots
The otter had slid along the far side of the boat on the ice, which is actually a bed of snow now.
It must be fun to be a beaver. He was sliding all along his footprints wide apart.
The other side of the island, where the tri Aqua Trail separates it from the wetland, I realized how many cattail plants there are in there. It would be nice if it were more cocktails Maybe even a little ditch that’s only a foot deep and a metre wide would be perfect for cattails. I would be able to walk on both sides of them and reach in and cut them. When there’s a whole long marsh way, it’s too wet to access them.
I never walk in that area. I suppose there are dry areas through it, but whenever I’ve been in there, I’ve always ended up getting myself wet. It’s not deep, and I used to walk through there. In fact, we used to have the boardwalk going through there. I suppose it’s still in there, even though the cedar boards have now thoroughly decomposed or broken. I don’t suppose the boards have really decompose because cedar lasts for 20 years.
We passed the teardrop point and went back into the Elders through under Willow archway on under Willow path.
We again walked through the thick alders, noting how many broken and tangled branches there were.
Once again, we didn’t sit in the streamside grass hut. William chose the porch swing by the stream. It’s a lovely spot, the canopy keeps the snow from falling on the seat.
Having learned from experience, I didn’t try to tip the canopy and drop the thick snow off it. Last time I did that it fell on the seat.
So we sat on it the way it was. It was just amazing to be there. It was still and quiet.
The sun shown on the ice and the stream and the snow. I made videos. William heard some birds. I didn’t know what they were, actually I don’t think I heard them. But he thought one was an owl. So we turned on the bird net app and let it listen.
Cars came along as we’re not too far from the highway there, which the microphone picked up. It also picked up Williams‘s rumbling stomach, and any movements that we made, but a distant woodpecker wasn’t picked up.
It was a pileated woodpecker which called incessantly as we walked back to the road. Willem held a swing out for me while I tipped the top to let the snow fall off.
I wonder if I ever got the swing from the bus stop area. I don’t think I did. I think it’s still there. I’d like to move it. There’s so many wonderful places to sit and look at the stream or the Beaverdam. I think I’d like to put a swing at the Beaver Dam. The ice formations they are pretty incredible.
Walking up the hill was not as difficult as it was before. I think using the treadmill and the incline on it are helping. But I tell you, the angle of that road is pretty steep. I wonder what exactly it is. I wonder if I have an angle maker out there in the shady deck in my Woodworking-area
We weren’t cold when we got home. I hadn’t worn gloves, but my coat is so good for shrinking my hands back into it.
I was so glad we had gone for a walk. It was so beautiful and I had those memories now.