Trek to Blueberry Island

Today was another first: R led us all out on the frozen lake for a frosty hike to Blueberry Island. It's hard to believe that just three short months ago we paddled over there and harvested the late-season berries.

Somehow it never occurred to me that the ice would be slippery, or I thought would only be slippery if one wore skates.

I was super nervous about walking on water, but I figured we could follow the tracks of the snowmobiles and be safe, but it still gave me the jitters when the crunchy ice broke under my feet. Luckily, it was mostly soft snow. The cool thing was that I could plow through the snow in my new Christmas boots (thanks Honey!), and make a chilly kind of Slip and Slide trail. Then I would run back and forth across the ice and slide into the snow. Weeee!

We met our neighbor out there, and she said, "It makes a really big front yard." She's right, I think, as long as we don't get hit by some motorized contraption.

The blueberries are all gone, in case you were wondering. If the birds didn't get them, I'm sure the ice did. We still had a fun stomping around the island, though, except for Buckaroo who wore his best pouty face and shouted, "Nurse! nurse!" every few minutes.

Oh, and one cool thing about the snow is all of the animal tracks. Every time I see tracks I go all googly eyed, and then R says it's just a cat, which is what happened today. The worrisome thing, though, is we can also see human tracks all around our back yard-- which isn't really a yard, ya know, it's forest. Still. Who'd want to hang out there in sub-zero weather?

In other news: Sweet Potato can play any song she hears on the piano. Have I mentioned that already? If I have, I think it's worth mentioning two or three more times. I am in awe of this ability, especially since-- as she regularly points out-- I am just about tone deaf. During the great ice storm of '08, she'll be able to tell her grandchildren, she spent long hours plinking out Christmas carols on the piano.

Also, Buckaroo used his potty for the first time today! Recently, the FMF gave us the book, Once Upon a Potty and Buckaroo is fascinated with it. He wants to read it again and again. Unfortunately, he also wants to run around nakey bum all day. I would totally encourage this in the summer, but now his toes are turning blue. Time for leg warmers, I guess.

Tomorrow I'm off to introduce myself to Brattleboro VT, if the weather is fair. I'm told that we'll enjoy each other's company very much.