Reacclimation

We took the dog out for a little winter walk on the Norwottuck Rail Trail, to make up for abandoning him last week.



It's the first time I'd been on it since the end of the bicycling season last year. Most of the snow was melted off it today, making for a relatively easy walk.

A short ways after the bridge, we took a left and headed towards the river along this little rise, that goes through some Hadley farmland.







Once we got out of the shelter of the trees, the wind began whipping up pretty feircely, and ice cold. Earmuffs would have been handy. The weather couldn't decide excatly what it wanted to do today, it was blustery and cold one minute, then calm and kind of warmer, then snow would suddenly blow in sideways.



These bushes, grown for sale, had an abrupt color change half way through the row. Kelly thought it reminded her of one of those woolly caterpillars.





We made it to the river, and paused to look around. This Oak tree is holding on stubbornly to it's leaves. Most oaks hold on to some of their dead leaves throughout winter, but I don't remember seeing too many like this.





I super-zoomed onto this house in the distance, which recently sold for 1.12 million dollars. The first in Hadley to sell for that sum. It's right near the beginning of a riverside trail/conservation area. I hope the new owners are trail friendly and don't try to close it.



Pigeons were making swooping loops over and over around the trail bridge as we headed back. I wonder if they were flying around like this, for no apparant reason, just to keep warm.





We made a quick stop by the fields near the Tri-County Fairgrounds before we headed back, to get a good look at the turbulent sky.