A Walk in the Woods

Yesterday I embraced the cold (-5 with wind chills!) and took my Carhartts and snowshoes to Gale Woods Farm which is only 10 minutes away from my house. I hiked past some of the residents, like this Belted Galloway (which I prefer to think of as an Oreo Cookie cow).
    Please excuse the tail. He was, um, multi-tasking as he walked. I don't even know what kind of cow this is. That long hair, and so curly!
    Any cow experts out there? The chickens and sheep were, sadly, all in the barn, which is off limits except to tour groups and limited hours on the weekends. I was not feeling my Wheeties yesterday. Perhaps because my lunch consisted entirely of a piece of Bob's Red Mill GF Cornbread.
    With honey and real butter. Nom! Every time I hiked up a hill, my glutes screamed at me: "You could be sitting at home on the couch in the semi-warm house sipping hot chocolate and eating cornbread!" I don't know when they learned to speak English, but it would be a whole lot quieter in my head if they spoke French.
    The scenery, despite the bitter cold and my screaming glutes, was phenomenal.
    I love the juxtaposition of farm and woods. Everything I personally love, all wrapped up in one park.
    Towards the end of my hike I was very, very tired. Even the screaming of the glutes was fading away into a quiet whimper.
    It's always amazing to me how quiet it can be on a winter day once the glutes quiet down. A woodpecker hammers on a tree nearby, answered only by a dog half a mile away. No other sounds of life. So unlike high summer. And, like the quiet of winter, my creative energy continues to lay dormant, waiting for the stirrings of spring and the return of longer, warmer days to fuel the fire. All might seem dead and cold right now. But rebirth is just around the corner.

Blessings -