Wednesday, January 28, 2009

A walk in the snow

Over the river, and through the wood,
To (a friends ) house we go;
(I wish for a) horse to carry the sleigh
through the white and drifted snow.

Over the river, and through the wood—
Oh, how the wind does blow!
It stings the toes and bites the nose
As over the ground we go. ~ Lydia Maria Child (regretfully with my help here)

My sister called at 7:30 to see if I wanted to go for a walk so she could take pictures of the snow. Ruthie had just IM'ed me to see if my kids had school. I said to my sister, lets walk to Ruthies as this way I could give her the socks. I decided that since we ordered Ruthie to have coffee on for us that I should bring something along so hurried up and made some fresh English muffins from dough I had in the fridge. We tossed them in a back pack, bundled up and sis, #2 daughter and I started out with lots of vim and vigor.

We took the township road past the farm and on to the state road. We scared a flock of turkeys and they took off for the trees. Once out on the state roadI commented on how the township was doing a better job than the state….within a minute the state plow truck snuck up on us and we did not have time to cross the road to get out of the way. He got his chuckle for the day.

The road follows the river and you have to cross two bridges to get to Ruthies. The first bridge shows the ice chunks coming down the river and piling up along the shoreline.Further down the road two rivers combine and the ice from our smaller river builds up in sheets. Reminds me of the ribs in the Operation game. Walking alongside the second river we scared a flock of Canadian geese. Doesn’t say much for how we looked does it!

We finally get to the second bridge and by this time I was sweating and getting chilled. Luckily on the other side of the bridge we reached our destination.
After some coffee, English muffins with homemade jam and good chatter we decided to venture out again. We didn’t have the same enthusiasm as we did on the first trip and the snow has changed to sleet which hits your cheeks like shards of glass. You can see the change in the conditions.
By the time we were half way home my legs felt like lead. The slipping, sliddding and trudging thru snow that felt like you were walking on sand had my inner thighs aching. I felt like this tree...whipped! What the hell possessed me to walk a 3 mile round trip in this weather?

We stopped for little video of the ice building up, it's short and sweet as I was ready for home.
And we arrived just in time as the freezing rains started soon after. Spent the rest of the day enjoying the view from inside by the stove with four kids running around while my sister went to my mothers and they took a nap! I guess her age caught up with her...she is my elder sister after all!

3 comments:

cyndy said...

Beautiful photos, and a very lovely walk! Thank you!

Hope you are warm and toasty now!

I'd say Ruthie owes you one (hey, she got the english muffins AND the socks AND she didn't even have to do the walkin!)

Tammy said...

wow what an adventure!

Anonymous said...

I can't believe you volunteered to walk that distance in that horrible weather either! What were you thinking????? I'm glad you enjoyed the visit with Ruthie though, and happier still that you made it home safe and sound. :)