Begun with an unusual dog-walk in which I left Pax outside on the driveway for a minute while I went back inside to fetch somethig I forgot. Back out, with Pax on lead, we crossed often somewhat busy Starin Road, where Pax was, as usual, immediately let off lead to follow me as I started up the still snow-covered and difficult to walk Starin Park hill. About a quarter of the way up I looked back to see what Pax was sniffing only to see, far off at the limit of vision, his tail dissappear, around the corner of our house—way back where we had started from.

Apparently he has been spooked by some loud noise while I was inside getting whatever it was that I forgot. I just hope he looked both ways before crossing the street on his trip home.

And, here is neighbor Vi's yard, scraped clean by a Bobcat. The idea is to get the ground frozen hard and deep before a big crane comes in to take down the giant willow that is starting to collapse from the other neighbor's yard into hers. Yesterday's thaw interrupted the plan, but today the thermo meter has been sliding downward, and we are headed back into the realm of cold.

As can be seen from the above example, cold does have it uses—certainly iceboating and tree cutting among them. But about now, one begins to think of tulips and kayaks. The forecast for the rest of February is dismal, but not nearly so bad as in places like Kagawong or, heaven forbid, Sudbury.