"In the bleak midwinter/ Frosty winds made moan.
Earth stood hard as iron/ Water like a stone
Snow had fallen/ snow on snow/snow on snow

In the bleak midwinter/ Long, long ago."            

-  Christina Rossetti

This morning, I trudged through deep snow to trace the tracks of what I believed to be from a raccoon. I wanted to see if they led me to the large Sugar Maple where I had seen baby raccoons a year before high up in an opening on the tree's side. To my disappointment, the tracks led past the maple tree and deeper into the woods, likely to a different tree further away from the noise and lights of humans. Believing that to be the case, I respected the raccoon's wishes and turned around and headed back to the warmth of the woodstove in the old farmhouse. As I walked, I marveled at the long shadows on the unbroken snow, wondering abut the other creatures, big and small, whose tracks I crossed, awestruck at their determination and ability to survive in this the hardest of seasons.

 Mark Smith