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It has been some time since we had a really spectacular dawn, but it always draws me to watch.
There is beauty even in simple sights.
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Light (unpredicted) snow fell overnight.
Two squirrels dug through it on the patio searching for nuts.
“I’s cold out here, missus!”
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Willow sat by the door chattering at them.
“Keep those creatures in, missus!”
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The cats show little inclination to go outside these days, preferring instead to huddle by radiators.
Lily complains at being housebound, but offered an exit she declines looking disappointed. She seems to think cold weather is our fault.
Her infection having not completely cleared, she has another course of pills.
In her old age Lily no longer resists being medicated. She is a mind reader and years ago, the moment the idea entered my head, she disappeared, even before I picked up the pill bottle.
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On the way to the vet we pass a farm stand. They grow vegetables on their small plot of land.
For some reason, one crop was not harvested. I don’t know what it is, but in the snow, to me it looked like huddled pilgrims!
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Brain makes interesting interpretations.
Leaving Lily at the vet, we went to do some chores.
The morning sky was a backdrop for interesting shapes.
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My having forgotten again to clean JET’s windshield, the photographs may be a bit blotchy!
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“Are you in a hurry?” I was asked.
For what? There is little to rush for now.
“Where does that road go?” I asked.
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So we had to find out…
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A touch of snow turns a boring landscape into a picture.
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We crossed the frozen Batten Kill River.
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Heading vaguely for Greenwich…
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We’d probably come this way before, but possibly in the opposite direction or in a different season.
Grant remembers most routes, but as a passenger and usually taking photographs, I’ve given up trying.
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Suddenly we were on route 29, parallel to the river.
We pulled in to a small park for a look.
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Mallards stood on the ice, grooming and quacking.
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A man arrived, clutching binoculars and asked if we were looking for the goose. We said no, we’d just stopped to see the river.
Back in the car, we looked at each other:
“What goose?”
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Our reluctance to talk to strangers left us uninformed.
However…
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The man with the binoculars seemed excited. That being the case, maybe…I went to my search window and typed:
“Unusual goose, Washington County, New York”
It turns out that a Taiga Bean goose is visiting for the first time, all the way from Europe.
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image from Wikipedia
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Maybe there is a wild goose chase in our future.
Thank you, Carolyn, for the wonderfully interesting post with a twist!
Joanna
I have seen geese like the one pictured in England, even when I lived in London they were in the parks that had lakes. It’s a long flight for them to NY State though!
Best wishes, Pete.
I love your first few photos – the deep colours are really beautiful! “Huddled pilgrims in a veggie patch” … just when I thought I had seen everything, you come up with something new 😄. I think I’d enjoy a wild goose chase from you guys – that should be a lot of fun.