Winter is awakening. It is recalling itself, looking around in wonder at the amazing reality that it has slumbered too long, failed to remember that this is its time. Surprising itself that it has allowed fall to linger. Crestfallen that it has failed in its most critical function to obligingly host that startling and most exquisite vision of a pure, white world. Winter remains in a bit of a wobbly condition, as though having indulged in too much of a party atmosphere, leaving it bedazzled and its resolve diminished, but it appears to have rallied to the point of restoration of pride and this morning winter left a calling card.

When we looked out this morning, there it was, that missed white coverlet. At the feeder there was a convocation of redpolls, some juncos and a lone crow. We have always liked crows, and this one, towering in size over the tiny redpolls, has been an unfailingly polite visitor, causing others no concern at its presence, more than willing to share the birdseed and the nuts.

Far more conciliatory than the squirrels in fact, who have been out in their numbers as well. The nuts that we put out for the squirrels and other wildlife that care to amble along to the feeder haven't as yet this winter become a dire necessity. Without a snow cover they have found more than sufficient forage to keep them in fine fettle. Local biologists have commented on the fact that they've rarely seen such well-padded squirrels; some, in fact, they've observed are so well larded that they have been seen to waddle.

Their presence throughout the day, and in particular the antics of one of the very small red squirrels, frantically acquiring nuts and hauling them a few feet away to the garden where a hole has been dug to deposit them in provides no end of entertainment for Jack and Jill, no doubt puzzled at this small creature's frenetic anxiety over securing food to take them through the long, cold winter months.

When we were out in the ravine yesterday it was clear and sunny with a brisk wind, but the temperature was still below freezing. It won't be that much more cold today, but it's likely that as we approach a normal cooling trend, the snow that has fallen will remain and it will form the basic layer for the snowpack we'll acquire throughout the coming winter months.