An Icy and Windswept Hill

Does it look cold in these photos? It was cold and then some. . . .

Thermometers in the village registered in in the low minus twenties (Celsius) yesterday, and we were not prepared for the deeper cold when we arrived on our icy windswept hill in the Lanark Highlands with grain and apples for the deer and oil sunflower seed for the winter birds. Temperatures there were registering in the abyssmal minus forties with the wind factored into the equation, and I discovered that I am still capable of an impressive burst of speed, even on the coldest winter days when I am wearing heavy winter gear and snowshoes and dragging several toboggan loads of nosh into the forest for the snow bound residents of the Two Hundred Acre Woods.

Why do we do this? During one of our first winters in Lanark, I discovered a winter deer yard in which several White Tail does had perished from starvation, and I was horrified and sickened, I still am when I think of it. This is not going to happen on my watch, and I feel absolutely fierce about it - as long as I have legs with which to potter into the woods in winter and hands with which to grip a toboggan or three full of feed, the deer and the birds are not going to starve on my watch. All year long, the woodland creatures share their lives with me. They share everything generously, withholding nothing in their giving, and they are precious to me beyond words.

We are undertaking the exercise again this morning, and if it is even a little warmer, I shall also spend an hour or two cutting cedar for the deer to browse. Live cedar boughs are their primary source of nutritious fodder in winter, and the snow is now so deep that they cannot reach high enough to forage.

For a truly lovely experience this morning, visit Sister Joanna Mermaid and read her enchanting thoughts about the siren's song, written for the blithe mamas at Mama Says Om. Then, visit Mother Abbess (Sister Superior) Kim Mermaid at the Church of the Old Mermaids and revel in her magnificent tales about our wise and finny sisters. The stories will warm your heart, and they will make you feel like singing too.