Snow birds 'n' beasts

With thick snow covering just about everything, our birdfeeders are pretty popular today. Just a few minutes I saw eight cardinals gathered around all at once, and earlier in the day I tried to count all the birds but gave up at 30 because they just wouldn't keep still.

While the birds have no trouble getting around, our newspaper carrier never arrived and the mail was about an hour later than usual. We were expecting ice last night but instead we got thick, wet snow that piles up on trees and makes limbs fall down. Power was off in some areas, but we haven't lost ours.

Hopeful has been slithering and sliding belly-down in the snow like an otter on a slick rock. She'll pause and point and then plunge her nose into the snow, following the scent of some small creature but generally coming up empty. The snow is too wet and sticky for sledding--and besides, what fun is sledding without little kids? For now we'll settle for watching the dog and the birds.