Greetings and welcome to Day 97 of Winter, Norman here. Before I share some of the sights around our Ranch, I wanted…{Elsa yelling from the other room} “Don’t forget, it was my idea!!”
Norman: Ahem…As I was about to say, before sharing what Nature has looked liked around the Ranch, I wanted to express my deepest gratitude to all the wonderful Gotcha Day wishes from all the readers. You made my day extra special and I appreciate it tremendously.
Norman: {continuing} Now, let’s get to the sharing part of this week’s episode of Nature Friday, shall we? As always, we’re joining the LLB Gang.
Elsa: Yeah, get on with it, Bucko. I got things to do to get ready for the weekend.
Norman: Oh dear, I’m afraid this might be harder than I had hoped with all these interruptions.
Elsa: You want interruptions…don’t get me started, pal. Why I oughta…
Norman: No need to get hostile, Ninja. As I mentioned earlier it seems like Winter has been around forever. After those hyacinths raised their heads up a tad recently (in case you missed it, click here), I was ever so hopeful we would be moving toward more temperate climes. Alas, that is not the case. All those “atmospheric rivers” plaguing the West Coast continue to move west and leave piles of the dreaded white stuff.
Elsa: What do you mean, dreaded? This stuff tastes great.
Norman: {Rolling his eyes} Oh for bloody sake…do I get to do this post or don’t I?
Elsa: Sheesh, lighten up, ya pile of fur!
Norman: So sorry, I don’t mean to sound so harsh. My bad. I just want to be able to deliver my post uninterrupted. {Clearing his throat…continues}. Well as you can see by Elsa’s pose, it snowed…again. I think that was maybe Day 92 of Winter. At any rate, our landscape remains monochromed. Not totally brown anymore but more like 99.99% white.
Elsa: Ooh, ooh {breathlessly interrupting}…did I tell you I saw some brown yesterday? I took a whiff of the afternoon breeze and caught the scent of bunny. Or maybe it was squirrel, I don’t know. Either way…something had definitely marched through my front garden and I had to check it out since I am the protector of the Ranch.
Norman: Ok, moving right along. You know that one downspout that tends to ice up the sidewalk and causes problems when we turn the corner heading back to the dog run? I noticed even you wiped out and your fleet feet are pretty stable.
Elsa: Yeah…once I recovered and got up on all my paws and looked around like “what the dog was that all about!”
Norman: Don’t feel badly. I biffed it there as well. Mum was quite concerned. Seniors like me don’t do well when we fall. She helped me up and slowly guided me so I wouldn’t fall again on the icy sidewalk. I mean, I had patients and staff to visit and being hurt wasn’t on the agenda that morning.
Elsa: I noticed she tried to remediate the situation by spreading some cat litter and it turned into a lovely, squishy, grey goop during the bit of melting that occurred between storms.
Norman: Don’t remind me. It was a bloody mess. Turns out cat litter is not much of a substitute for sand so she cleaned it up as best as she could and then picked some sand up last night in anticipation of the next round of weather expected to move into the area this weekend. She went on a walkabout yesterday afternoon and raved about a cholla cactus she saw. She said it was completely sparkly from its spines to the small icy chunks of snow on it. I looked at her picture and felt badly for her-seems as if winter has clearly pushed her over the edge. All I saw was something poking through the snow with sharp spines. It was hard to see where the spines ended and the clumps of ice began.
Norman: {Shivering} Some of you have admitted you haven’t taken down your Christmas decorations. Well fear not, you’re not alone. When it snowed the other day, Mum was going on and on about this house on her walk. Mum’s…the littlest things seem to amuse them, I just don’t get it. No tree, no decorations, no presents left at our house and she gets giddy about this fenceline.
Elsa: She was just captivated by the snow on the ribbon, that’s all. It’s just a human shortcoming to like stuff like that.
Norman: Well I don’t get it. Course I’m more focused on the flakes that keep making appearances and those slippery walkways.
Norman: There are much better ways to deal with this weather pattern during all these endless days of Winter. For instance, having a good time with a fun toy. And if I can’t play with a toy inside where I’m warm, I enjoy making friends with a policeman and a couple of EMT’s from Lakewood, CO. They were at the Emergency Department when I visited and they just couldn’t get enough of me. I did rather enjoy that.
Elsa: {clearing her throat} Well your pet therapy work is nice and all, but can I just remind you that it really isn’t “Nature-centric?”
Norman: Perhaps not, but how could I resist such a swell group of chaps on my Gotcha Day?
Elsa: Oh jeez. You are shameless, you know that, right?
Norman: I beg your pardon. I’m just trying to show everyone there’s more to life than just drab brown or crystal white in life. That’s all.
Elsa: W.h.a.t.e.v.e.r…let’s wrap it up, big guy.
Norman: Roger, dear sister. We both hope you have a pawsome weekend and are able to get outside and enjoy some of Nature.
Live, love, bark! 🐾