Tuesday started with a thin layer of ice covering everything. The chicken yard was a skating rink and since I don't have claws for traction, I was grabbing onto the fence and bushes, knowing that a fall would set that little broken vertebrae back a couple weeks in its healing process. Things warmed up by noon and I thought the little babe and I needed some fresh air. At first there was some grumbling, but then she started gathering snacks for The Adventure Club hike. We entered the woods in a slight drizzle, which after a couple of seconds turned into more than a slight drizzle. I would have turned back - it was just above freezing and we weren't wearing rain gear, but the little babe said we have to be brave if we are adventuring. So onward we walked, hand in hand. We went up to the little pond in the woods. It had a thin skim of ice and was pretty in a cold, dark, saturated world kind of way, with the rain drops plunking on the ice.
As we stood at the top of a rise eating our biscotti snack, we heard a Pileated woodpecker call. I then saw something large swoop through the trees and heard the cry of a hawk of some sort. Since this Winter has been so mild and wet, fungus of all sorts is thriving.
I noticed a ring of moss growing at the base of a tree and when I looked closer I noticed that it was contained in glass. Upon further inspection, we saw that it was the top of a large glass vessel of some sort. We discover something interesting every time we're in the woods, no matter what the weather or season. Happy adventuring!