Snow has been falling gently for most of the day, fluffy snow, inviting us to go out.  After lunch we answered the summons and headed out to ski with friends. It is a great Friday afternoon activity and I find myself looking forward to it all week.  Last week it was -20 and sunny so we were very rugged up but once we were in amongst the trees it was not too cold.  This week it was a warm -4 so we just had Tshirts under our ski jackets and it was beautiful.

We took a trail none of us had taken before and did not think to look at the board at the beginning to see if there was a map. I guess we thought we would do what we did last week and ski until we wanted to turn around and head back. Once again we were skiing in a wooded area and with no wind snow was piling up on fallen logs and settling on pine cones. Chickadees were flitting around from one side of the track to the other and we stopped several times to hold our hands out to them. They alighted on our hands whether we had seed or not.

There were eight of us spread out along the track and we chatted and sped up and slowed down as we wished. Eventually we came to a junction and had to decide whether to head back, go left or right. We could hear traffic in one direction but thought it was not the road we had parked near. One said, “Let’s just go back, I’m tired.”

A few thought right, a few left, most said,”I don’t know.” So we went right and right again and eventually the path led the way back to the car and the hot apple cider in the thermos.

Snow is falling more heavily now and I have that warm tired feeling from exercising outside in the cold. There is beef stew nearly ready on the stove, so it is time to sit down together and enjoy the end of a busy work week.